Skeptics view of Genesis

[Tonus]

They 'seem incompatible' because you are not allowing for traditional Hebrew writing/accounting style. We in modern times in the west document everything chronologically. In ancient Hebrew culture the way one accounted an event was to first give an overview highlighting all of the major points and then come back and fill in the details.

-or- is it your belief that the guy who wrote genesis 1 forgot what he wrote in genesis 1 when he started on genesis 2?

It seems more likely that it was two different stories written by two different people about two very different gods. Genesis 1 features a less anthropomorphic and much more mystical god, who creates by simply voicing his desires. He creates man and woman together, then tells them "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food."

Genesis 2's creation account seems edited somewhat, perhaps to remove the parts that are an obvious contradiction to the first account. But the god of Genesis 2 is much more human in his actions and there are distinct geographical details that border on pedantry. In any case, this god creates man first, and woman only when he feels that man needs a companion. Thus, it is only to man that god says "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die."

The god of Genesis 1 creates Earth as some kind of grand work of art, and man is his greatest creation, made in his own image. He creates man and woman, and offers them Earth as a gift, theirs to fill with offspring and enjoy as their home, where they eat from its fruit and rule over its creatures.

The god of Genesis 2 creates a garden for mankind, and places the first human in it, and immediately gives him a restrictive rule. Later he creates a woman and gives her to the man. Genesis 2 ends with the strange comment that the two were naked and unashamed by this, which makes you wonder what cultural norms existed at the time that it was written, or if we are dealing with a fairly poor writer who thought it necessary to explain why people wear clothes.

Then he starts on the text we find in Genesis 3, where you get the impression that he took an extra hit from his crack pipe before he began to write.