By Hank Hanegraaff
Skeptics dismiss the Bible from its very genesis. According to the Skeptics Annotated Bible, “In the first creation story, humans are created after the other animals. In the second story, humans are created before the other animals.” Is this an indisputable contradiction or an indication of cynical bias?
First, what is often lost on skeptics is the genius of Genesis. For example, Genesis opens with a literary mnemonic by which we are daily reminded of God’s creative prowess. The first six days outline a hierarchy of creation that culminates in humanity, its crowning jewel. As such, the history of creation is remembered and recalled through its association with a continuous seven-day cycle of life. Moreover, the account of the seven-day creation is a sevenfold pattern that contains a three-way parallel structure: day 1 light, day 4 luminaries; day 2 sky and sea, day 5 sky and sea creatures; day 3 land, day 6 land creatures. Rather than mining Genesis for all its wealth, fundamentalist fervor seems bent on forcing the language into a literalistic labyrinth from which nothing but nonsense can emerge.
Furthermore, even a cursory reading of Genesis 1 and 2 should be enough to discern that Moses had a different purpose in one than in the other. In the so-called first creation story, Moses presented a hierarchy of creation. In the “second story,” he focused on the crowning jewels of God’s creation who are designed to be in right relationship with both creation and Creator. With inspired brilliance, Moses interlaced his historical narrative with symbolism and repetitive poetic structure. He employed the powerful elements of story (characters, plot, tension, resolution) to set the foundation for the rest of redemptive revelation. The rest of Genesis is structured in such a way that it may be remembered using our ten fingers. With the fingers of one hand, we recall primeval history (Creation, Adam, Noah, Noah’s sons, and Shem, father of the ancient Near East). With the other hand, we remember the patriarchs (Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Esau, and Jacob, who is called Israel).
Finally, just as when a theoretical physicist attempts to explain the nature of matter to a child, biblical language involves heavenly condescension. A skeptic reading Scripture might well suppose that the earth is stationary on the basis of Psalm 93:1—“the world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.” Clearly, however, this is not the intent of the passage. A quick look at context reveals the deeper meaning: the kingdom of the “Lord [who] is robed in majesty” (hardly a comment on His clothing, v. 1) cannot be shaken by the pseudo-powers on earth. The point is that, apart from a basic understanding of hermeneutics (interpretation), we have little hope of making sense of Scripture or for that matter literature in general.
In part adapted from The Creation Answer Book
This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist went up 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 being.
Genesis 2:4–7 NKJV
For further study, see Hank Hanegraaff, The Creation Answer Book (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2012).
***Note the preceding text is adapted from The Complete Bible Answer Book: Collector’s Edition: Revised and Expanded (2024). To receive for your partnering gift please click here. ***
