Originally posted by sulphur
Could we get areal theolgian to sort out the difference between genesis 1 and 2. please
Nahum Sarna in the book
Genesis. Bernhard Anderson in his essay The Earth Is The Lord's,: An Essay on the biblical Doctrine of Creation, in
Is God a Creationist? Edited by Roland Frye, pp. 176-196 is another theologian. Below and in the next post is some of it.
"Our method of study will involve, of course, special attention to the accounts found in the first two chapters of Genesis. Literary criticism has singled out two creation stories: one (2:4b-25) found in the Old Epic (Yahwistic or J) narrative which was written in the time of the United Monarchy about 950 B.C., and the other (1:1-2:4a) belonging to the so-called Priestly Writing (P) which is dated in the post-exilic period about 500 B.c. However, to assign dates to these chapters in terms of the literary history of the Pentateuch is not necessarily to indicate the age of the traditions that were written down at these particular times. Both chapters embody traditions that are much older than the time of their literary composition. Indeed, belief in divine creation is one of the oldest elements of Israel's faith and is attested in many biblical passages, not only in historical books (for example, Gen. 14:19, I Kings 8:12 Septuagint) but in Israel's hymns such as Psalms 8, 19, 24, and 104. Therefore our study must range beyond Genesis 1 and 2 and cannot conclude until we have given at least a brief treatment of the New Testament.
"Today some interpreters advocate demythologizing the biblical language concerning creation, that is, disengaging the essential content of meaning from the language form in which it is expressed-a prescientific language which is obsolete in terms of the modern scientific outlook. To attempt such a translation into the modern idiom is an important aspect of the apologetic task of the community of faith, which must ever seek a point of contact in secular life and thought in order that the gospel may be communicated to the world. However, in the last analysis it is questionable whether the content of the creation-faith can be abstracted from the biblical form in which it is expressed. Instead of dispensing with the biblical language the interpreter should seek to understand it from within, that is, from within the worshipping community of Israel. The problem of demythology is put in a new light when at the outset one recognizes that the biblical language concerning creation does not purport to give us knowledge about nature, such as can be acquired through science and expressed in scientific terms. Rather, it affirms something about human existence itself-about the scientist as a person involved in the drama of history, about the life of any person regardless of the culture in which he or she lives. It affirms something about my life, your life, which no amount of scientific knowledge could ever disclose. It speaks to the person who is immersed in history and for whom the status of a detached observer is out of the question.
"In the first place, the creation faith affirms that God alone is the creator of the meaning which supports all human history and the natural world which is the theater of the historical drama. Human history or nature do not secrete their own meaning. Rather, God's revelation creates the meaning which undergirds all existence. God's Creative Word is the source of all being. So the psalmist affirms: By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth. Hence it is folly for peoples and nations to act as though their plans determined the meaning of life.
Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood forth. (Ps. 33:6-9)
This psalmist affirms the conviction expressed in Genesis 1 where, in the same kind of universal vision, all existence is seen to be grounded in the meaning disclosed by God's Word.
"Both stories of creation are characterized by this universal view which includes the heavens and the earth and all humankind. It is noteworthy, however, that in both cases creation-faith presupposes election-faith, that is, the conviction that God has chosen the history of Israel, as the special medium of divine revelation. This is clear in the Old Epic (j) narrative where the movement of primeval history (Gen. 2-11) is toward the decisive moment related in Genesis 12: the call of Abraham and the divine promise that in him and his seed all the families of humankind would be blessed. It is also true in the Priestly (P) scheme where everything points toward the singling out of the holy community, Israel, and God's revelation of the Torah at Sinai. In neither the Old Epic nor the Priestly tradition does creation stand by itself. It is integrally related to the special history of Israel within which God chose to make known "his mighty acts" of salvation. Thus the place of the creation stories in the narrative sequence indicates that the primary concern is about the meaning of history, especially Israel's history in relation to the histories of other peoples. To speak of the "first things" in this context is not to reflect on ancient origins, but is rather to say something about the source and foundation of the meaning discerned within Israel's history. As Ludwig Kohler observes:
The creation story of the Old Testament does not answer the question, "How did the world come to be?" with the reply, "God has created it," but it answers the question: "Whence has the history of the People of God received its meaning?" with the reply, "God has given to the history of the People of God its meaning by the Creation."(2)
"When we open the Bible and begin reading from Creation toward the call of Israel, we are really reading the story backward. Israel came to believe that the Word of God created a historical community, a social order (Ex. 15:16, "the people whom thou hast created"; echoed in Isa. 43:1-2), before she affirmed that "by the word of the Lord were the heavens made." The earlier Old Epic (j) creation story and the later Priestly (P) version are both secondary to the ancient Israelite witness which pointed to Yahweh's saving deeds in the Exodus, the wilderness wandering, and the conquest of Canaan. Israel's early credo, as preserved in the little liturgy found in Deuteronomy 26:5-10, makes no reference to the creation but rehearses the mighty acts of the Lord, beginning with the deliverance from Egypt. This silence about the creation is very striking.3 The inference is justified that in Israel's faith redemption was primary, creation secondary, not only in order of theological importance, but also in order of appearance in the Israelite tradition. In the early stage of Israel's faith attention focused upon what Yahweh had done in history, especially in the crucial event of the Exodus. For in this event Israel was, so to speak, created out of nothing, that is, out of a mass of slaves who were regarded as a historical nonentity in the ancient world. But the Word of God, spoken through Moses and actualized in concrete events, created meaning and order out of desolation. God's Word made history; it created a new people. Israel could have said with Paul: "God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are" (I Cor. 1:28). Later prophets rightly pointed back to the Exodus as the time of Israel's beginning (Amos 3:1-2; Hosea 11:1, 12:9, 13:4). Israel's early faith, while concentrating on Yahweh's redemptive acts in history, did not ignore Yahweh's lordship over nature. According to the tradition Yahweh commanded the plagues in the land of Egypt, was victorious in the cataclysm of the Red Sea, and graciously provided the pilgrim people with food and water in the wilderness. The Song of Deborah (judges 5) describes Yahweh's coming on the storm to rescue the embattled "people of Yahweh" at Megiddo and portrays the heavenly host-"the stars in their courses" joining battle in the defeat of Sisera's army. Nature was not removed from Yahweh's sovereignty but was the servant of Yahweh's historical purpose. In the Old Epic (j) tradition the impressive claim is made that the whole earth belongs to Yahweh (Exod. 19:5).
"Yahweh's sway, according to Israel's early faith, was as high as the heavens and as wide as the whole earth (see also josh. 10:12, Gen. 49:25, Exod. 15, Deut. 33:13-16). However, these tremendous affirmations were made from the standpoint of a community which remembered and celebrated the saving deeds of Yahweh in history. The first thing that Israel said was not "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," but rather, "in the beginning Yahweh created Israel to be his people and gave us a task and a future in his purpose."
"During the first generations of Israel's historical career there was little motive to view the meaning of the Exodus, the Call of Israel, within a universal or cosmic design. When Israel was pressed on every hand by foes that threatened to annihilate her, the burning issue was the meaning of what was happening in the history of this people, not the question of Israel's relation to the nations or to the cosmos. However, when historical tensions relaxed and Israel achieved some measure of security in the Palestinian corridor, the time was ripe to affirm that the meaning revealed in Israel's history was actually the meaning undergirding the history of all peoples and tne whole creation.
"The time for this widening historical vision was, above all, the glorious era of nationalism under David and Solomon. Whatever tendencies there may have been in this direction during the earlier period, it was the great political achievements of these kings, especially David, which widened the political and cultural horizons of Israel. With this expanding national view went also an expanding view of Yahweh's lordship over the world, as expressed preeminently in the Old Epic or Yahwist narrative which, in its written form, probably dates from the reign of Solomon. In this comprehensive history, which extends from the creation (Gen. 2-3) to at least the eve of the conquest of Canaan, the whole past was reviewed in the light of the Exodus faith and the special history whose theme was the saving deeds of Yahweh. Especially significant for the subject of this essay was the prefacing of the traditions dealing with primeval history (Gen. 2-11) to the stories concerning God's dealings with Israel (Gen. 12 through Joshua). According to Gerhard von Rad, the Yahwist's most original contribution was the incorporation of these traditions into a comprehensive history so that the creation is now seen in the light of Israel's Exodus faith.(4)"
Which Bible are you reading? Adam from dust, then a gap to allow God to form all the animals and birds, one by one, and give Adam a chance to see if any of them is a helpmate, and then finally Eve from Adam's rib. No way I can see that Adam and Eve are created at the same time. 
