March 2nd

Genesis 1 vs. Genesis 2

And that is how the universe was created.

When the Lord God made the universe,

(Genesis 2:4) Good News Translation

Genesis 1 and 2 aren’t contradictory, they have different narrative styles. People who want to see contradictions are looking for an excuse to dismiss the truth, because they don’t want the truth.

The fact is though, Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 do seem to be different. It’s a source of derision among unbelievers and they take it as an excuse to dismiss the Bible out-of-hand using a technique that we call superficial theology. You may have heard it expressed like this:

If the two accounts of creation in the Bible are contradictory,
how can you believe any of it?

– Reasonable question

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We all have the same evidence. Our choice of paradigm determines what we think it’s evidence of.

– Matty’s Razor

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And so the whole universe was completed. By the seventh day God finished what he had been doing and stopped working. He blessed the seventh day and set it apart as a special day, because by that day he had completed his creation and stopped working.

(Genesis 2:1-3) Good News Translation

The solution is simple: there’s only one account of creation in the Bible. The narrative of Genesis 2 begins with a closing statement for the end of Chapter 1. It tells us that God rested on the seventh day. Then it adds detain in a way that allows us to unlock the geography and topography of the original Earth.

1. Genesis 1 is linear and chronological,
   • it lays out a logical progression of steps.
2. Genesis 2 is topical,
   • it adds detail at certain places in the steps outlined in Chapter 1.

The nuance is paragraph structure. Each paragraph of Genesis 2 is chronological but one paragraph doesn’t progress to the next, they overlap. However, within each paragraph of Genesis 2 the sequence of creation maintains its integrity, there’s no contradiction.

Genesis 1 vs. Genesis 2 – Navigation

Section	Title	Scripture
1	Genesis 1 vs. Genesis 2	Genesis 2:4
2	The Creation of Man	Genesis 2:4-7
	Appearance of Modern Man	Romans 5:12
	Secular Humanism vs. God	Acts 17:22-24
3	The LORD God Planted a Garden	Genesis 2:8-9
	The Tree of Life	Genesis 3:22
	The Tree of Knowledge	Genesis 2:17
4	The Logic of Eden	Genesis 2:10-14
5	The Forbidden Fruit	Genesis 2:15-17
	Does God Lie in the Bible?	Further reading
	Salvation	Romans 10:9-10

Read through the Bible in a year

Reading plan	March 2
Linear	Joshua 17-19
Chronological	Numbers 16-17

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