In Genesis 2, the author steps back in the temporal sequence to the sixth day, when God made man. No jumping around or rearranging; just a parenthetical insert about the animal creation; in the middle of chapter 2, that restates their creation account as it occured in chapter 1. 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground.

3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. The wording used here (“had planted”, “had formed”) leaves open the possibility that the garden was already planted and the animals were already formed at some unspecified time in the past before man was created.

[…], Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. Water creatures of all kinds. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. Two very different orders. Were your reading correct, then why mention the creation of the animals at this point? Evidently the purpose of this chapter is to show that out of all the creation we have especially to do with man. But if you want to convince someone new to the Bible that it is the perfect Word of God, it is not reasonable to expect them to accept these types of explanations as enough to convince them of the truth of what they read here. David, you've got a little problem there. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

I will make a helper who is just right for him.” So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. 2:19c and brought them (animals) unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. [This procedure is not unknown elsewhere in biblical literature. Copyright © 1998, 2013, Films for Christ, All Rights Reserved—except as noted on attached “Usage and Copyright” page that grants ChristianAnswers.Net users generous rights for putting this page to work in their homes, personal witnessing, churches and schools. 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. Author: Paul S. Taylor, Films for Christ. […], And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so.

But technically, you could say that the garden and animals were created first, then man, then man was placed in the garden and the animals were brought to him to be named. Answer, Is the age of the Earth a “trivial” doctrinal point? He brought them to the man to see what he would name them […].

All times are GMT. Regarding inconsistencies, another one that stands out is about which plants humans are allowed to eat. Differences in the language, some contradictions in the text, and the difference of style cause some Christians to wonder if there are two separate creation stories.

Answer, Does God expect us to read Genesis 1-11 as a record of authentic historical fact, or is this simply a collection of parable-like stories?