Genesis 1: Schematic?

Jim,You challenged that those who believe the Bible to be without error should take care to read it carefully for themselves, and I have done just that. I recently posted some of the findings of this study in another forum, and I would like to present it here as an explanation of the supposed contradiction between the first two chapters of the Bible. It reads as follows:
___________________________Most biblical passages are arranged in an order conducive to oral teaching. This arrangement is easily seen in such passages as Psalm 119, Proverbs 31, and Ecclesiastes 3; but it is present to some degree or another throughout every book of the Bible. Many of the narrative passages of the Bible are laid out in an arrangement very common to public speaking. For each main topic, the Bible presents an introduction followed by the major subject matter of the topic and concluded with a recap of the current subject and a transition into the next topic.An example of this can be seen in the first fifteen chapters of the book of Exodus. These chapters can be broken down into four main topics: the birth of Moses, the calling of Moses, the deliverance of Israel, and the crossing of the Red Sea. The following outline diagrams the arrangement of these topics in an order conducive to oral presentation.I. The Birth of Moses — Exodus 1:7-2:25

II. The Calling of Moses — Exodus 3:1-7:7

III. The Deliverance of Israel — Exodus 6:28-12:51

IV. Crossing the Red Sea — Exodus 13:1-15:22

Now the book of Genesis also has a particular arrangement of content. It is not simply a conglomeration of multiple stories; it can be read as a single, seamless document in which each part is connected to the whole through a series of chronological links. In other words, each section of the book of Genesis is connected to the other sections through the generations presented at the conclusion of each portion. Thus the book can be broken down into five different generations: the generations of the heavens and the earth, the generations of Adam, the generations of Noah, the generations of Jacob, and the generations of the sons of Jacob. The following outline presents the arrangement of these generations within the book of Genesis.I. The Generations of the Heavens and the Earth — Genesis 1:1-2:25

II. The Generations of Adam — Genesis 3:1-5:32

III. The Generations of Noah — Genesis 6:1-10:32

IV. The Generations of Jacob — Genesis 11:1-37:2a

V. The Generations of the Sons of Jacob

If we were to look at these passages in more detail, we would discover that they all follow the same pattern found in the first two chapters. Genesis 1:1-2:3 presents the major content of the creation account, and the remainder of chapter two presents a review of that account and a transition into the setting for chapter three.Now, there appears to be some controversy over whether chapter two is a separate and thus contradictory creation account; however, if we do a thorough study of this chapter we will find that it is indeed a conclusion to the account of chapter one.Most of the arguments for two creation accounts begin with verses 7-9. It is argued that these verses have man created before the creation of plants which of course would be a contradiction with the order given in chapter one. A closer examination, however, will reveal that this is not the case. Verse seven does speak of the creation of man, and verse eight does say that God planted a garden, and verse nine does say that God made trees, but this is not all that is said in these verses. These verses do not state that God created man before He created plants. It simply states that God after God created man, He formed a garden for the man to dwell in and caused all the trees that could be eaten from to grow in that garden. These verses are part of a transition from chapter one in which God created man to chapter three which takes place within the garden.Likewise, verses eighteen through twenty are often incorrectly interpreted as stating that man was created before any of the animals. However, simple logic will reveal that this is not a necessary interpretation. The passage does not state that God created all of the animals after He created man. Instead, it states that He formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air for the express purpose of finding a helper suitable for man. (On a side note, the word made in Genesis 1:25 and the word formed in Genesis 2:19 are translated from two different Hebrew words.) Now if God had created all of the animals on earth before creating man, and if those animals had differing habitat requirements, then it makes sense that He would have created them each within its natural habitat. Thus the animals would not have been created all in one location but would have been created all across the globe. Such a widespread creation would require days of travel for all of these animals to come before Adam in Genesis 2:19. But what if after creating man the Lord formed one of each animal within the garden of Eden and brought each of those animals before man. This would not contradict chapter one, nor does it strain in any way the text of chapter two. It does, however, focus on the creation of Eve who is one of the three central figures in chapter three. In other words, this passage of chapter two is part of a transition from chapter one in which God created both man and woman to chapter three in which the woman is a central figure.Therefore, if we view the first two chapters of Genesis as parts of a cohesive whole, we find that they fit the pattern of presentation found in other passages in which each passage begins with an introduction followed by the major subject matter of the topic and concludes with a recap of the current subject and a transition into the next topic.

Doctorbill,Here are the verses in question. The phrase "and every plant of the field before it was in the earth" is simply a statement that God created every plant "from scratch" rather than from other plants. There is no indication within these verses that man was created before God had created plants.