What do both creation accounts emphasize?

Answer 1

The two accounts of creation were written down by different sources at different times and places.

The second account, Genesis 2:4b to 2:15, is actually the older account in the Judaic religion, and dates from around the eighth century BCE, or even earlier. It says that there was pre-existing dry land, but God had yet to make it rain for plants to grow. A spring arose and God took some moist clay and made Adam. The name he uses here for God is the Tetragrammaton - YHWH (Yahweh, which is often translated into English as 'Jehovah'), the name used consistently by this author.

The first account, in Genesis 1:1-2:4a, is attributed to the anonymous source now known as the Priestly Source, writing during the Babylonian Exile. It is very similar in some ways to the creation account of the Babylonians.

The Priestly Source clearly felt that the original creation story in Genesis was not theologically suitable. It did not explain where the sun, moon and stars came from, and presented God's powers as somewhat limited, in that he could not make living things out of nothing but had to make Adam and the animals out of clay. So, he wrote a creation account in which God's powers are supreme - he simply spoke things into existence. The name he uses here for God is El Shaddai - 'God Almighty' - consistent with this notion of an all-powerful God. The chronology also explained the importance of the Sabbath day, the day when God rested, although the somewhat older explanation in Deuteronomy 5:15 says the Sabbath day is a commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt.

This then raises the question of why the Priestly Source did not simply remove the older account and replace it by his own. There are several instances in which the Priestly Source felt unable to remove an earlier passage, perhaps because he felt that the Jews would resist the removal of favourite passages. Even more significant in this case is that the second creation story is too closely tied to subsequent passages about Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and their descendants.
For more information, please visit: http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-story-of-creation

Answer 2

The two creation accounts in Genesis 1:1-2:4a and Genesis 2:4b-2:25, although radically different in the way they define the creation process, both emphasise the divine role in creation.

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

Answer 3

The account of Creation, which is contained in Genesis ch.1 and 2, teaches us that God exists, that our lives and the world are meaningful, and that the created things may be assumed to contain vast wisdom in their beautiful and purposeful design. (In recent decades, this wisdom has indeed been partially revealed, through increasingly powerful microscopes.)Evolution through random mutations, on the other hand, may be understood as implying that life is an accident, that perceived beauty and wisdom are ultimately purposeless, and that our instinctive yearning for the Eternal is just an electrical impulse in our brain.

See also:

http://religion.answers.com/controversy/is-there-evidence-against-evolution

http://judaism.answers.com/jewish-philosophy/can-you-prove-that-god-exists

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, Isaiah 40:28; Maimonides' "Guide," 2:30; Targum and Nachmanides on Gen. 1:1; Rashi commentary, Gen.1:14), and in ch.2, God performed specific acts within the broader picture.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:

http://religion.answers.com/theory/debunking-the-jepd-documentary-hypothesis

http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=6&article=1131(a Christian author)