Dear Editor Froese,

I came across a January 2009 copy of Midnight Call, which has been my first opportunity at reading this very informative magazine. 

After reading the Letters to the Editor section, I was in hopes of sharing some of my ideas. I would very much like to get yours as well as the readers’ opinions on this subject:

Two Different Versions of Creation?

There appear to be two different versions of the creation found in the Bible. They show two different orders of events, and regarding the purpose of mankind after the fall from grace.

From studying these accounts, I came to see that in the first, the earth emerged out of the waters and was saturated with moisture, which needed to be gathered into one place so dry land could appear. The second version shows the whole face of the earth needed to be watered.

Now the birds and beasts are created before man in the first version, and in the second, man is created first. All fowl that fly are made out of the waters in the first account, while in the second they are made out of the ground.

Man is created in the image of God in the first story, while in the second man is made out of the dust and animated by the breath of life. Only after eating the forbidden fruit does God say that because of this, man has become “as one of us” and knows good and evil.

In the first account, man is made lord of the whole earth, while in the second, he is merely placed in the garden to dress and keep it. And again, in the first account, the man and woman are created together as the completion work of the whole process of creation, while in the second version, the beasts and birds are created after the appearance of the man and before the creation of the woman.

In conclusion, was the second version composed by a different writer than the first?

-B. Howard, SC 

Answer: The Bible reports of only one creation. Chapter 1 gives the summary and chapter 2 gives the details. That, incidentally, is good journalism. Pick up a media piece and you will find that the first paragraph gives a summary, and then continues to give details, but all about the same event.