I was reading my bible and decided to take a spin through creation. For a long time since I was a kid I noticed genesis was out of order. Not even according to science, but to its self. There seems to be more than one description of creation. Which makes you wonder did mosses understand what God was imparting.

Creation 1
God creates Heaven then Earth.

Creation 2
God created Earth then Heaven (according to some).

Creation 3
God creates stuff that comes out of the oceans, stuff that flies, then mammals, and at last man out of dirt.

Creation 4

God creates Man out of dirt then all the other creatures out of dirt.

Throw out evolution for a second. I know the "bible does not conflict its self" or what ever doctrine your church has on interpreting the scriptures, but looks like Moses was out of his league, being poetic, the original text mutated, or he wrote it in a language where the rules of continuity are flexible.

So what is the most popular version of creation according to genesis?

Thefirst 5 books of the bible contain two texts in it, the J and E texts which represent two different traditions and legends of two different peoples which ended up becoming combined to form the Jews. However as these are both the word of god they were both included when it was writen down for fearing of modifing the Word of God. Both texts have very different styles and is quite obviuous apparently when reading un translated verions, the J text (from what I remember) is a lot more like traditional religions with fanatastic tales and long descriptions while the E text (assuming I have them right, can't quite remember which what the letters stand for, Jacob and Esau I think) is very brief when it comes to desciptions and is very bear bones in stlye, only statements of what happened.
Or at least that is as close as I can remeber from philosophy when we did the different stlyes of ancient thinking (Hebrew and Greek, though the J text actually counts as greek style). Can't remember the name of the person who first did it, oh well, did my best.

No no no........

Pre-Creation week: The earth is without form, and consists of water alone

Day 1: God creates light. He separates the light from the dark and names the light day, and the dark night.

Day 2: God creates the sky separating the unformed Earth with the rest of the unformed universe

Day 3: God gathers the water together, allowing dry land to appear. He creates vegetation

Day 4: God creates the Sun, moon and Stars.

Day 5: He creates living creatures in the water, and birds

Day 6: God creates all animals that live on the ground, and he creates Man.

Day 7: God blesses the Seventh day and makes it holy, he rests and enjoys his creations.


Did that help?

Nope not at all. Did you even read Genesis 1 and 2?

Oh sorry, I didn't understand what you were asking.


Ok, what I think happened {Like Tasyfish hinted at} was that Moses recorded what god told him or Genesis 1 because it is in more detail, and Genesis 2 is what was passed down through Noah, in Oral history, so it would differ slightly, but that's becaue of man's error, not God's.

So, some parts of the Bible are erroneous oral history after all! What a refreshing admission.

Look again at the tenses used. The tenses in Genesis 2 are in the past tense (perfect, imperfect, I should have paid more attention in English class). I do not have my Bible with me right now, but I can quote the sections in question to you if need be. Pay close attention to the use of had, have, and the tenses of the main verbs.

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[I]And shepherds we shall be, for thee my Lord for thee, power hath descended forth from thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out thy command. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.[/I]

And? That fits logically with what I am saying.


And most likely, it would become clearer if you learned the orignal text.....

I wasn't arguing with you, Shadow. I was responding to the other argument.

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[I]And shepherds we shall be, for thee my Lord for thee, power hath descended forth from thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out thy command. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.[/I]

Oh. Well aren't I dense?

Genesis 1&2 in most bibles are in past tense. I don't know if this is in the orginal languages or part of translation.

My writing teacher would make every one write reports of books or movies in present tense for example the wicked witch dies (instead of died) in the wizard of OZ. Some "englishy" folks have a strict idea of temporal continuity. I can't tell if it was applied to Genesis or not. Most bibles are all past tense how do you weight the order? If you go in order presented then the stories are different. If you really want me to I can post the text but going here is better http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible/

how is either Genesis 1 or 2 in error? it looks to me as though Gen 1 is an overview of the creation week, and Gen 2 brings the specific creation of man and woman into focus. how is that error? maybe I dont see it...

Because both have different creation orders. Even if chapter 2 is 'specific' that doesn't even address the problem that the OP presented. Basically, what is the order of creation-chapter 1 or 2? Please justify your answer.

what do you mean by 'OP'?

and it seems to me that Gen 1 lays out the order of the creation sequence, and Gen 2 goes into detail of the creation of man in particular (like I said before). and how is the sequence in chapter 2 different than that in chap 1? (remember, chapter 2 doesnt even describe the entire 7-day sequence...)

Hmmm, a few problems arise with this theory, when did he create the dinosaurs, and when did he kill them off, when did he create all the other planets, when did he create all the other stars and comets? Ineresting he created the earth before the sun, how did he get light, let me guess, he had a torch.