The first account of creation: Genesis 1.1-2.3
The story of creation introduces us to a number of concepts important to the writers of the bible: God's dominion, the importance of order and separation, the relationship between men and women as well as humankind and the rest of creation. But if you're looking for the physical creation of the earth, you will not find it here. God does not create the earth so much as arrange it from elements he had readily available. Hence:
"In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth..." (Gen 1.1).
According to the annotation, the medieval Jewish commentator Rashi "noted that the Hebrew word for 'beginning' (reshit) requires a dependent relation--it is the 'beginning of" something--and can be followed by a verb." God does not create ex nihilo, a tradition that developed through the Septuagint (latin translation). Rather, God orders the primordial chaos.
Even in the beginning there is mass and matter, the earth a formless void with darkness covering its waters and a wind from (or spirit of) God sweeping over.
The days of creation show God not creating out of nothing, but ordering chaos through his words. The author takes a very formulaic approach to relaying the process. The account of each of the six days begins with God's words and ends with the formula, "And there was evening and there was morning, the Xst/nd/rd/th day." Every creation except for the second is explicitly deemed good by God.
The first day
God creates light, but then must separate it from darkness to form night and day.
The second day
God creates the sky, by separating water under the dome (sky) from water above the dome. (In the Noah story, the dome will open up and release these waters in rain).
The third day
God's word gathers the water under the sky into one place so dry land appears. God then commands the earth to yield vegetation.
The fourth day
God creates two great lights, the sun and moon, to give light to night and day.
The fifth day
God introduces sea creatures and birds. These are then blessed, told to "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth" (Gen. 1.22).
The sixth day
God creates the creatures of the earth, and sees his creation is good. God then creates humankind, which will have dominion over all animals. Humankind is blessed, told to "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth" (Gen. 1.28). the first humans, and all animals, in fact, are to be herbivores. God sees everything that God made, and deems it "very good."
In creating humans God gives the command, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness," which more likely indicates a heavenly court of angels than a pantheon of gods (Gen. 1.26). However, the actual creation of humans reads, "So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." The actual creation of humans is only in God's image.
The term for humankind itself (adam) is tricky, as it is refers both to man and humankind. Since it is both males and females that are created, however, the universal connotation is more likely to apply.
The seventh day
God rests.
The second account of creation: Genesis 2.4-2.25
Genesis 2.4 begins another account of creation, one that is in some ways contradictory to the first. The reason for this will be described in detail below.
The second account of creation finds a barren earth with no vegetation or rain, only a stream of water. From the dust of this earth the punning Lord God creates a man [adam] from the earth [adamah], breathing life into his nostrils.
God then creates a garden in Eden, and puts the man there, in Eden grows beautiful trees bearing good, as well as the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
A river flows out of Eden, branching into four rivers: Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, Euphrates. The third and fourth may conjure images of eighth-grade geography class, but if you don't remember the first two, that's okay. In fact, no one knows where these are.
God places the first man in the garden to keep and till it, but commands him, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not ear, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die" (Gen. 2.16-17).
The first man is alone, so God attempts to fashion a partner for him, in the process creating every animal and bird, which the man names. None of these serve as a suitable companion. God then puts the first man into a deep sleep, removes on of his ribs, and fashions a woman. Upon waking, the man punningly proclaims,
This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called Woman [ishshah], for out of Man [ish] this one was taken.
(Gen. 2.23)
An authorial note follows: "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh" (Gen. 2.24).
The first man and "his wife" are both naked, and neither ashamed (Gen. 2.25). Creation is complete.
A tale of two stories
Why two different stories of creation? Because they come from two different sources! The documentary hypothesis of the composition of the bible posits that at least four different sources comprise the first five books of the bible, the Jewish Torah. These sources are woven together, contradictions intact, to form the biblical narrative. The sources, in order of creation, are as follows:
J (Yahwist): This folkloric source is most easily identifiable by its name for God: Yahweh (Lord in English translations). God is anthropomorphized in many accounts, and focuses on the human condition.
E (Elohist): This source refers to God as Elohim until God (present in a burning bush) reveals his name as Yahweh to Moses in Exodus. This source focuses on the patriarchs.
D (Deuteronomist): This source comprises the book of Deuteronomy.
P (Priestly): This source comprises the majority of Leviticus, and serves as a gloss for the rest of the text.
The first account of creation comes from the P-source, as evidenced by its emphasis on structure and conception of God. The second account of creation comes from the J-source.
Multiple accounts of the same incident are common in biblical literature. For the writers, redactors (editors) and early readers of scripture, contradictions between different versions of the same story were not seen in terms of true or false. Rather, every account was seen as revealing some aspect of the story. The bible, and the stories within it, were always correct and truthful. These readers and writers were not ignorant. The Priestly editor inserted his story of creation in order to clarify and enhance the meaning of the creation narrative. But if the editor believed J-source was false, he would have removed it entirely. By adding his own text as a gloss, the Priestly editor respectfully inserts his own thoughts on a narrative he believes conveys a truthful story of creation.
Multiple accounts of the same incident are common in biblical literature. For the writers, redactors (editors) and early readers of scripture, contradictions between different versions of the same story were not seen in terms of true or false. Rather, every account was seen as revealing some aspect of the story. The bible, and the stories within it, were always correct and truthful. These readers and writers were not ignorant. The Priestly editor inserted his story of creation in order to clarify and enhance the meaning of the creation narrative. But if the editor believed J-source was false, he would have removed it entirely. By adding his own text as a gloss, the Priestly editor respectfully inserts his own thoughts on a narrative he believes conveys a truthful story of creation.
Other themes to consider
Water, water everywhere. Water is so important to life, and appears many times in the two narratives.
Dominance and gender issues in the second creation story: as God puns about the creation of the inferior being man, the first man puns about the creation of woman, who is dependent on man. The first creation story, on the other hand, indicates an equality of the sexes.
There is so much more to discuss, just within these two passages - just within one, in fact! So if there is anything else you would like to discuss, feel free to comment!
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