PARALLELISM IN THE 'GENESIS' CREATION ACCOUNT

Even a cursory reading of the Old Testament will reveal the use of parallelism: saying the same thing in two different ways.  It happens all the time in Isaiah: 

            Never again shall she (Babylon) be inhabited,

            No man shall dwell in her through all the ages;

            There no Arab shall pitch his tent,
            No shepherds fold their flocks.

A similar sort of process is evident in the opening chapters of Genesis: it has often been commented on that Days 1 and 4, 2 and 5, 3 and 6 are in tandem with one another.

     Day One is concerned with darkness, and the creation of light.  Day Four focuses on that in more detail: the creation of the Sun, Moon and stars.   Follow a strict chronological pattern, and there is a real problem how light can be created before the Sun.

    On  Day Two, God separates the waters above from the waters below and creates the sky and the oceans.  In Day Five, He populates the sky with flying creatures and the waters with swimming creatures.

     On Day Three, God separates land from sea, so that plants may appear.  Day Six again fleshes out the detail with the creation of animals and the human race.

     Parallelism accounts for the so-called two creation accounts.  The first focuses on the creation of humanity in relation to other creatures; the second homes in on the special relationship with God. 

I personally refuse to be drawn on six literal days versus six God-length days versus six geological eras.  I do not believe chronology was the authors’ (both human and divine) intention.

     I believe that the author’s (human author, now) intention under divine influence was to stress that one God made the world: not chance, not a multiplicity of gods.  God made the world out of nothing: not, as in other creation accounts, out of pre-existing matter; or the corpses of other gods killed in a cosmic war.

     I believe that the author wished to convey that an originally-good creation has been spoiled: that Nature and human nature alike are not as they were intended.  The natural divine-human relationship has been severed; leaving the necessity of repair.

     I do not believe that the Bible contains everything we need to know for life on this Earth, but I do believe that it contains everything that we need to know for our salvation.  And, in that respect, the opening of Genesis leads the way.