Holier Than Thou - Biblical Contradictions

Did God create man before or after plants?

Genesis 1:11-13, "Then God said, 'Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.' And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning - the third day."

Genesis 2:4-7, "When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens - and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground - the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being."

According to the first chapter of Genesis, plants and trees sprang up on the third day, before man, who was created on the sixth. However, according to the second chapter of Genesis, it seems that plants may not have appeared until after man was created. Genesis 2:8-15 reveals a garden that was created for the man to inhabit and tend, which was full of plants and trees and watered by a river. This might indicate that just part of the earth was covered with vegetation, particularly in and around the garden of Eden, but Genesis 1:29 has God presenting to Adam and Eve every seed-bearing plant and tree over the whole face of the earth. The real issue, then, seems to be the wording of Genesis 2:5. Most translations (e.g., NIV, NKJV, NASB, ASV, Amplified) render this passage as no vegetation was growing because there was no rain and no one to till the ground. (KJV and Darby both render this passage as there already was vegetation.) The vegetation in this verse consists of both the plants and shrubs of the field, which might imply farming or a system of agriculture. Genesis 2:6 then goes on to say that a mist came up from the ground and watered the earth. Both the rivers and the water vapor (possibly from underground rivers) were the source of water for vegetation. Some historians and scholars believe that rain didn't appear until after the flood, when the canopy of water above the sky fell to earth (Genesis 1:6-8, 7:11-12). Noah was the first to plant a vineyard (Genesis 9:20), which was not until after the flood. The term "harvest" also does not appear until after the flood (Genesis 8:22). So, then, it's possible that Genesis 2:5 is referring to the beginning of time -- before the flood, which wiped out the original way of life on earth.

It is apparent to most that the first and second chapters of Genesis are slightly different accounts of the same events -- the creation of the heavens and the earth and all living things. (Some also debate that they were written by different authors.) Regardless, the second chapter expounds on the first, with a focus on Adam and Eve, and the next three chapters chronicle the fall and decline of mankind. Starting with the sixth chapter, God wipes out everything and starts over with one man and his immediate family. From then on, the remainder of Genesis is an account of the origins of God's chosen people and the tribes of Israel. The first chapter of Genesis is a prologue: the very beginning of everything. The second chapter then begins the history of God's most treasured creation: mankind. In this sense, the second chapter could take into account the first and second beginnings of mankind, contrasting the two with the way things were the first time around and comparing them with the second -- no rain, no farmlands. Although Cain may have been the first farmer outside the garden, he was cursed from the land never to grow anything (Genesis 4:11-12). Nothing more is mentioned of farming again until Genesis 5:29, about nine generations and a millennium later, when Lamech names his son Noah and says, "He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed."

Therefore, God created plants before man. The problem lies with Genesis 2:5, which may be a slight misunderstanding or misconstruction due to translation. Is this explanation a little over-thought? Maybe, but it seems logical. Especially given that Genesis was written in a different language, culture, and style of narrative.