Similarities Between Genesis And The Yahwist

American author Sidney Sheldon once said that “A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it is to be God.” (Good reads 2017). In the Bible, there are two distinctive creation stories. The first one in Genesis chapter one which is commonly known as the catholic or Priestly story of creation whereas in chapter two of Genesis the Yahwist or Jewish creation story. Along withstanding similarity between Christianity and Judaism has always been apparent upon both being legitimised religions. They both use similar texts as the foundation of their religion and share prophets. However, like some of the obvious differences in these religions; such as the different distinct gender roles in both establishments, there are also unmistakable

They both share similar themes of creation in general and both include the creation of man, women and the earth as a whole. In the priestly version, there is an emphasis on the importance of the creation of the whole world, this is where we get the story of the seven days of creation, where God simply speaks and it is made real. For example “3Then God said let there be light 4God saw that the light was good. Then God separated the light from the darkness.” (Genesis 1:3-4). God in this passage performs the creation of night and day simply by using his words. This is different from the Yahwist story because God physically is creating man out of the mud, in a sense He is literally getting his hands dirty on earth. This is seen in Genesis Chapter 2 saying “ 7Then the LORD God formed the man out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life.” (Genesis 2:7). Also in the Yahwist version, there is a sense of the close proximity of God to mankind, He shows the man the four rivers and the garden of Eden juxtaposed to the Priestly version where God seems distant, up above the heavens and simply forming the world and mankind with his words

An example of this is when God attempts to create a companion for man and man rejects almost all of God’s creatures as a suitable companion: “18So the LORD God said: it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suited to him. 19So the LORD God formed out of the ground all of the wild animals and al of the birds of the air and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.” (Genesis 2: 18-19) Here we see that God in some aspect is giving up control of creation and placing it upon the man, giving him the choice of what to call each animal instead of God taking control like in the previous chapter of Genesis where God and only God creates the animals, woman and everything else with no suggestions made. Thus the perspectives in both versions differ greatly from an omniscient point of view in the priestly version to a “Down and Dirty” interactive perspective in the Yahwist creation story. The creation of humankind differs greatly in both versions of creation. In the Priestly version, both man and woman are created simultaneously. God says from his omniscient perspective “Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness, let them gave dominion…”(Genesis 1:26). This quote gives the reader an