The Created Order
The two 'contradictory' creation accounts

Before we start with this series, a preliminary comment is in order:

If a case is proposed in which the Bible contradicts itself, secular history or science, and a solution is here proposed which serves to explain and reconcile the contradiction; then unless our proposed solution can be proven untrue or irrational, then our solution stands; the burden of proof then lies with the objector.

The SAB website proposes the following:

The two 'contradictory' creation accounts

First Account (Genesis 1:1 - 2:3)	Second Account(Genesis 2:4 - 25)
Gen.1:25 - 27 (Humans were created after the other animals.) And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image....So God created man in his own image.	Gen.2:18 - 19 (Humans were created before the other animals.) And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
Gen.1:27 (The first man and woman were created simultaneously.) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.	Gen.2:18-22 (The man was created first, then the animals, then the woman from the man's rib.) And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them.... And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

Firstly, it cannot be assumed when reading the Scripture that each event described from Genesis to Revelation is described in sequential, chronological order. This is simply not the case, some parts are but others are not. This alleged contradiction has at its heart this very error.

In summary, the above 'contradiction' is that in the first chapter the man and the woman seem to be represented as created together, after the lower animals; in the second chapter the man appears to be created first, then the beasts, lastly the woman.

Simply, these differences arise from the compression of the narrative in the first chapter, and from the disregard of chronological order in the second. The first chapter gives a general, concise account of the six days' work; while in the second a review is given, along with some additional details, and without following the order of time. The narrative in the second chapter is totally unchronological, the near and the remote being brought together without the regard to the order of time. Everything in chapter one is described in its relation to time, whereas everything in chapter two is not, but is described in its relation to the man.

So, the chronological interpretation of chapter two should be governed by the chronological order of chapter one, as it is clearly the intention of the writer to describe things in chapter one chronologically.

Taking each verse individually, the correct interpretation is a follows:

1. Gen.1:25-27 sets the true chronological order.

2. In interpreting Gen.2:18-19, a number of observations can be made:

• The help meet for the man in verse 18 is not the animals of verse 19, but is the woman.
• If read carefully verse 19 does not actually say that the beasts were created after man, "...And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast...". Now, if the emphasised 'AND' in verse 19 had been a 'then', maybe we could interpret it chronologically, but it isn't and so we can't.

Therefore the correct interpretation of the passage is as follows:

Prior to verse 19 God creates the animals and then Adam. God decrees that he will create Eve as a companion for the man in verse 19. God then brings the animals that He has already created to Adam in order that he might name them, and to demonstrate to Adam that there is no suitable companion for Adam out of the animals. God creates Eve out of Adam's body.

The mistake generally made here is that the help meet for Adam is taken as referring to the animals, and that Eve was created as an afterthought because God was unable to make a suitable companion for Adam from the animals. Are we really to suppose that the creator God seen in chapter one is unable to successfully create a suitable companion for Adam instantly. We think not!

3. Gen.1:27 gives no indication of in which order the male and female were created, or the time period between their creation, it simply states that they were created male and female.

So, according to logic and common sense, the alleged 'contradictions' have been shown to dissolve, and leave the unity and integrity of the Scriptures unimpaired.

Don't forget to tune in for my next installment, where the SAB team inform us that, "The creation account in Genesis 1 conflicts with the order of events that are known to science." (emphasis added). Yeah right!