Second Story of Creation Sheet Genesis 2:4-10

In the second account, all creation seems to be happening in a very short time, unlike the first account when creation lasted for

7 days or 6 days

D is for the source called

Deuteronomist

In addition to the Priestly and Yahwist sources, there are two other sources which contributed to the writing of the first five books of the Bible. (The first five books are known as the Torah, a Hebrew world which means "law" and refers t othe books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.) These two other sources are the Elohist and the Deuteronomist. The Deuteronomist obviously wrote the book of

Deuteronomy

E is for the source called

Elohist

The Priestly source calls God by the term

God

In the second account of creation, God is referred to by the title of

Lord God/Lord

The Priestly source likes to include family trees called genealogies in their writings. For instance, an ancestor list can be seen in Genesis 10. The Yahwist source likes to speak of God in anthropomorphic terms. This means that they give God human qualities even through God is not human. Two actions in the second account of creation that make God appear to act as a human:

Lord plants the Garden of Eden, God walks in the garden, He blows the breath of life into the nostrils of Adam and He did not know the perfect mate for Adam, molds Adam of clay

The Yahwist sources calls God by the term

Lord/Yaweh

P is for the source called

Priestly

The theory that the four sources are responsible for the writing only applies to the first five books of the Bible known as the

Torah

J is for the source called

Yawhist

In the second account, God seemed to have difficulty in creating the right mate for the man. None of the animals was suitable. It almost seemed as if God did not know what to do. This is not typical divine behavior but is more characteristic of

a human

A third difference in this creation story, is to bring the man to life, God blew into his nostrils the

breath of life

Creation was not done in a chaotic or haphazard way but with great

care

In the second account of creation, God does not seem far away from the work of creation, but rather

close by

The Yahwist source describes God as being involved and

close to creation/close by

Each writing source has a ............... for easy reference.

code letter

From the first account, we learn that our God is all-powerful and can create with just a

command

God does not give ........ in the second account to create things.

commands

From the second account, we learn that our God is a caring God, who is not far away, but intimately involved with

creation

Perhaps the stories were left in the Bible side by side because each story contains some, but not all of the truth we are to learn about

creation

Elohists like to use ..............................................in their writings to show a way God communicates to people

dreams and visions

A second difference in this account of creation is, like a sculptor, God himself molded the man out of the

dust of the ground

In Genesis I, man and woman are created together. In Genesis 2, woman is created from the same material as man. Both show that in terms of respect and dignity, men and woman are

equal

The Priestly source portrays God as being distant or

far away

This second account of creation contradicts the first account in several ways. For instance, in the second account, in relation to the other living things, human beings are not created last, but

first

The Deuteronomists use a literary style which includes

long speeches

Now, if there are two different versions of the story of creation in the Bible, which is the true one? But perhaps this is the wrong question to ask. Remember, the stories are not intended to teach literal, scientific truth, but to present a deeper

meaning

One of the differences in this account of creation is, for his creatures, God created a garden called Eden by actually

planting it

In fact, the first account of creation was written by a group called the Priestly writers. The second account was written by a group known as the Yahwist writers. These two groups wrote two different stories of creation because each group wanted to emphasize its own

point of view/perspective

Chapter 2 of Genesis gives another account of the story of creation. Despite its obvious contradictions to the first story of creation, the Biblical authors must have put this story next to the story in chapter 1 for a special

reason

and to create a woman, God fashioned her from the man's

rib

God finally crated a mate for the man by casting a deep sleep over him and removing one of his

ribs

The generally accepted date for the priestly writers account is c. 500 B.C.E. (which means Before the Common Era and is the term preferred in religious studies). The Yahwist writes generally accepted date is c. 950 B.C.E. Notice that although the Yahwist writers composed their story first, the version comes

second

Why must we study both accounts of God's creation?

to grasp the full meaning of God's creation of the world

Two very different accounts of creation suggest that the biblical story of the beginning of the world was not written by one author or group of authors, but by at least

two authors

By examining the two accounts, we can see the different characteristics of the

two writing sources