It must not be forgotten that there are two accounts of the creation
in Genesis. The first account stops with the third verse of the second
chapter. The chapters have been improperly divided. In the original
Hebrew the Pentateuch was neither divided into chapters nor verses.
There was not even any system of punctuation. It was written wholly with
consonants, without vowels, and without any marks, dots, or lines to
indicate them.
These accounts are materially different, and both cannot be true. Let us
see wherein they differ.
The second account of the creation begins with the fourth verse of the
second chapter, and is as follows:
"These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they
were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the
heavens.
"And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb
of the field before it grew; for the Lord God had not caused it to rain
upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
"But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of
the ground.
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
"And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put
the man whom he had formed.
"And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is
pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the
midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
"And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it
was parted and became into four heads.
"The name of the first is Pison; that is it which compasseth the whole
land of Havilah, where there is gold.
"And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx
stone.
"And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that
compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
"And the name of the third river is Hiddekel; that is it which goeth
toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
"And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to
dress it and to keep it.
"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden
thou mayest freely eat; But of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof
thou shalt surely die.
"And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I
will make him an helpmeet for him.
"And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and
every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would
call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was
the name thereof.
"And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to
every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a helpmeet
for him.
"And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept;
and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
"And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman and
brought her unto the man.
"And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she
shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man.
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave
unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.
"And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed."
Order of creation in the first account: