Rhetoric & Stereotypes

Running Head : BIBICAL ACCOUNTS ON CREATION

Rhetoric and Stereotypes

The Book of Genesis ' Two Accounts on Creation

The Book of Genesis ' Two Accounts on Creation

This attempts to the successfully present the pertinent issues surrounding the Creation narrative accounts found in the book of Genesis . In a special manner , what this hopes to moreover juxtapose two academic viewpoints to help explicate what Walter Brueggemann refers to as the shrewd combination of two differing traditions in the same canon (1982 ,

. 15 . The aim of presenting these academic viewpoints is to

primarily provide reasons which can lend support to the central thesis of this . At the end of the discussion , this hopes to have adequately addressed and argued that , an inquiry into the two Creation narrative texts , using the exegetical methodologies of historical and literary criticisms , can enable readers to better appreciate the complementary nature of both texts in question

Nature and Different Aspects of the Two Biblical Accounts on Creation

Essential Difference in Textual Structures

As previously mentioned , there exist in the Bible two distinct Creation narratives placed almost side by side . The first account runs from the commencing lines of the book itself - specifically , Genesis 1 :1 - up until the first few lines of the second chapter 2 :3 to be exact . The second account meanwhile picks up from where the first account left - Genesis 2 :4 - and ends with verse 25 . The contents of both narratives are unmistakably dissimilar yet they have both achieved a relative success in terms of creating stereotypes about Creation stories not only for Christians and Jews , but also for the larger world as well

The first account of Creation came to be popularly known as the seven-day creation story or stereotype . The general tone of this creation account is largely based on a principle marked by progression (or evolution , if said in other words . It depicts God as , first , the sole source agent of all creativity , and second , as someone who - in concretely expressing such divine power - devotes six days to create the world in a manner , as previously mentioned , being progressive . It is an account which portrays chaos as the primordial defining reality for the universe but in the process replaces such nebulousness with concrete expressions of as ordained by God . According to the story , God started creating the world by firstly engendering light (Gen . 1 :3 and thereafter separating darkness from light . By the second day , God is said to put between the sky and the seas (Gen . 1 :6-8 . The third day was meanwhile devoted to separate the seas and dry lands and therein , to create every fruit-bearing trees and lush vegetation there exist (Gen . 1 :9-13 . Thereafter , God separated day from night and in principle , created the concept of time which mark (s ) the days and the years (Gen . 1 :14-19 . The fifth day was God 's time to create all the creatures of this planet (Gen . 1 :20-23 . And by the sixth...