Some people contend that the Day 6 Creation accounts are contradictory making them unreliable, but I would propose that they CAN be made to line up with each other quite readily. They would necessarily be the same story from two different perspectives, which (as I can show) will account for all of the supposed differences. In an attempt to show how these two accounts line up, it is necessary to presume that Genesis 2:4-24 all occurred on Day 6.
All verses are from the New International Version of the Bible.
Chapter 1
God’s-Eye View
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Chapter 2
Man’s-Eye View
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:24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
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:19 Now the LORD God had [already*] formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air.
* Already CAN be implied, though it is spoken of after man’s creation, and it satisfies both accounts.
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Interesting point: If this is Day 6 (as implied by 2:7), plants (which were created on Day 3 [Gen. 1:11, 12], were created in their immature form. This verse seriously punches a hole in the popular Day/Age theory!
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:4 When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens-- 5 and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground--
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:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness,…
:27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;…
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:7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
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(God places the man/Adam in Eden.)
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:8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground--trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…
:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
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(God tells just the man what to eat and avoid. Later, in this chapter, God tells both Adam AND Eve what to eat. Since God was never an absentee God (see Genesis 3:8), it is not necessary that these two incidents be the same one. Deuteronomy reiterates Leviticus…!)
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:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
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:26c … and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." This is NOT a sequential statement.
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:18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."
:19 Now the LORD God had (see above) formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field…
(By the way, this makes "Taxonomy" [naming animals] the "worlds oldest profession…!")
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(This means that he named all of the land-based animals on Day 6, since he completed the task before getting a wife, also on Day 6!)
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:20d But for Adam no suitable helper was found.
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:27c … male and female he created them.
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:21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
:23 The man said,
"This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called `woman,'
for she was taken out of man."
:24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
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:28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
:29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.
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(It is interesting to note that this instance of the command did not include the prohibited fruit. Further evidence that it was distinct from the menu command given above.)
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But Adam and Eve did eat of the Forbidden Fruit, plunging their children (all of Mankind/You and I) into spiritual death. But, even then, God would not abandon us. Starting shortly after this Fall happened (in Genesis), God began to mount this rescue effort…!
In John 3:16, Jesus tells us,
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
