Genesis 2:4-7

⁴  This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
⁵  before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground;

⁶  but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.

⁷  And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Hello, everyone.  Sorry it has been so long since my last entry.  Since then, I've finished with the Gospel of Luke for now and have turned my attention to the Hebrew Scriptures.  I was reading the passage in Genesis 2 that was often described to me as a second account of creation; one that contradicted parts of Genesis 1.  For instance, plant life comes upon the scene on the third day (Genesis 1:12-13).  Adam and Eve do not show up until the sixth day (Genesis 1:26-31). 

One interesting explanation for the apparent contradiction comes from a couple of Nineteenth Century German theologians (Keil & Delitzsch) who offer this interpretation.

As they see it "the field" (in Genesis 2:5) does not refer to the whole earth, but a specific plot of ground that the Lord chose as the site of His most important creative act, that of the human race.  This is not a competitive, differing account of the creation of earth with a contradiction regarding plant life, but the creation of the Garden of Eden, the field in which the first man and woman shall live.  In doing so God set aside humanity from the rest of creation by preparing a special place for them first.  It kind of adds a new twist to the promise of our Lord Jesus to "prepare a place for us" in John 14:3. 

Have a good day.  I'll try to write again soon.