HISTORY

THE CREATION MYTH(S)

The biblical creation story about the world and life is seemingly well known. If nothing else, it serves as the religious centerpiece and counterpoint in debates about evolution versus creation. However, what is more interesting for the eagle-eyed reader of the Bible is that two separate (but related) creation stories are offered in the Book of Genesis. Genesis 1:25–27, the story where God creates the world in seven days, clearly states that humans were created after other animals, and that man and woman were created at the same time. In Genesis 2:18–22, which launches the story of Adam and Eve, animals were created after man, and woman was created from the rib of man.

Are these, then, two separate stories? That depends on whom you ask.

Some scholars speculate that this is the natural effect of having a text with many authors edited into a single volume. Different accounts from multiple time periods might simply offer different views of the same event. Others point out that the apparent contradiction may be a stylistic choice. While the first chapter of Genesis gives us the quick, Sparknotes-like account of all life on Earth, the second chapter makes man more central to the text and gives more details so that his fall through original sin would be better understood.