Let’s begin this series of Bible contradictions and errors by looking at some of the scientific anomalies the Bible is supposed to have. I think you’ll find most of these are simply taken too seriously, and there may be no true “answers” for others of them, but still fun to go through. As I said in my introduction, when man touches something, he can slip up because man is flawed. Even so, God made sure His Truth, those aspects of it that we need to know, are never fouled by us. I will add, these “slip-ups” are very few in the Bible.
In this series, the Q portion is the conflict, errors, or contradictions as posted online when I was looking for them. I tried to keep it as close to the original as I could, with my insertions noted in brackets or ellipses for sake of brevity. Then M, my answer, will follow, be it suggestion, finding, or understanding. And because the answers to many of these are short, I will give several of them in each post, though I think this one will be rather lengthy.
In keeping with my original divisions, I will use these headings: Old Testament, God, New Testament, and Jesus. As with the contradictions, each of these categories will have several articles, as there are too many resolutions to include in one. So, let’s begin at the beginning.
Creation Conflicts
Q: 1) Genesis has two conflicting accounts of the creation. Genesis 1:1-31; 2:1-3 is the first source, and Genesis 2:4 begins the second source. 2) There are two conflicting genealogies for Adam. In Genesis 4:1-26, Cain and Abel are said to be the first sons of Adam. But in the second source, Genesis 5:1-32, Seth is said to be the first son of Adam, Cain and Abel are not even mentioned! [Remember the Q is quoted from the online source, not my words, unless bracketed like this.]
M: 1) This has been discussed throughout time with various answers offered. I think the simplest explanation is the correct one: the first chapter of Genesis is simply an overview of Creation, whereas, the second chapter is the more object- and time-specific explanation. Like in storytelling, you give a quick overview of a person's character before you go onto the next person, then later in the story, you can give a better low-down of the first person. As to the details, I will dive into those with the next section.
2) There is no conflict in the genealogies of Genesis 4 and 5; Genesis 5 simply draws a line of genealogy down through Seth, the progenitor of the Israelites. This is a very common sample of direct genealogies, which are also known as pedigrees. Chapter 4 gives his older brothers’ names and even a small genealogy of Cain’s descendants. These lineages have been done throughout the ages and across the world. Nowhere is there a claim in chapter 5 that Seth is the first son of Adam, or that Cain and Abel were never born.
Q: Gen 1:11-12, 26-27 Trees were created before man was created.
Gen 2:4-9 Man was created before trees were created.
Gen 1:20-21, 26-27 Birds were created before man was created.
Gen 2:7, 19 Man was created before birds were created.
Gen 1:24-27 Animals were created before man was created.
Gen 2:7, 19 Man was created before animals were created.
Gen 1:26-27 Man and woman were created at the same time.
Gen 2:7, 21-22 Man was created first, woman sometime later.
M: This answers the question of what came first-the chicken or the egg? The egg, of course! Well, at least, the seeds came before the plants. In verse 11, God said let the land produce or “sprout” vegetation; so it might seem in Genesis 2:4-7 that God created man before the earth had any mature flora. Let’s dig a little deeper here before we settle on this.
As I mentioned above, I do believe the first chapter is an overview, not time sensitive as in a step by step narrative. The “day and night” given in the first chapter, to me, means God’s time, not ours. This is confirmed when Peter said in 2 Peter 3:8 NIV, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends, with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”
Consider this: since time is irrelevant to God, a “day” can be a million years or more, right? This is why I believe the first chapter is in God’s time, “day and night” are naturally a subdivision for Him, not an actual time slot, and therefore not opposed to science.
In studying verses 11-12, we’ll see the rotation of the earth had not settled down enough to even constitute our understanding of a “day,” as stipulated by “setting” of the sun and moon in their places the following “day.” My thoughts on “set” are that He set the tilt of the earth so life could abound. We know, therefore, that plants could not have grown very well before the stabilization of the sun. (Though we really don’t know what kinds of plants there were at this time.) So, did I come across a scientific inaccuracy while studying this? The land producing and God seeing it was good? No, I don’t believe so. The next few paragraphs will explain why not.
For those wanting the technical explanation, the verb “produced” from v. 12 is in the “waw consecutive hiphil imperfect” tense. Hiphil means the verb is caused to happen by the subject. The waw consecutive simply means it came next in sequence, no time frame to be understood.The imperfect tense usually indicates an ongoing, incomplete, or even part of an event.1
Therefore, the production of the flora was an incomplete, ongoing event, as it continues to be to this day. The verb “saw” is also in the imperfect tense which can also refer to a future event. When the Hebrews used the imperfect, they were not concerned with whether the event had occurred or not, just that it did or would happen.2 Understanding this, verse 12 intimated God saw how the earth was going to be covered in flora, and He saw it was good. At least, that’s how I read it.
Meshing all this together indicates that there was no exactness of time given for the whole of the first chapter of Genesis (and know that the applicable verbs for this study are all in the imperfect tense); however, the chronological order of creation is laid out for us as shown by the waw consecutive tense of the verbs. In other words, the first chapter is a summary of the order of creation, not the timing of it.
Hence, the reading of verses 11-12 show only that God instructed the earth to cause the flora to grow and to continue this in the future; God saw that the earth was to do this well, and then He moved on to the next step of His creation. Now hold this thought as I connect the birds and animals.
Here I can do all the fauna together. In reading Genesis 2:4-7, you can see that there is no reference to the animals having not been created. For this reason, we can assume they were in existence at the time of Adam’s creation, having been told this fact in the first chapter. You’ll see throughout this entire study that skeptics use omission as contradiction. This shows me that they are reaching for straws in order to bolster their claims.
For the technically curious (everybody else skip this paragraph)-in v19, we’re back to the verb “had formed” with the tense of the waw consecutive imperfect, giving no set time for the creation of the animals. It really makes sense that when taken in reference to the first chapter, God had already formed the critters, and then afterwards, “caused them to be brought at some time” (using the waw hiphil consecutive imperfect tense of the verb “brought”) to Adam.
Simply put, Genesis 2:19 says that God had created the animals and “then, some time later,” had them brought before Adam. There was no mention of when Adam had been created here, just that this was after Adam had entered the Garden of Eden.
Eve. Yes, the mother of all mankind. Despite what some have tried saying in the past, she was the woman created on the “sixth day.” As I previously remarked, there is no “time” in God’s dimension, if I may. Therefore, one should realize that the sixth day consisted of creating land animals, creating Adam, him meeting the animals, and then Eve being created herself. It was after this God rested. Whew! That was one busy day.
To recap, the simplest probable answer to that which I have expounded on here-Genesis 1 is an overview, Genesis 2 gives more detail. In the second chapter, verse 4-5 stated when God created the earth and the heavens, the plants had not yet sprouted as there had been no rain, and man was not there. Verse 6 shows how God used mists to water the whole face of the earth, and we can assume the plants sprouted, fruited, and reseeded many times in this passage. Verse 7 shows He then formed, some time after this misting, (waw consecutive imperfect) Adam from the dirt. Plants, birds, animals, man. What's so hard about that? What's contradictory? Yes, the writing can be sticky, but what fun it is to exercise our brains!
But, I do have a brain-tickler for you. In Genesis 1:11-12, God instructed the earth to cause the flora to be produced. This one is not bad, soil is necessary for most seeds in order to sprout. However, consider the same verb and tense in verse 20 when God instructed the earth to bring forth the land creatures, “and it was so.” In verse 25, God then made the wild animals according to their kind. Happy musings! (But do remember, everything was created through Jesus.)
©2024 Kelly L. Hartley
Kelly L. Hartley, a new author, writes Bible studies, devotions, fiction, and poems. She focuses on Bible contradictions for her “Spare Time Musings” on Substack. She’s a member of Ozark Chapter of American Christian Writers and Springfield Writer’s Guild. Social media: Substack, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.
http://www.kukis.org/Languages/Hebrew4Dummies.pdf
Ibid.