Lesson 6: A Closer Look At the Creation Story (Genesis 1 and 2)

1. TWO CREATIONS?





1. When was man created? (The sixth day of creation
   according to Genesis 1:27-31.)





1. Think back two weeks ago. Were plants created
   before or after man? (Before. Genesis 1:11-13
   tells us they were created on the third day.)





2. Now I am going to create some trouble for you.
   Read Genesis 2:1-5. How can verse 5 say that no
   shrub or plant had appeared when this is after the
   Creation week?





1. Is this a conflicting account of the Creation?





2. Is this a different version of the Creation?





3. Does this indicate that creation continued
   after the first week?





3. It gets worse. Read Genesis 2:7. Is this a
   different version of the creation of man? A
   conflicting account?

1. Now move down in this chapter and read Genesis
   2:18-23. Is this a third version of the creation
   of man (woman)?





1. (Did you notice in this third version, that
   Eve missed the meeting about the tree of the
   knowledge of good and evil? ( Genesis 2:16-17)
   If this is a third version of creation,
   instead of blaming the serpent for her sin in
   eating the fruit, Genesis 3:13, Eve should
   simply have said, “I missed that meeting!)





2. Do we have two creation stories for the plants and
   three creation stories for man?





3. When you were studying your lesson this week, were
   you happy with the explanation of this contained
   in the lesson?





1. Did you understand the lesson’s explanation?





1. Tell me what you understand the lesson to
   say about these multiple creation
   stories.





2. If you did not study the lesson this week, it
   suggests a complex answer to the question
   about the two creation accounts of the plants.
   It says (Wednesday & Friday) that the Hebrew
   words for shrub and plant ( Genesis 2:5) refer
   to spiny and thorny plants that are not part
   of the original “good creation.” Instead,
   they are part of the “thorns and thistles”
   ( Genesis 3:18) that came as a result of sin.
   Therefore this “second” plant creation is
   merely a reference to what happened to the
   plants after sin.





3. Now that you have heard the explanation, what
   do you think of it?





1. What would you say about this explanation
   if I told you the Hebrew word translated
   “plant” in Genesis 2:5 (“eeseb”)is the
   same word translated “plant” in Genesis
   1:11? (The lesson says they are different
   words. While I am no expert, three
   standard reference tools (Interlinear
   Bible, Stong’s Concordance and
   Englishmen’s Concordance) indicate these
   are the same words.)





4. When in doubt, look at the context, right?
   Let’s look at the context by reading Genesis
   2:5-8. By reading this additional context,
   does this make the lesson’s explanation seem
   more or less reasonable? Are we talking about
   a time after the fall of man?





1. How can Genesis 2:5 refer to a period
   after the fall of man when the text and
   context indicate man had not yet been
   created? (Our lesson says (Thursday) that
   the man referred to in Genesis 2:5 was
   sinful man, because the text says that
   man would “work the ground” and man did
   not have to work the ground until after
   sin.)





1. Did man work the ground only after
   he sinned?





2. Is gardening a post-sin event?





3. Read Genesis 2:15. What does that
   reveal man was doing in the garden
   of Eden before the fall? (Working
   the ground!)





4. What if I told you that the Hebrew
   word used in Genesis 2:5 for working
   the ground is the same Hebrew word
   used in Genesis 2:15? Would that
   suggest that we are talking about
   the hard work that came after sin?
   (Once again, the standard reference
   works I mentioned above indicate the
   lesson’s approach is flawed. The
   reference in Genesis 2:5 to working
   the ground is not simply a reference
   to post-sin work. The Hebrew word
   used to describe working the ground
   (“abad” — Stong’s number 5647)in
   Genesis 2:5 is the same Hebrew word
   used in Genesis 2:15. It is true
   that this same Hebrew term is later
   used for post-sin work. (For example
   in Genesis 3:15.) But it is not
   necessarily a reference to post-sin
   work.)





1. TELL ME AGAIN, MORE SLOWLY





1. If our lesson is giving us some doubtful answers
   to the two or three creation question, what is the
   right answer? How do you explain two accounts
   about creating the plants and three accounts about
   creating man?





2. When you tell a story, do you tell all the details
   at once?





1. What do you do with the details? When do you
   give them?





2. Have you ever had someone tell you the general
   outlines of a story and then later fill in
   some of the details?





3. Is that what God is doing here in describing
   His creation?





1. What problems do you see, if any, with
   the idea that the Genesis 2:4-8 account
   of the creation of plants merely provides
   more details about the Genesis 1:11-12
   account?





2. Is there anything in Genesis 2:4-8 that
   contradicts the account in Genesis
   chapter 1?





3. What additional details do you find in
   Genesis 2:5-6 about the plants? (Genesis
   1:11-12 simply indicates the creation of
   plants and trees. Genesis 2:5-6 tells us
   how God prepared the ground by setting up
   a watering system for the plants.)





4. Assume someone told you that they just
   planted a tree in their front yard last
   weekend. A few minutes later they tell
   you how they dug the hole, how they
   amended the soil and put in a drip
   irrigation system for the tree. Would you
   assume they planted two different trees?





3. Does the Genesis 2:7 account of the creation of
   man contain more detail than the Genesis 1:27
   account?





1. Does the Genesis 2:21-23 account contain more
   detail than the Genesis 2:7 account?





1. Does any one of these accounts contradict
   any of the others?





1. In Genesis 1 do we find God speaking
   His creation into existence?





2. Doesn’t this create a conflict with
   God using dirt and a rib in the
   Genesis 2 accounts? If God spoke man
   into existence in Genesis 1, how is
   this consistent with the
   “construction approach” of Genesis
   2? (Be careful! Although we read
   that God spoke the creation into
   existence, we are not told that He
   spoke man into existence. Genesis
   1:27 says God “created man.” This is
   consistent with the “construction
   approach of Genesis 2.)





4. When we get to heaven, do you think God will give
   us an even more detailed account about how He
   created the earth? Will there be charts and
   graphs?





1. Are you someone who would love to know “How He
   did it?”

(Friends, I do not think we need to depend on a complex and
questionable answer. The Bible seems clear that the
subsequent references to the creation of plants and man are
simply providing us with more detail about the original
creation. They are not an account of multiple creations. If
you do not like my explanation and you don’t like the
explanation in the lesson, consider another explanation.
The Chumash (Stone Ed.), a Jewish commentary, has a very
simple and quaint approach to the origin of plants and
Genesis 2:5-6. It says that when God created the plants in
Genesis 1 they were waiting under the surface of the earth.
They were waiting for man. When Adam came and prayed for
food, and was ready to work the ground, God sent water and
the plants sprung up.)

1. NEXT WEEK: PARADISE LOST: THE FALL’S IMPACT ON
   CREATION.