by wanderlustguy 11 Replies latest watchtower bible
In the first chapter of Genesis, the creation account goes like this...in general:
Earth
Plants
Animals
Then God says "we should make man in our image".
In the second is reads like an entirely different book
Man
Plants (the garden, then God(singular) put man in it
then Animals.
If the bible is accurate in all things...how can both of these be correct?
WLG
WLG, I think you might find this interesting as it follows your line of thought: http://www.dhushara.com/book/consum/consum1.htm
Freetosee
If the bible is accurate in all things...how can both of these be correct?
It isn't, and they're not!
The two accounts are different because they were written by different people at different times. It's quite obvious once you stop assuming the bible is accurate or inspired.
I am Genesis and I wont tell you my account of creation ! Unless you pay 9,95 $ per hour...
Sorry, couldnt resist LoL
The hebrews wrote the initial account then followed up with a more detailed account, just like they did with the Noah's Flood account. There is no mystery to this and it has been known for ages.
Rex
The hebrews wrote the initial account then followed up with a more detailed account, just like they did with the Noah's Flood account. There is no mystery to this and it has been known for ages.
Doesn't look more detailed...looks different, no additional information as far as sequence. One sequence must be incorrect then?
Who has it been known to? Not me, that's why I'm asking which one is correct, and why are there still two versions in one book as part of the same "truth", and how was it justified as being acceptable?
Pardon if I am wrong, but doesn't it sort of hint that birds (or at least flying things) were made before most higher vertibrates?
BTW - Sir Isaac Newton was a most stubborn literlist of the bible account. But toward the end of his life he came around to the excuse that maybe the first creative day was a lot longer than the other 6 so that the obvious age of rocks and such could be reconciled. His reasoning was that before light a day could be any length, even billions of years. Now the WTS has gone further - each one was 7000 years. Why? Who knows...but you would at least think they would do like old Isaac and pick some number that makes sense to anybody who knows anything at all about cosmology, chemistry, physics, geology, botany,,,,,,
Let me get back to Shining Light - respectfully, as a literalist (as I assume) - do you hold with a literal day or some other symbolic period of time?
Just wondering, James
The point is one version could support the sequence assumed by science, even of evolution as we have man coming after animals, but in the other account, man comes first as a unique and totally independednt creation, then everything else coming as either something for him to take care of or be the master over.
Even more so the real point is...if it's considered to be absolutely accurate in every accounting, these do not seem to balance out.
The major influences behind each story are different. The P (Priestly) author, writing later but placed first, has his god create the cosmos from the water in typical Babylonian Summerian Phoneician style whereas the JE (Yahwist/Elohist) document has their god create using only dust/clay,dry ground and his breath in older Akadian tradition. The Akadian story of is mirrored in Ugarit creation myth. P may have been using Ps 104 as a source. The Akadian/Ugaritic tradition seems to be specialized to an arid region needing irrigation (streams and springs) for life to generate whereas the Babylonian Phoneician is from a culture surrounded by water or experiencing periodic flooding. Mind you cultures adopt and adapt myths without concern for the original intended message as so it would be a mistake to be dogmatic about sources.
The order of the P also appears to have been structured purposefully to present an order from watery chaos. Each of the first 3 days created a setting needing to be occupied. The next 3 occupied those settings in order.
1. Light 4. Light-bearing bodies
EJ , emphasizing the primacy of man has him created first, then animals then lastly woman. P has man and woman made at the same time (author of unassigned material in 5:2 agreed with P).
