How many creation accounts does the Book of Genesis have?

Answer 1

The Book of Genesis has two creation accounts, and arguably a third. The first account, Genesis 1:1-2:4a, is attributed to an anonymous source now known as the Priestly Source, writing during the fifth century BCE at the time of the Babylonian Exile. The second account, Genesis 2:4b-25 and chapter 3, is attributed to an anonymous source now known as the Yahwist, writing around the ninth century BCE, and is much more primitive than the Priestly version. Some scholars say that chapter 5 is a separate creation account, while others prefer to treat it as a restatement in altered form, of the second account.

Leon R. Kass (The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis) says that although the second creation story departs from the first in content, tone, mood and orientation, the pious readers, believing that the text cannot contain contradictions, ignore the major disjunctions between the two creation stories and tend to treat the second story as the fuller, more detailed account of the creation of man (and woman) that the first story simply reported. Nevertheless, there really are two distinct creation accounts in the Book of Genesis.

For more information, please visit:

http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-story-of-creation

http://christianity.answers.com/bible/the-book-of-genesis

Answer 2

According to tradition, the answer is "one." 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).
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:

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

http://www.whoreallywrotethebible.com/excerpts/chapter4-1.php

http://www.pearlmancta.com/BiblicalcriticswrongRShlomoCohen.htm

And see also the wider picture:

http://judaism.answers.com/hebrew/does-archaeology-support-the-hebrew-bible

Answer 3

The Book of Genesis contains two creation accounts: the first one in Genesis 1:1-2:4a, which describes the creation of the world in six days, and the second one in Genesis 2:4b-25, which focuses on the creation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.