BIBLE CONTRADICTIONS IN CREATION?
Genesis 1-3 - (New International Version)
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth.2
Now the earth was formless and
empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was
hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, "Let there be light," and
there was light. 4 God saw that the
light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the
darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was
morning--the first day.
6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse
between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under
the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse "sky." And there
was evening, and there was morning--the second day.
9 And God said, "Let the water under the sky
be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground "land," and
the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, "Let the land produce
vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed
in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed
according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to
their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And
there was evening, and there was morning--the third day.
14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the
expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as
signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and
let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth."
And it was so. 16 God made two
great lights--the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to
govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God
set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate
light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning--the
fourth day.
20 And God said, "Let the water teem with
living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the
sky." 21
So God created the great
creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water
teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind.
And God saw that it was good. 22 God
blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the
water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." 23 And there was evening, and there was morning--the
fifth day.
24 And God said, "Let the land produce living
creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the
ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their
kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move
along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our
image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the
birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the
creatures that move along the ground."
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image
of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be
fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the
fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that
moves on the ground."
29 Then God said, "I give you every
seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit
with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the
birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground--everything that
has the breath of life in it--I give every green plant for food." And it
was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very
good. And there was evening, and there was morning--the sixth day.
Genesis
2
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in
all their vast array.
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he
had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy,
because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth
when they were created.
When the LORD God made the earth and the
heavens-- 5
and no shrub of the field had
yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the
LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the
ground, 6
but streams came up from the
earth and watered the whole surface of the ground-- 7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the
ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a
living being.
8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the
east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out
of the ground--trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the
middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil.
10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden;
from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds
through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin
and onyx are also there.) 13 The
name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of
Cush. 14
The name of the third river is
the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the
Euphrates.
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the
Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are
free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but
you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you
eat of it you will surely die."
18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the
man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."
19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all
the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the
man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living
creature, that was its name. 20 So
the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the
beasts of the field.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a
deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed
up the place with flesh. 22 Then
the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he
brought her to the man.
23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called `woman, for she was taken out of
man." 24
For this reason a man will
leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one
flesh.
25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they
felt no shame.
Genesis
3
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the
wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really
say, `You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat
fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but
God did say, `You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the
garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent
said to the woman. 5 "For
God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be
like God, knowing good and evil."
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was
good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom,
she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her,
and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of
both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig
leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the
LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid
from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where
are you?"
10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and
I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
11 And he said, "Who told you that you were
naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
12 The man said, "The woman you put here with
me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What
is this you have done?"
The woman said, "The serpent deceived me,
and I ate."
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent,
"Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust
all the days of your life. 15 And
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and
hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
16 To the woman he said, "I will greatly
increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."
17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to
your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, `You must not eat
of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you
will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It
will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the
field. 19
By the sweat of your brow you
will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were
taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become
the mother of all the living.
21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and
his wife and clothed them. 22 And
the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good
and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the
tree of life and eat, and live forever." 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of
Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east
side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth
to guard the way to the tree of life.
The
Creation Myths: Internal Difficulties
Most skeptics tend to dismiss the story told in
the first three chapters of Genesis as so obviously mythical as to be unworthy
of any serious discussion. Therein lies the main difficulty-most
fundamentalists do not! Thus we have no choice but to look at the accounts
closely.
Two
Contradictory Creation Stories
Let us start by pointing out that that there are
actually two separate and different stories of creation contained in Genesis.
The first is given in Genesis 1: 1-2:4 while the second is given in Genesis 2:
4-24. That these two stories are actually different (mutually exclusive
accounts) we will show below:
According to the first creation story the whole
universe was made in six days, while on the seventh day, God rested. The table
below gives the order of creation as described in those verses:
|
Day |
Relevant Verses |
Things Created |
|
One |
Genesis 1:1-5 |
Light |
Given below is the second story.
|
|
Genesis 2:4-9, 18-19 |
|
The two stories contradict each other in many
areas:
·
The order of
creation: The reader will
notice that the order of creation is completely different from the first story
in Genesis Note the wording italicised. Man, according to Genesis chapter two,
was made before any plants and animals were created. There is no ambiguity with
the wording. It is clearly stated that there were no plants of any kind when
man was first created. It was also clearly stated that animals were created
after man was created as helpers for the human! According to Genesis chapter one,
plants created in day three and animals in day five and six with man being the
last item of creation on the sixth day.
·
The creation
of man and woman. According
to Genesis 1:27 man and woman were created simultaneously.
|
|
Genesis 1:27 |
|
·
Yet the story in
Genesis 2 was that woman was created as an afterthought; only after God was
unable to find a suitable helper for Adam among the animals:
|
|
Genesis 2:20-22 |
|
·
Other
contradictions. There are
other contradictions [1] between the two stories which we will simply list down
here:
·
In the first
account, water first covered the earth and dry land was not made until the
third day (Genesis 1:9-13). In the second account, the earth was dry land
before a mist came up from the earth and watered the whole earth (Genesis
2:5-6)
·
The first story
tells of the creation of the universe in seven days. Yet the second story
implies that all was created in a single day[2] (Genesis 2:4 In the day that
the Lord God made the earth and the heavens…)
·
In the first story,
the man and woman was allowed to eat any fruit (Genesis 1:29 and every tree
with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food), yet in the second
story he is prohibited from eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil (Genesis 2:17 & 3:3).
·
The reference to
God in the first account was simply Elohim (normally translated as God)
while in the second account the creator is always referred to as Yahweh Elohim
(usually translated as Lord God).[3]
It is quite obvious that we are looking at two
contrary accounts of the creation of the universe. And if they are contrary, at
least one must be false-i.e. just by looking within the Bible itself we have
shown that at least one story is a myth.
Other
Problems
There are further problems with the story of creation
in Genesis chapter one[4]:
·
We know today that
the phenomenon of night and day is caused by the rotation of the earth moving
different parts of the earth away from or towards the sun. Yet, we are told
that there was evening and morning from the first day-but that the sun was only
created on the fourth day!
·
Why does God need
to “separate the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1:18) on the fourth day when
there was already “evening and morning” on the first day ? (Genesis 1:5)
The second account too has its own internal
problems:
·
We are confronted
with a talking serpent. (Genesis 3:1-5) This, prima facie, is a mythical
element.
·
Secondly we are
confronted with a fruit from a tree that can convey knowledge. (Genesis 2:16
& 3:1-7). While it can be argued that eating fruits form part of a proper
nutritional diet and thus will enhance intelligence and there are certainly
plants which produces hallucinogenic substances, it surely is stretching credulity
a bit far when one asserts the existence of a fruit which actually gives
knowledge. Thus we have another prima facie mythical element.
·
Next we are
confronted with the fact that it was the serpent who spoke the truth instead of
God. Given below is God’s warning:
|
|
Genesis 2:16 |
|
·
Now the serpent contradicted
this and told Eve that they (she and Adam) will not die (Genesis 3:5). And
since Adam lived to a ripe old age of 930 (Genesis 5:5), God was obviously
telling a little fib in Genesis 2:16.
We have thus accomplished our first task; we have
shown that the creation accounts are filled with contradictions, mythical and
pre-scientific elements.
References
|
1. |
McKinsey, Biblical Errancy, p354-356 |
|
2. |
Graves & Patai, Hebrew Myths: p25 |
|
3. |
Graves & Patai, Hebrew Myths, p24 |
|
4. |
McKinsey, Biblical Errancy, p356-357 |