Two Creation Stories In One Bible
Many of us might have noticed that in the book of Genesis there appear to be two Creation stories.
We read a creation story in Genesis chapter one that ended perfectly with God resting on the seventh day after he had created the world and the things in it. Then in chapter two of Genesis, we saw another story of creation as though God had to start all over again.
Often, we read the two stories as though they are one, whereas, on a critical look, the second creation story is not a continuation of the first.
How did we know this?
There is an introduction beginning each of the stories, and there is also a conclusion for each of the stories.
The first story opened with an introduction in Genesis 1:1
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
Then God started creating things, animals etc to filled the formless void, at the peak was when he created humans, male and female TOGETHER, and gave them power over everything.
Then in Genesis 2:1 we saw how the narrative of this particular creation story reaches its conclusion:
“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.” Genesis 2:1.
It went on and on stating how God had finished the work of creation on the sixth day and had to rest on the seventh day. Verse 3 captures it thus:
“And he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. For in it, he had ceased from all his work: the work whereby God created whatever he should make.”
Note: He CEASED from all his work: the WORK of creation.
That brings the story to an end. Full stop!
But what did we notice in the next verse (Genesis 2:4)? We saw an introduction to another story, a new story entirely which is still about Creation.
“This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth . . . .”
Then we are giving a narration of the things God created until he finally created man, and later on, he made man to sleep, took his rib and he created the woman. . .
The narration came to an end in Genesis 3:24, where God sent Adam and Eve out of the Garden, then he placed a Cherub with a flaming sword to guard the tree of life.
The end of the second story.
Both stories are clearly different in styles, in content, in structure. One does not need to be a scripture scholar with a PhD in textual analysis to notice this.
To be precise, the first creation story started from Genesis chapter 1:1 and ended in Genesis 2:3. (Genesis 1:1-2:3.)
Then we saw another creation story that started from Genesis 2:4 and ended in Genesis 3:24. (Genesis 2:4-3:24.)
This is very important because most people just quote the two stories randomly mixing both together.
I have heard someone say “God created man on the sixth day and he rested on the seventh, then man became lonely, he then made the man to fall into a deep sleep and then he created woman taking a rib from the man.”
This is a classical example of mixing both stories together in a malicious way. On the sixth day, God did not create ONLY man, he created woman too. In fact, he created mEn and womEn (In plural). This is the first creation story. The second does not have partitioning of days. People usually quote this to make it look like God never had the plan to create woman as though woman was an afterthought since she came after God had rested on the seventh day.
To this, some people will argue, if God created man complete, it means he created him with testosterone and with sperm cells. These are actually the major features that make him a man. So, what is the sperm cells for if God never had it in mind that it will fertilize an egg somewhere?
Well, this is just people’s thoughts o. And this is an introductory class o. I no want us to “tear pant” on Facebook this morning biko.
The story of the woman being created using the man’s rib belongs to the second story and reading through scholarly views, there are enough reasons to believe that the two stories were not written by one person. We all know that the Bible is a collection of books. The chapters and verses as we see them today were later addition to make it easier to read and quote.
It is left for us to determine this story in details and what the author(s) were trying to communicate.
By Fr Kelvin Ugwu