Why are there two creation stories in Genesis?

Answer 1

There are two different creation stories:

• The first is Genesis 1:1-2:3
• The second is Genesis 2:4-25

It is thought this is due to several different texts being put together to form the present Bible and Torah

Answer

Scholars now realise that there were three main sources, or authors, for the Book of Genesis. There are two creation stories in Genesis because two different sources, the Yahwist and the Priestly Source each wrote his own story. The Yahwist wrote the second creation story (Genesis 2:4b-20) during the ninth century BCE, based on earlier Judahite traditions. The Priestly Source wrote what is now the first creation story (Genesis 1:!-2:4a) during the sixth-century-BCE Babylonian Exile, based on traditions he found among the Babylonians. It appears the Priestly Source was prevented from removing the earlier tradition or found it too difficult, since the Yahwist creation story more or less continues all the way to Noah. Instead, he simply added his own version at the beginning of Genesis.

Answer

The Yahwist and Priestly sources are not from individual authors, most likely, but from different groups with different schools of thought in very different times (during the kingdom as opposed to exile, as noted in previous answer).

Also, these two sources, as well as the Elohist, the other source for Genesis, are woven together with the Deuternomist (D) source throughout the rest of the Pentateuch (Gen -Deut), with D being primarily in, and the primary source for, our book of Deuteronomy,

That being said, these sources are very, very often woven together without any real apparent concern for explaining inconsistent details

However, this does not disprove The Bible. My take is that we misread some of the Bible. This part, for instance, is not history of the world spoken word - for - word by God. Rather, ancient writers did not think about history the same way moderns do, with strict concern for preciseness. Rather, they were making theological claims about who God is over and against the claims of competing pagan religions in Canaan and Babylon

Answer 2

The early Jews are believed to have encountered an early version of what is now the first creation story, in Genesis 1:1-2:4a, during the Babylonian Exile. It was assimilated and added to Genesis, without removing the second creation story, which starts in Genesis 2:4b, probably because the older story was popular and it would have caused dissent to have removed it.

Leon R. Kass (The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis) says that 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), but 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.

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

Answer 3

The two creation stories in Genesis serve different purposes. The first story in Genesis 1 focuses on the order and process of creation, emphasizing God's power and authority. The second story in Genesis 2 provides a more intimate portrayal of God's relationship with humanity and emphasizes the creation of Adam and Eve. Together, they provide a more holistic understanding of God's creation.