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Genesis begins with not one, but two creation stories, with substantial differences. They were later placed side by side by an editor.
The first big hint is the way that the two writers refer differently to the deity. In the first story, the deity is called "God", and creates the world in six days. Among other things, plants are made before humans. In the second story, the deity is called "Yahweh God," and creates humans before plants.
The first, called the Priestly[1] account, consists of what is now Genesis 1:1-2:3.[2] It is the better-known of the two stories, following a six-day scheme in which the order of creation is light, sky, land and plants, heavenly bodies, water creatures, land animals and birds, and finally human beings.
The second creation story, the Yahwist account, is less well-known, and has a man created first, followed by plants, animals, and finally a woman. It makes up the rest of Genesis 2.
To be understood, each story much be read on its own terms, without distorting one story to fit the timeline of the other.
As with other pages migrated from biblicalambiguities.net, this page may contain material paraphrased or even outright copied without direct attribution from the KJV, RV, ASV, JPS (1917), WEB, NHEB, Kittel's BH, the pre-1923 volumes of the ICC series, or the commentaries on Genesis of Dillmann, Skinner, and Driver. More details on this policy can be found here: biblicalambiguities-general-disclaimer and biblicalambiguities-translation-disclaimer.