Comparison and Contrast between the Two Creation Accounts in Genesis

 

Gen 1	Gen 2	Parallels
When God began to create (1:1)	On the day YHWH God created (2:4b)	Dependent clauses describing the state at the beginning of God’s creative activity mentioned in the text
The earth was uninhabitable and uninhabited (the earth was covered in water and darkness) (1:2)	Before there were any small or large plant there was no man  (uncultivated fields) (2:5)	State of chaos
God creates the cosmos as a temple that can be inhabited by His human images (1:3-25)	YHWH God caused a spring to come up and water the ground and planted a garden as a local temple in the midst of rivers (v. 6, 8-15)	YHWH God's reversal of the state of the earth as being uninhabitable
God creates man as His image and places him into the cosmic temple (1:26-31)	YHWH God formed a man like images for the temple are formed from the clay  (v. 7). He then creates the woman from the man to become one with him	YHWH God’s reversal of the state of the earth as being uninhabited by making humanity as His images and places them into His temple
And God blessed them when He said, “Be fruitful in order to multiply, (multiply) in order to fill up the earth, (fill up the earth) in order to subdue it, (subdue it) in order to rule over it (1:26-28).	The command to eat of the fruit of any tree but not the fruit of a particular tree is sandwiched in between the creation of man and the creation of the woman, Adam confirms that he is to become one flesh with her, and their nakedness/sexuality is not covered or shameful before  God or one another. (vv. 16-25)	The command to be fruitful and multiply is given to the human couple as God’s images to continue God’s work of filling up the earth. Both commands have ideas of fruit in common and in the context of the relationship of the man and woman and the sexual act that characterizes it.
Genesis 1	Genesis 2	Differences
The time frame in which God makes the heavens and earth is 7 days	The time frame in which God makes the earth and heavens (reversed order) is on a single day	The time frames conflict as the first account has God makes things in seven days and the second on only one day. The order of things created are also in conflict.
Only Elohim (the generic word for a deity) is used to refer to God	YHWH Elohim (the divine name God reveals to Israel along with the identification as Elohim) is used to refer to God	Divine names move from transcendent and distant to accessible and relational
11 And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants (עֵ֚שֶׂב ) yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. (1:11-13)	5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. (2:5-9)	God makes the plants (עֵ֚שֶׂב) before the man is made in Gen 1, but in Gen 2:5, the עֵ֚שֶׂב are not made yet because there is no rain and no man and so God makes a water source and then man and then plants a garden.
20 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind . . . 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day (1:20-21, 23)   24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then 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 birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27    So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them . . . And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day (vv. 24-27, 31)	18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 So out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. (vv. 18-19a)	Every type of animal and every kind of bird that flies in the sky is made before the man in Gen 1, but in Gen 2:19, every animal in uncultivated areas of the earth (i.e., everywhere according to the state of the earth in 2:5) and every bird that flies in the sky is made before the man.
2 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation (2:1-3)	God resting is absent from the text and is instead replaced with a narrative where more chaos comes into the world and threatens His creation. Rather than ending, the account is unending.	In the first account of Genesis, God rests in His cosmic throne as creation is finished and chaos is reversed with nothing more to create, but in the second account, the garden is not cared for and chaos endures in the world without a resolution to it.