Genesis 1 gives the timeline of events. Repetitive in structure, each set of verses tell us what God said, what was created by his command, His blessing and approval of the creation, and what day it was. Moses tells us that in the beginning there was nothing but God and waters, which His spirit moved over.

Some people believe that Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 are two different accounts of creation and assert that there are discrepancies in the accounts. This has not only lead to legends about a mysterious woman named Lilith, but also calls into question the ordering of the events of creation.

According to lore, Lilith refused to be submissive to Adam and ran away. These legends existed in ancient Judaism, and while Lilith is not mentioned in the English Bible, there are stories of her in the Babylonian Talmud. In one version of her story she is akin to a demon, perhaps having origins in Sumerian vampire myths where female vampires are called Lillu or Mesopotamian myths about lilin (female night demons).[10]

One website goes into massive details about the "evidence" for the existence of Lilith, claiming Lilith was the serpent in the garden, citing similarities between Lilith and the leviathan, and discrepancies in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2's description of creation.[6]

While Lilith may be mentioned in the Talmud, she is not referred to as Adam's wife.[7] Furthermore, there isn't actually a discrepancy between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. Moses presents the story of creation similar to how someone would give an academic presentation (or talk) today; first he runs through a highly structured outline that gives an overview of what occurred (Genesis 1), then he goes back to add in details he thought were important.

When it says God planted a garden, and the trees grew (Genesis 2:8-9), this isn't Him creating trees, this is Him planting specific trees in a specific location. If you read Genesis 2, you will notice there is no mentioning of the sun, the moon, the stars, or the heavens in terms of creation, this is because Moses isn't giving us a new and contradictory timeline. Nowhere in Genesis 2 does it say "and then He created" or anything similar; Genesis 2 merely notes the things we have already been told were created when providing more detail on them.

In Genesis 2:19, this is not saying God created Adam before he created the animals. Nowhere does it say first God created Adam, then the animals, then brought them to Adam. We already know Adam was created after from Genesis 1, Moses is simply reminding us that the animals were created by God (repetition was clearly the style of writing back then, and this also marks emphasis that God is the Creator) before informing us that God let Adam choose the names of each creature. Yes, Moses is speaking of Adam needing a mate in verse 19, but there is no indication that Moses is giving us a timeline or sequential events between the two verses. If the events were sequential, it would read "And then out of the ground..." or "So out of the ground..." However, there is nothing that concretely gives us the timing of this action in relation to the creation of man.

When looking at Genesis 2 as a whole, it is obvious that Moses is just detailing events that occurred and reiterating the fact that God created all things, not giving a precise timeline of said events.

The first thing God creates is light—from the context of the entire chapter, we can see that this light is not the sun, but some other light (the sun is not created until the fourth day). There are two interesting links to science stemming from the fact that God created a non-solar light first:

In verses 6-8, we are told that God creates, then separates a "firmament" from the waters. According to the concordance in my KJV Study Bible, "firmament" is mentioned 3 other times in the bible:

Each time it is a translation of the Hebrew word raki'a meaning "expansion." It is defined as denoting "the space or expanse like an arch appearing immediately above us."[1] God calls the firmament Heaven. Note that Genesis 1:1 speaks of "heaven and earth" where heaven is not capitalized as it is in Genesis 1:8 with reference to the firmament. There are four different Hebrew words in the Old Testament that are translated into "heaven": rakia (firmament), shamayim (heaven and earth or upper and lower regions), marom (mountain), shechakim (expanses).[8]

Ezekiel speaks of the firmament in reference to a vision he has of "the glory of God," while Psalms uses is to speak of God's handiwork and Daniel 12 is discussing the end of the world. Using these passages and the facet Heaven is capitalized in Genesis 1:8 indicating a proper noun, we know that this is reference His home, Heaven—thus on the second day He created Heaven.

Genesis 1:9-13 details God creating Earth (the land). He separates land from water and creates plant life. The phrase "yielding fruit after its own kind" implies the fruit trees were fully mature. This not only contradicts evolutionists' theory that the seed came first, but also contradicts the idea that animals (specifically marine life) came before plants. A question posed by Presents of God Ministries is "why do we have wasps that rely on certain plants to lay their eggs within them to procreate. And if this is true, how do those plants survive without the wasp pollinating them? If the plants and the wasps were created thousands of years apart, how does the plant pollinate without the wasp, and how does the wasp procreate without the plant?"

Next, God creates the Sun, moon, and stars, which he tells us are to be for signs, seasons, years, and days. Here, we come to some of the questions I find most interesting. This is the first day that Earth has a Sun and moon, up until this point day and night appear to refer to the first light, created. This mean the “days” referenced are not calculated based on the rising and setting of our Sun.

More than the order of things, the most attacked points between evolutionists and creationists is the timeline. Was it really 6 days? Now, as a believer, I believe that God does not lie to us, so when He says 1 day He means 1 day. Some Creationists use 2 Peter 3:8 to argue that 1 day = 1,000 years... I don't necessary think this is the case (I think the point of that verse was to illustrate that when you are immortal time becomes irrelevant), but I do recognize that time is highly influenced by man. Take daylight savings time for instance—it’s not real, just something man implemented for our benefit (at the time, at least). Similarly we have the Julian and Gregorian Calendars, along with the Mayan. Muslims mark their calendars based on Mohammed, where as we based ours after Jesus. Since we are all alive today and able to speak to each other, it is easy to figure out why our calendars differ and match them up, but what of the beginning of the world? How do we know the Earth rotated at the same speed, that the days were 24 hour days?

On the sixth day, God created the animals that live on land, creating man last. An important thing to note about the creation of man is that for everything else, God says let the water or let the Earth bring forth, but for man, He says "Let us make man in our image." This signifies that we are different—special—from the other animals. It is here that we meet Adam and Eve for the first time (though not by name). We are also told that everyone was vegetarian at that point.

Genesis two adds more detail to the picture that man was formed from the dust of the ground and woman was formed from man's rib.

God sanctifies the seventh day, which we now call the Sabbath. The seven days represent our modern week, the first day being Sunday and the seventh, Saturday. An interesting thought that comes from concluding the timeline of creation: one year represents the time it takes the earth to make a complete revolution around the Sun, the original 30 day month represents the lunar cycle, a day represents one revolution of the Earth, hours represent the cycle of the Sun traveling in the sky… So what does a 7 day week represent? Other nations have used a different number of weeks, but evidence supports the 7 day week dates as far back at least as far as the Babylonian empire. Even in the ancient days there was the concept of a "week," but what prompted them to create a week? What (other than God) would prompt the Jews to choose 7 days? Why not assume God created the world in one day? Or eight days? Or aligning with the season? The 7 day week cycle has never been broken since Moses’ day and perhaps even before Moses' day according to modern sources.[9]

Taking into consideration the fact that God again uses "us" when discussing the fall of mankind in Genesis 3, we know that "us" is knows both good and evil. This would definitely include Jesus and the Holy Spirit, but what about the angels? A lot of things are speculated about angels, and using these speculations we could make an assumption about whether angels knew of both good and evil, but let's wait until we find Biblical evidence to prove or disprove this.

Two traditions were established in the Garden of Eden while the world was still perfect: the Sabbath and marriage.

Genesis 2:5 tells us that when God created the plants of the Earth, there was no man to till the ground. While its impossible to tell if Moses was saying before God created man, there was no one to till the ground so God created man, or if he was telling us that originally plants survived without man tilling the ground, it is interesting to note that this becomes man's punishment in Genesis 3.

.

There are several places mentioned of which we have record and know the location: Ethiopia, Assyria, and Euphrates. With research, we find that Hiddekel is the ancient name for the Tigris River.[5][3] Havilah is thought to be the Grecian Colchis near the Caspian Sea by some sources. [2]

Many people speculate as to the locations of Eden, and the locations of these rivers but there are two thing that are definite from the description given:

Science claims man originated in Africa, the Bible claims man was created then moved eastward to Eden. When Adam and Eve left Eden where did they go? Did they head South or West, further East or North? The bible doesn't tell us, but again, Moses tells us something eerily close to what science claims. Sources also have found that it is possible life originated in the Middle East,[4] where the Garden of Eden is located. Another interesting point is that Moses gives us tons of information of the first two rivers, just enough information of the third river to identify it as the Tigris, and no information of Euphrates, which is unchanged in name. I highly doubt this is coincidental.

Listening to a pastor more recently (2022), it was brought to my attention that the days of creation point to other themes in the Bible.

Many in today's society think of God as a magician—they imagine him waving His arms and then *poof* something happens, but verses such as Genesis 2:7, clearly state that God formed man. This implies that He shaped and molded His creation the way a sculptor shapes and molds a statue, or a potter molds clay (Jeremiah 18). I prefer to think of God as an artist, a title more befitting for the Creator.

So, let's talk about artists for a second…

Think of your favorite artist or an artist you learned about once. Does one of their paintings come to mind? Can you recognize the writing of your favorite author without seeing his or her name on the text? When you hear a song for the first time, can you guess the artist before the radio host tells you who it is? Branding, before it was a buzzword, is something all successful artists have in common. As far back as as man can trace, created works have been subjected to authentication processes. These processes are made possible because each artist has a brand, a signature that identifies him or herself.

God is not much different from an artist—there are signs of His signature all over the universe which link His creations.

Evolution is a scientific theory that concludes animals evolved from single cell organisms into the creatures we have now. According to evolution humans evolved from apes over. Many believers do not believe in evolution as they it conflicts with the story of creation in Genesis. There are two major discrepancies between these views: God created man vs. man evolving from some primate that has since gone extinct, and the timing of the events.

One thing I don't understand about my fellow believers is the overwhelming attempts to "prove" creation. By nature, some things—many things—concerning belief in God require a leap of faith. If there is a tree in a field, when you point to the tree and declare, "There is a tree in the field!", only a blind person will contest your observation, and knowing that they are blind, even they will probably believe whatever the majority says. God doesn't want mindless slaves who have been forced to worship Him, He wants us to choose to worship Him. So, as we walk in faith, every once in a while God brings us to a cliff to see if we will make the leap of faith because we truly believe and trust Him or if we will stay behind because we do not trust Him. I'm not going to try to prove one or the other true, it's up to you to decide what you believe. Instead I'm have simply pointed out some interesting things people on both sides tend to assume, assert incorrectly, or overlook all together. If you are curious to some arguments however, check out this video: Problems with Evolution

Back to