Last week I took issue with an argument made by
the higher critics that Genesis 2 teaches that
animals were created after mankind rather than on the fifth and earlier part of
the sixth days, as described in chapter 1.
Their argument, if you recall, is based on a
straightforward linear reading of chapter 2. The creation of man is
described in verse 7, they say, followed by the creation of beasts, birds
and livestock in verse 19, then the creation of woman in verse 22.
That “contradicts” the order given us in chapter 1.
My response was that the narrative is not
linear, and that all the events of chapter 2 are not given to us in
consecutive order. There is no reason they should be.
