The are two creation accounts in Genesis, one in Chapter 1 and another in Chapter 2. Again we encounter a repetition in the reinterating of man's creation. This is intentional and is probably due to the fact that man is the crowning acheivement of Almighty God's creation. It is also the secondary focal point of the Bible outside of the supremacy and importance of Jesus Christ (who was actually God incarnate in a man's body).
The first thing noticed in Genesis 2 is that God creates forms or works in a more personable roll with man. Where Genesis 1 basically was “God said-it happened-it was good” in what appears to be almost cadenced dictation of events, Chapter 2 uses “hands-on” verbs such as "formed" man, "breathed" into his nostrils, He "planted" a garden (where He puts man). Anthropomorphic characteristics or verbs that could be applied just as easily to his creation as to Himself, as if God is deliberately trying to draw Himself closer to man to make Himself more understandable to man. We must keep in mind that the Bible is not a book written about God by man it is a book written by God through man. It is a living breathing connection to the living God. The things revealed in Genesis are revealed the way God wanted them not the way Moses wanted them (regardless of what liberal theologians say...and I use the word theologian loosely). IT is Verbal Plenary Inspriation of the original autographs which is just another way of saying its in the Bible because God wanted it there and it is because of Him that its there, divinely.
Chapter 2 also deals specifically with man or is in or from a human perspective as noted in quite a few texts and commentaries (Williams 87) and stays that way throughout Genesis. Genesis 1 has God making statements as if the author is present at the Creation as an observer. It is in this way that we know God is probably revealing these facts to Moses as he records Genesis since only God could've bore witness to the unfolding of creation. God woudl be the only reliable source for this information. Genesis 2 appears to be a past tense narrative until verse 18 and the statement from God about the creation of a helper for Adam. There is a mention in verse 15 about not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but this is not a creative act, it is a command. It is as if the narrator is not just attempting to explain how but also begins to try and explain why God did some of the things He did during the Creation. Overall Genesis 2 is more specific, specifically about man and woman and there is an undergirding of intent, intended order or structure in the Creation.
Williams, William C. "Chapter 2: In The Beginning." They Spoke from God: A Survey of the Old Testament. Springfield: Logion Press/Gospel Pub. House, 2003. 87. Print.
1 comment:
What are your thoughts on the biblical pattern that is presented if the book of Genesis is divided by the genealogies, which leaves one to read the material as a biographical narrative, God, Adam, Noah, etc.?
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