The Role Of Creation In Genesis

In Genesis, it is described how the Hebrew people believed God created the “heaven and the earth.” However, there is not one but two accounts of creation. These two accounts exemplify two unique questions that the Hebrew people sought an answer to; why did they exist and why was there death and suffering? Although both myths are classified as stories of creation, the two narratives target different aspects of the beginning of Earth, the heavens, and mankind. There are several aspects of these myths that highlight their differences. First, the first account (Gn 1:1-2:4a) of creation focused the creation of physical and godly things, including humans. Although the second account of creation (Gn 2:4b-4:26) began with God’s creation of the Earth and heavens, it does not give an explanation from where they came. Second, the second account of creation provided a different explanation for the gender roles of the contemporary Hebrew culture, with its account for the creation of Eve, an aspect that is contrary to the creation of man and woman in the first creation myth. Lastly, the aspect of gaining of wisdom and its cost, which acts as the crux of the second account. In the first account of creation, the story explained God’s process of creation. Within this myth all things are created, humanity included. When compared to the second account, it becomes clear the focus on of the first account is placed on the explanation of existence, not the process in which humanity developed. It is stated that God creates man and woman on the sixth day, but the man and the woman have no development as characters. They, like the other things created during the sixth day had no depth outside of existence. Although this gives reason as to why mankind exists, the first creation story does not explain anything beyond the beginning of existence. In the second account of creation, the narrative remained almost solely on the creation of man and woman, and their loss of innocence. When the second story began it recounted the creation of the Earth and heavens, along with the garden God planted in Eden where God places man. The account differed from its counterpart (Gn 1:1-2:4a) with the account of the creation of the …show more content…
If the book of Genesis could proceed from the end of the first creation story to the time after the murders of Cain and Abel, or even before the murders of Cain and Abel, Genesis would be unable to answer the other aspects of human existence. Although the story of Cain and Abel may have given some causation to the suffering of mankind, it does not explain the aspects of death, the suffering and inequality of women, or need to cultivate food. For these questions to be answered a story such as the tale of the Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden had to occur after the creation of the world, but before the beginning of civilization. In comparison the two myths may appear to answer similar questions, however, both were needed to answer the great unknown questions that Hebrews faced, where did we come from and why must we suffer? Although both myths of creation contain elements of both answers, neither myth alone accounts for both aspects, therefore both were necessary in order to complete the story of