What is the second creation story?

Answer 1

The second creation story in the Bible starts at Genesis 2:4b (the second sentence in verse 2:4) and continues through verse 2:20. Scholars recognise it as having been written by the early, anonymous source now known as the Yahwist, because of its style, use of a moderately archaic Hebrew language and use of the word Yahweh (YHWH) for his God. In comparison, the first creation story (Genesis 1:1-2:4a), written by the Priestly Source, is actually much later in Hebrew lore, but was probably placed at the beginning to avoid separating the second creation story from what followed. And no doubt the Priestly Source encountered popular resistance to simply replacing the original story, and had to keep it as well as adding his own version.

As Leon R. Kass (The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis) says, pious readers, believing that the text cannot contain contradictions, ignore the major disjunctions between the two creation stories and tend to treat the second story as the fuller, more detailed account of the creation of man (and woman) that the first story simply reported. He cautions us to scrupulously avoid reading into the second story any facts or notions taken from the first, and vice versa. Thus, in reading about the origin of man in the story of the Garden of Eden, we must not say or even think that man is here created in God's image or that man is to be the ruler over the animals.

In the second creation story, the dry earth is pre-existing, but no plants grow because God has not yet made it rain. A mist arose and watered the earth, then God created Adam out of clay. It was only after he planted the Garden of Eden and created all living creatures that he created a woman, Eve, by taking a rib of Adam. Compare this to the first creation story, in which God created both man and woman after he had created all other living creatures, simply by speaking them into existence.

For more information, please visit: http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-story-of-creation

Answer 2

The second creation story in The Bible is found in the book of Genesis, specifically in Genesis 2:4-25. In this account, God creates Adam from the dust of the ground, places him in the Garden of Eden, and later creates Eve from Adam's rib. This story provides a different perspective on the creation of humanity compared to the first creation story in Genesis 1.

Answer 3

According to modern academic interpretation, the "second" creation-narrative is the portion starting at Genesis 2:4. Itmust be noted, however, that according to tradition, there is only one Genesis creation-narrative, with ch.2 serving as an expansion of the brevity of ch.1, not a separate set of events (Rashi commentary, Gen.2:8).The same literary devices which the Torah employs to enrich its text, have been seized upon by "Bible-critics" in their ongoing attempts to undermine it. The Jewish sages, based on ancient tradition, identified many of these devices, which include:

recapping earlier brief passages to elucidate,

employing different names of God to signify His various attributes,

using apparent changes or redundancies to allude to additional unstated details,

speaking in the vernacular that was current during each era,

and many more. While Judaism has always seen the Torah as an intricate tapestry that nonetheless had one Divine source (Exodus 24:12), others such as Wellhausen (the father of modern Biblical-criticism, 1844-1918) attempted to artificially turn the Torah's text into its own undoing. This need not concern believers, since his claims have been debunked one by one, as Archaeology and other disciplines have demonstrated the integrity of the Torah. No fragments have ever been found that would support his Documentary Hypothesis, which remains nothing more than an arbitrary claim, whose falsehood has been pointed out:

http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=6&article=1131(a Christian author)

http://www.whoreallywrotethebible.com/excerpts/chapter4-1.php

http://www.pearlmancta.com/BiblicalcriticswrongRShlomoCohen.htm

And see also the wider picture:

http://judaism.answers.com/hebrew/does-archaeology-support-the-hebrew-bible