This topic comes up from time to time. The reason I chose to bring it up again is because there are some who believe these to be 2 seperate accounts. That's the perspective I will be coming from...2 seperate accounts. Not because that's my view, because it's not, but to see if the Bible agrees with that view.

To simplify things, I will call the Genesis 1 account "C1", and the Genesis 2 account "C2", short for creation 1 and creation 2. And I will then treat these accounts as seperate, then see where that leads, according to Scriptures.

Let's start with C1.

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Ok..so what can we conclude from this? First off, according to the verses preceding this, and verse 31, we know this occurs on day 6.

!. This occurs on day 6.
2. Man is to be made in our image, after our likeness.
3. Man is to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
4. God then created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
5. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.



Now let's see what transpired in C2.

Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Genesis 2:21 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;
22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

Firstly, nowhere does it tell us what day this occurs, this assuming a seperate creation. We know it can't be day 1-6, nor even day 7. Perhaps day 8? Day 9? Day 12? So on and so on. (I hate it when the Bible keeps you guessing like that. Any guess should be just as good as any other guess, I guess).

So now let's compare the 2 alleged seperate creation accounts.

The C1 account occured on day 6. It's anyone's guess what day the C2 account occured.

The C1 man is to be made in our image, after our likeness. The C2 account doesn't mention this, so, since it's a seperate account, this doesn't apply to the C2 man.

The C1 man is to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. This also doesn't apply to the C2 man, since it was never mentioned, even tho the C2 man actually gave names to all of the animals, which could imply dominion over them. But we know that can't be so, since these are supposed to be 2 seperate creations.


God then created the C1 man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. This again doesn't apply to the C2 man. Nowhere does it state in the seperate C2 account that the C2 man was created in the image of God, etc. We know a woman was created from a rib belonging to the C2 man, but this wouldn't be the same as God creating he him; male and female created he them.,,I guess.



God blessed them(the C1 man, meaning the male and female He had just created), and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And once again, none of this applies to the C2 man. It's not recorded that God blessed the C2 man, nor even commanded by God for the C2 man to Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, etc. So I guess that means the C2 man died out..never multiplied, etc? But is that what the Bible shows happened to the C2 man?


Since my point should be fairly clear by now, and without having to go tediously into all the details, this would mean what applies to the C2 man, does not apply to the C1 man. This means the C1 man was not formed out of the dust of the ground, nor was breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, nor did this C1 man became a living soul, because this only applies to the C2 man. Seperate creation account...remember?

If you're still with me this far, it should already be quite apparent how preposterous 2 seperate creation accounts actually are. But let's further explore what the Bible actually teaches about this.


Genesis 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

This verse establishes who God is talking to here. What I want to look at next, is verse 6.

Genesis 9:6 Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

Let's stop here for a moment. Which creation account was made in the image of God? It was C1, right? Ok, the next question is, which creation account of man did Noah and his sons descend from? The C2 man, right? But how could that be? Only the C1 man was created in God's image. Notice in Gen 9:6...it does not say nor imply, that only some men were made in the image of God. This should prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there is no such thing as 2 seperate creation accounts, they're one and the same. To argue with this, is not to argue with me, but it is to argue with the Bible.


But some will say...what about the order in which the animals were created in the C2 account...it's reversed from the C1 account.

Why is it reversed? Wouldn't we logically use the C1 account to establish the correct order? And besides, one is going to argue with the evidence above, based on the fact, that they think the creations of the animals are reversed in both accounts? How then does one logically explain away the evidence above? Notice... it took very little evidence to easily prove 1 creation account. There's far more proof than this, but why would anymore be required? If you still don't believe there were not 2 seperate creations, then I somewhat doubt any further proof will convince you otherwise.

I'll stop here for now. I simply believe what I have shown, is more than ample proof, that the C1 account and C2 account are one and the same, just like the Bible teaches.

I used to ponder this quite often, and it would answer a lot of questions. But while reading Genesis 2 one day, I ran across this verse.


Genesis 2:5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

There was not a man to till the ground = that the Bible was going back to recount man's creation in Genesis 1 in more detail. Why recount man's creation? Man was a separate creation from everything else because man was the only creation that was given a soul. Also the only creation formed by the hands of God in God's image. Actually the main reason the earth was created in the first place.

It's like the misunderstanding of Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Man was the only creation that was formed (made), and because man was not created yet, the earth was void (empty) without man. What God was saying here is that the whole reason the earth was created was that man could live upon it. And until man was created, the purpose of the earth was void (empty).

Without form = without man.
And void = empty without the creation of man.

There are 3 type of creation (Trinity):
1) Spoken creation = speaking something into existence.
2) Bring forth creation = Where God commands what was already created to bring forth life.
3) Made or formed creation = Where God takes an active physical role in created something. In this case, man.

If you want the two accounts to gibe, you have to either interpret Genesis 2 in a way that allows Genesis 1 to be plainly literal, or interpret Genesis 1 in a way that allows Genesis 2 to be plainly literal. You simply can't have it both ways.

I would interpret the two accounts to be referring to the same events, simply from different perspectives. And I don't intend that to mean something like "Genesis 2 is the detailed view of day six from Genesis 1". I mean to say that Genesis 1 and 2 cannot be interpreted as absolutely literal together and still have a single creation of man, but they can be interpreted according to their individual contexts (i.e. if one or both are poetic, allegorical, figurative, or whatever), and thus be referring to the same one creation of man. They're not subsequent creations, one after the other; and they're not the two literal accounts that can simply be crammed one into the other; they're two wholly distinct accounts, telling the same overarching message, but for different reasons.

Man was the only creation that was formed (made),Not true
See 1:7, 16, 25, , 31
2:2, 3, 4, 22