Two Accounts of Creation: Bereshit 1–2/2/en

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Two Accounts of Creation

Exegetical Approaches

Literary Device

The repetition of the creation story with its varying details is a literary device in which an author first presents a general overview and then proceeds to speak in more detail about important individual components.

Creation of Man and Women  - together or separate?
Man in the image of God or from earth
Commands to Man: to conquer or to guard??
Creation via speech?
Order of Creation
Names of Hashem
Verbs Used (עשה/ברא versus יצר)

Two Facets of Creation

The two chapters describe different aspects of the same creation.  Chapter 1 focuses on man in his creative capacity and his search for control over his environment while Chapter 2 describes the submissive man of faith and his search for redemption. As each prototype approaches his surroundings differently, the description of the creation of each and his world differs, but in reality both are fundamentally part of all creation.

Structural unit – This approach views chapters one and two as one unit.
Creation of Man and Women  - together or separate?
Man in the image of God or from earth
Commands to Man: to conquer or to guard??
Order of Creation
Names of Hashem
Verbs Used (עשה/ברא versus יצר)

Distinct Events

While Chapter 1 describes the creation of the world and the human species as a whole, Chapter 2 speaks of the creation of Gan Eden and a particular individual, Adam.

Sources:David Nissani
Creation of Man and Women  - together or separate? In Chapter 1
Man in the image of God or from earth
Commands to Man: to conquer or to guard??
Creation via speech?
Order of Creation
Names of Hashem
Verbs Used (עשה/ברא versus יצר)