"God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day."(Genesis 1:31) " but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”(Genesis 2:17)
One of my all time favorite memories of church as a child was hearing the first creation story read at the Easter Vigil. It was always read by a man named Jack Potts, however on radio he was Jack Allen of a local NYC radio news station. While he may always have spoken this way, I will say that he used his "radio voice" while reading that passage.
Like most folks I did not at first understand that there are two creation stories in the Bible, each with a different theology. The 7 day creation story is the first and I love how each day ends with God seeing that it was good and on the 6th day "very good." A very different way of looking at our world, one which is good. Funny enough, humans are the last thing created in the image of God, male and female. The second story is very different, in it humans are first, and in fact the male version is first, and God seems to need keep creating to keep that creature happy. And eventually we get to rules and consequences of breaking those rules.
Knowing that they are two different stories is helpful, but I have to understand that they are both trying to help me understand life and the world around me.
If I am to take a Genesis 1, viewpoint, I would see value and beauty in everything that surrounds me, and see all humans as equal image bearers. And that I've been put in something that already exists and will sustain me when I respect it. A Genesis 2 viewpoint, seems to me to put humans, me included first. Creation is there to serve me, including that woman. The only thing that kept them from coming unglued was ignorance of right and wrong. But we know that we aren't ignorant of right and wrong, but that knowledge is in fact deadly. All the temptations, the lack of seeing things as good, is a slow painful death.
Yet at the same time to walk around in blissful ignorance would not help us to live into that calling to be image bearers of God.
And that is why, as much as I may prefer Genesis 1's version, I also need Genesis 2.
Blessings,
Ed
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