Two Creation Accounts? - Disciples Path Ministry
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Two Accounts of Creation?
Our Holy Bible is a learning tool given
to us by the grace of our Creator, our Heavenly Father. Just like any other
tool, if you do not know how to use it then the usefulness for which it was
made is of little to no help. It may still have value – but it
would be of no help to you. I have said this many times and believe it prudent
to state again before going any farther. There are more people with sight who are blind
than blind people who cannot see. The content of our Holy Bible requires (demands) we study the
Word only one-way else we will not receive the message and we
will only confuse ourselves with more questions. Unanswered questions lead to
doubt. Doubt is an open invitation to Satan. It is foolhardy to believe you can
interpret Scripture through the lens of any religious denomination, through the
lens of any so-called scholar (myself included), or through the lens of any
religious leader. God reminds us that Scripture is only to be interpreted
through the lens of Scripture. Scripture is the only Word of
Truth.
The question asked of me was a familiar one so
I decided to write this brief narrative in hopes that it will help anyone with
the same question. Question: Are there two accounts of Creation in our Holy Bible? Answer: Yes and we are so
fortunate for that Blessing! That is just too short
of an answer so I will unpack the answer just a little. My hope, at this point,
is it will provide a jump-off point for you to begin some
research on your own. Nothing is true until you believe it and
only you can prove it to yourself. Let us start at the
beginning… (sorry, the pun was intended).
God is the sovereign LORD and Creator of all
things. God created everything out of nothing. No preexistent material existed.
From earlier discussions, we should recall the Books of our Bible are written
in different styles. The Book of Genesis is chiefly a narrative. A narrative is
a story you write or tell someone, usually in great detail. A narrative can be
a work of poetry or prose, or even song, theatre or dance. I favor a
description I found at Medium.com where they state, “…[T]he
narrative in contrast to the story, is much bigger. It’s a way of looking at
the world. An overarching concept that influences thought, meaning and decision
making.” A narrative can be fiction or non-fiction. In its simplest definition
a narrative is a spoken or written account of connected events - a story.It has been my experience people mainly ask if
Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 contradict each other. Some people honestly never
noticed the difference. Many never make time to research the
difference. However, most of the time the question is posed by people trying to
“prove” the Bible contradicts itself. I believe Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 are different but are
not contradictory. The original Books of the Bible were letters and did
not have chapter separation. A good
way to understand Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 are different but not contradictory
is to consider the gospel accounts by Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John. God
gives us four gospels in order to give a more complete picture of Christ Jesus.
The four gospel accounts are similar but not identical — Praise God in His
wisdom for doing that for us.
At this point, I could easily buttress my
explanation; however, I would have to go into greater depth with regard to
translation, or really transliteration, of the Hebrew language and its subtle
yet profound nuances. So let me conclude by stating an easy way I used to help
me as I studied the question originally. Chapter 1 is an overview and primarily
sequential. Chapter 2 actually recaps the Creation of man and
woman providing details that were not covered in the first chapter. Just like
the four gospel accounts — Genesis chapter 1 and chapter 2 are provided to us
so we can put them together in order to get the most
complete picture of Creation.
Our Holy Bible is a learning tool given
to us by the grace of our Creator, our Heavenly Father. Just like any other
tool, if you do not know how to use it then the usefulness for which it was
made is of no help. It may still have value – but would be of
no help to you. As always, I am available to discuss this or any other topic in
greater depth.
Disciples
Path Ministry - St. Augustine, Florida
U.S.A.