Why is man created the last?

[Assyrian]

I think the argument on Genesis 2 is boring and not intelligent. It takes so many verses in Genesis 1 to describe the sequence. Why should anyone use just one verse (2:20) to overthrown the whole thing? Moses is smart. He will not make this kind of mistake.

Just calling the argument 'boring and not intelligent' doesn't really count as an answer, although I could understand frustration and annoyance at the way the argument keeps coming back.

It does not just take 1 verse to 'overthrow' the sequence in chapter 1, it is the whole narrative Gen 2:5-25 that gives us the different sequence of events. Though I am sure you do actually believe Gen 2:20 was inspired by God too.

Of course Moses was smart. He would not make a mistake like that. But the obvious conclusion from that is that he did not intend these narratives to be interpreted literally, because if they were meant literally then there was a mistake.

 

[Assyrian]

I wish topics we had covered before popped up automatically <grin>

Genesis 1 is covering the whole earth. Genesis 2 is specifically referring to animals of the land - what we might call the farm -- i.e. domesticatable animals, part of what Adam was charged with managing. Its pretty plain in the Hebrew.

Gen 2:19 So out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.
No the creation in Gen 2 also include birds of the heavens and domesticated animals, livestock, are listed alongside beast of the field.

 

[juvenissun]

Assyrian said:

Just calling the argument 'boring and not intelligent' doesn't really count as an answer, although I could understand frustration and annoyance at the way the argument keeps coming back.

Yes, you are right. So here goes my argument:

Without studying the original text in greater detail, I would simply understand it this way.

Both Gen 2:5-7 and Gen 2:19 functioned as review, reminder, elaboration or summary of what God has done in Gen 1. This has nothing to do with literal reading or not. For example, before Adam is going to name all creatures, Moses just reiterate verse 19 so the description becomes a complete one. We all do that in our writing or talking. When the focus of issue is on the naming of creatures, then the creation of these creatures is reminded.

Again, I would call the argument on this issue unintelligent. Genesis 1 finished the description of creation. Why would anyone, God or Moses, or you, try to collapse the whole system in such an obvious way right in the next chapter?

 

[Assyrian]

Maybe to show people that a literal interpretation is a misunderstanding.

Gen 2 is not just a summary of chapter 1. It is a story with its own storyline, even the Hebrew grammar used was the grammar used in narratives to portray a series of consecutive events (the waw consecutive). That grammar tells us that God created the animals after he saw that it was not good that Adam was alone. The account could easily have used a different form to put God making the animals out of the sequence, but it didn't.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

The theme of "preparing a place for you" is the correct one. And yes, the woman was created last, therefore the earth was created, metaphorically, as a place for women, i.e. mother earth.

 

[theIdi0t]

So it is also possible that the Lord created many places like earth in universes, but only put human on "the Earth". In other words, SETI people will never hear anything no matter what.

I don't understand this alien curiosity of yours. I don't believe God would have created aliens on other planets, just as much I don't believe God created fairies under my garden. If he wanted more children, he would have just made the earth bigger to encompass them. Or perhaps as the Buddhist tradition suggests that the universe expands and collapses every few billion years, repeating the cycle of life, is true, and God gets a fresh crop of children every few billion years. Regardless this type of thinking, if you ask me, is pointless, nothing good is ever to come out of it.