The First Creation Account  (Genesis 1-2:4)


In the beginning, God made the heavens and  the earth.  He then spent seven days creating, in order to perfect the world.  At the end of each day, once God was satisfied with his creation, he rested.
Day One: God created light, night and day.
Day Two: God created the heavens.
Day Three: God created and ordered the land and sea, and commissioned the earth to bring forth plants and trees to bear fruit.
Day Four: God made the sun, moon and stars.
Day Five: God created land and sea creatures, and commissioned them to multiply and fill the earth.
Day Six: God created man in his own image - and man was given power over the other creatures which God had created so far.
Day Seven: God rested, and kept it holy, as a day when no work was done.  This was to become the Sabbath day.


Themes

• All powerful God - Creation happened at God's will - he created and ordered the world in just six days, allowing him to rest on the seventh.
• Man given authority on earth - God created man last, and in his own image, then gave him power over all other creatures on the earth.  He also ordered him to have children, and fill the earth with his descendents.
• God was pleased with his creation - he only rested at the end of each day when he was pleased with the work that he had done, and only rested on the seventh day when he had finished his work.

Contemporary Issues

• Genetic engineering/human cloning.
• Special Sabbath day, different from the rest - Sunday trading/working?
• Mankind's responsibility on earth - preserving creation and not ruining it (e.g. pollution, destruction of nature).
• Power of God at work in the world today, through his creation.
• Arguments between a "God" creator, and other methods of creation.
• Creation and science - big bang?
  

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The Second Creation Account  (Genesis chp 2 vv. 4-25)

God formed man out of dust from the ground, and put him in a garden in the east called Eden.  A river flowed out of Eden in order to water the garden, then divided into four separate rivers called the Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates.  God planted a whole variety of trees around man - and in the centre, he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  He formed birds and animals from the ground, and gave man total freedom in the garden, except he was not allowed to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, on pain of death.  God then sent the man into a deep sleep, and created a companion out of one of his ribs, and called her 'woman'.  The man and woman were both naked, but not embarrassed.


Themes

• Beauty - the garden is meant to represent paradise.
• Rules - man and woman given simple rules to follow.
• Freedom - apart from the simple rules, the first man and woman had the freedom to behave however they wished.
• Authority - man given authority, and even asked to name the animals.

Contemporary Issues

• Differing roles taken by men and women in the world?
• What is true perfection?
• Do we need rules?

Revision

Make sure that you know what happened on each of the days of creation in the first account, and be careful not to confuse the two stories!