Why does God announce creating woman twice?

Answer 1

We find in Genesis 1:27 that God created man (both male and female, together) after he had created all other living creatures. We then find in Genesis 2:7 that God created one man before he created any other living creatures, and in verse 2:22 he created a woman after creating all the other living creatures. There are two reports of God creating women, but they are not simply repetition, they are distinctly different.

The reason for the two accounts and for the differences in them is that there are two different creation stories in Genesis, written by two different authors, or sources. The first, in Genesis 1:1-2:4a is attributed to the Priestly source and the second, in Genesis 2:4b-20 is attributed to the Yahwist. Leon R. Kass (The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis) says the second creation story departs from the first not only in content but also in tone, mood and orientation. He says we must scrupulously avoid reading into the second story any facts or notions taken from the first (and vice versa) if we mean to understand each story on its own terms.

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Answer 2

Nothing in the Creation account of man and woman is announced twice as if two separate events. Rather, it is given in overview or outline presentation in Genesis 1 and in more detail in Genesis 2. One complimenting and supplementing the other.

Generally speaking then, Genesis 1, presents God's acts of creation in outline fashion. The intent is to provide a panoramic view of God's creative activity - as if the readers themselves are standing in the midst of it all happening. The creation of man occurs on the sixth day, but there is nothing stated about the manner of God's pinnacle of His physical creation or how the creation of men and women are related in time or nature. Hence in Genesis 2, God's specific acts in creating man are detailed, thus providing a focus on the events of the sixth day. There is no difference in the sequencing of the events of the creation days, only an expansion of the details of the central creature - man on the sixth day.

Answer 3

Because Genesis 1 is the spiritual creation of life, and Genesis 2 is the physical creation of life. Notice in Genesis 1, creation became succeedingly more complex until it culminated in man, God's greatest achievement, but in Genesis 2, the physical creation started with Adam and ended with Eve.