What are the main differences between the first creation story of Genesis 1.1-2.4 and the second one in Genesis 2.4-3.24 and what do these differences reveal about the authorship of Genesis?

Answer 1

There is only one creation account with Genesis 1 giving us an overview and Genesis 2 filling in the details of the account of mankinds pinnacle creation. Many literary works use this technique.


Chapter 1 is the only "creation account," since it gives detailed listing and timing of the creative acts of God. Chapter 2 does not attempt to say "This happened and then that happened." It's just Adam's own account of his own beginnings, written from his own viewpoint.

The confusion comes about because of peculiarities in words. It only shows up in some languages. The English language has definite past, present, and future tenses for its verbs, but Hebrew (the language of Genesis) does not. In Hebrew, the relative timing must be taken from the context, not the actual words themselves.

Answer 2

The Genesis 1 account is more structured and defines the number of days that God took to create everything. The waters were pre-existing and the wind blew across the face of the waters. There was already land under the waters, but God had to draw the waters together, to allow the land to appear. Man (and woman) were created last of all - not necessarily only one of each. It has been suggested that this account arose in a culture that was familiar with the oceans.

The Genesis 2 account is more primitive in some ways. There is no mention of creation of the firmament or the sun, moon and stars (lights). The land was pre-existing and plants would grow without divine creation, once God sent rain. God needed dust from which to create Adam, just as he needed a rib in order to create Eve. Adam was the first creation of God, while Eve was the last creation. It has been suggested that this account originated in an arid environment - consistent with mountainous, landlocked Judah.

Leon R. Kass (The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis) reminds us the first story ends with man, but the second begins with him. He says that the two stories should not be confused as they differ not only in content but also in tone, mood and orientation.

The first creation account in Genesis is believed to have been written by the Priestly ('P') source during the sixth-century-BCE Babylonian Exile, based on Babylonian creation myths. Consistent with the Priestly Source's view of God as Almighty or all-powerful, God merely spoke things into existence.

The second creation account is much older in Judaism and was written by the Yahwist ('J') source. In the Yahwist's account, God could not make things out of nothing and needed clay to make Adam and also to make the other creatures. He needed a rib from Adam to make Eve.

For more information, please visit: http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-story-of-creation

Answer 3

According to tradition, there is only one Genesis creation-narrative, with ch.2 serving as an expansion of the brevity of ch.1, not a separate set of events (Rashi commentary, Gen.2:8). In ch.1, God created the universe from nothing (Exodus 20:11, Rashi commentary, Gen.1:14), and in ch.2, God performed specific acts within the broader picture.
The same literary devices which the Torah employs to enrich its text, have been used by Bible-critics in an attempt to reassign its authorship.

The Jewish sages, based on ancient tradition, identified many of these devices, which include:

recapping earlier brief passages to elucidate,

employing different names of God to signify His various attributes,

using apparent changes or redundancies to allude to additional unstated details,

speaking in the vernacular that was current during each era,

and many more. While Judaism has always seen the Torah as an intricate tapestry that nonetheless had one Divine source, some modern authors such as Wellhausen (the father of modern Biblical-criticism, 1844-1918) have suggested artificially chopping up the narrative and attributing it to various authors, despite the Torah's explicit statement as to its provenance (Exodus 24:12, Deuteronomy 31:24). This need not concern believers, since his claims have been debunked one by one, as Archaeology and other disciplines have demonstrated the integrity of the Torah. No fragments have ever been found that would support his Documentary Hypothesis, which remains nothing more than an arbitrary claim:

Refuting the JEPD Documentary Hypothesis

The creation-narrative in Genesis (a Christian author)

The authorship of the Hebrew Bible

Archaeology