Yes, there are two stories of Creation at the beginning of Genesis. For most of my life, I actually didn’t notice. Last night, one of our guests asked me about it. Like me, he also grew up in church (Quaker, how cool is that?). Like me, he’d heard the two stories told together so many times that they had just become one. When someone told him there were two accounts, he opened his Bible to look, but couldn’t find them.
The stories change in the fourth verse of the second chapter. After God’s seventh day rest, we start a new story in the Garden, and there is another account of humanity’s creation. We’ll take a closer look in a moment.
Liberal scholars and textual critics have often used the two creation stories as evidence for the documentary hypothesis. Since certain details are different in each story, they conclude that they must have been the product of two very different times.
Conservative Christians and apologists often dovetail the differences in the two stories to create a unified timeline. The second story is seen as a more detailed account of day six from the first story. This is also how the two accounts are first shared with children, thus my friend and I having trouble finding the difference between the two.
I think both approaches have merits, and both have their difficulties. As I described in a previous article, scholars of the Bible and ancient literature now recognize that ancient cultures often had more than one epic of origins. The details of each story were included to teach specific things about the creators and the created world. Therefore, it is not necessary to discredit the unity of the two stories. They could have arisen from the same people group at the same time. Seeing them as two stories juxtaposed to one another can help us learn more about both by comparison. As for the apologists, I think their desire to see the text read as a unified message is commendable, and I agree that the original author/compiler did intend for these stories to be read together. I also agree that the different details between the two stories are secondary, and it doesn’t take any leap of logic to see how the two are compatible. When it comes to theme, message, and characters, there are no major differences between the two. However, I believe that approaching the stories as two stories and allowing the differences between them to illuminate the messages enriches our understanding of both. If we understand that the ancient narratives do allow and even intend to change secondary details as a narrative tool, we need not insist on perfect unity to the degree of denying the differences altogether.
Here is my proposal for a unified approach to the messages of the two Creation accounts:
First Creation Account
Chapter 1
God's Sovereignty
Second Creation Account
Chapter 2
Man's Cooperation
Chapter 3
Man's Choice
Here is the verse where the two stories meet:
Genesis 2:4
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens—
I love the poetry here. Notice how the sentences mirror each other. The first story ends by describing it as the heavens and earth created, and the second as the creation of earth and heavens. I believe this is the beginning of our understanding of the difference between the two accounts.
The first Genesis Creation account regards the cosmos, begins with God, and ends with humanity.
(Cosmocentric)
The second Genesis Creation account regards earth, and humanity’s relationship with God and the cosmos.
(Anthropocentric)
First story - Cosmocentric
Everything happens in God’s realm
Sky
Water
Sea
Dry land
Sun moon stars
Second story - Anthropocentric
Everything happens on earth
Words of work are used
Humanity participates
Humans speak
Here are some more comparisons:
Story 1 - Heaven First
Story 2 - Earth First
Different names for God
Story 1 – Elohim (title)
Story 2 - YHWH – Elohim (personal – title)
Creation Method
Story 1 - Spoken Word
Story 2 - Physical Means
- God forms man (like a potter)
- God plants a garden
- God forms animals
- God makes woman from man's rib
Order of Created Things Acknowledged
Story 1 – Vegetation, Animals, Humans (male and female together)
Story 2 - Man (male only), Vegetation, Animals, Woman
Man and Woman receive names in chapter 3. They have no names in the first account.
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The poetry and purpose that begins to be revealed when we compare these two stories is really beautiful. There is also a great deal of intention in all the details, even the words used and their order. Whether surveying the stories from above, or getting on our knees to get our hands dirty in the soil of them, God’s work is evident in both.
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