For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: When was Eve created?
Here are the answers which the skeptic believes indicate a Bible contradiction:
At the same time as Adam.
“So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:27)
After Adam and all the animals were created.
“The man gave names to all the livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 22 And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.” (Genesis 2:20-22)
(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)
Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:
- When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction. A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time. To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.
- One should be skeptical of whether this is a Bible contradiction given the Skeptic Annotated Bible’s track record of inaccurately handling the Bible. See the many examples of their error which we have responded to in this post: Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions. Of course that does not take away the need to respond to this claim of a contradiction, which is what the remainder of this post will do. But this observation should caution us to slow down and look more closely at the passages cited by the Skeptic Annotated Bible to see if they interpreted the passages properly to support their conclusion that it is a Bible contradiction.
- The skeptic tries to pit Genesis 1:27 as affirming the claim “Eve was created at the same time as Adam” against Genesis 2:20-22 as affirming “Eve was created after Adam and all the animals were created.”
- The skeptics rightly cited Genesis 2:20-22 as affirming “Eve was created after Adam and all the animals were created.”
- Notice in verse 20-21 Adam already existed. Verse 20 it mentioned there was not a suitable helper. Then in verse 21-22 Eve was created from Adam’s ribs.
- 1 Timothy 2:13 confirms this when it states “For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.”
- The skeptic misinterpreted Genesis 1:27 as affirming the claim “Eve was created at the same time as Adam.”
- I have written recently about the Ignorance of the Biblical Language and the Skeptic Annotated Bible. I think this is another example of that.
- In the Hebrew I don’t think the authorial intent of Genesis 1:27 is to assert “Eve was created at the same time as Adam.”
- I would go further to say Genesis 1:27 weren’t intended to even give any sequences with the creation of human male and female. In the phrase “in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” the Hebrew verb translated “He created ” is בָּרָא and it appears twice in the portion I quoted in Qal perfect verbal form. The Qal perfect form is summarizing the action and not indicating sequential action, order of action, etc. So the skeptic would be improperly extrapolating from Genesis 1:27 to argue that Adam and Eve were simultaneously created. Really Genesis 1:27 is trying to emphasize both male and female human beings are made in the image of God.
- The sequential verb does appear in the beginning of Genesis 1:27 when it says “So God created man in His own image…” Here the Hebrew verb translated as “God created” is a Qal Imperfect verb and the Qal imperfect verbal form is conveying consecutive action within a narrative. But this sequence is man (humans) were created after the creation of land based animal mentioned in Genesis 1:26, but Genesis 1:27 is not giving sequences nor simultaneous act of the creation of male and female human beings. The skeptics don’t have no exegetical ground to interpret Genesis 1:27 the way they want to interpret it to make a problem.
- Thus there is no contradiction here. Seems the skeptic needs to learn of How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
- We shouldn’t miss that worldviews are at play even with the skeptic’s objection to Christianity. The worldview of the author of the Skeptic Annotated Bible actually doesn’t even allow for such a thing as the law of non-contradiction to be meaningful and intelligible. In other words for him to try to disprove the Bible by pointing out that there’s a Bible contradiction doesn’t even make sense within his own worldview. Check out our post “Skeptic Annotated Bible Author’s Self-Defeating Worldview.”
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This seems to be one of the more absurd alleged contradictions. Well refuted.
Blessings!
When I say this is terrible and completely lazy it’s not you it’s the skeptic. This is the worst one yet. Talk about wanting to make a contradiction out of nothing. Great job! Have a terrific Tuesday!!! Love and blessings to y’all!!!!!
Yeah the skeptic is pretty horrible here and it’s wild to see other skeptics actually share this as an objection against the Bible. Seriously objectivity and exegesis goes out the window with some critics; their agenda with an ax to grind is very evident. I heard Florida is at 30s degree temperature???? Has it been cold there for you or you are already use to colder weather lol?
That’s so sad that others agree with the skeptic!!!!!! Brother, it is 52 and rain. My mom lives by the water so it is just damp and cold!!!!!!!!! My mom and I are laying low today! My mom says she will give a wave tonight, she’s ridiculous when it comes to cameras arg!!!!
Great explanation.
It is so odd how the skeptic often superimposes his or her own view of time over the original writer’s view of time.
Its astounding how many of these bad interpretation of the Bible are committed by the skeptics, both on the Skeptic Annotated Bible and other copycats of the Skeptic Annotated Bible. Thanks Mark for reading this and commenting and supporting this ongoing project refuting the Skeptic Annotated Bible!
Veritas created 5 posts. 5 posts did Veritas create. — at the same time? 🙂
Good point and forcefully make the point that t skeptics are ridiculous here! Thanks for reading this and dropping by with a comment!!
Good point: “Genesis 1:27 weren’t intended to even give any sequences with the creation of human male and female” The sequential details come in Genesis 2.
Exactly! I think just with the English it’s clearly not a contradiction but knowing Hebrew verb functions it’s even more clear Genesis 1:27 isn’t talking about sequence of events within the creation of human male and females. Brother thank you for all these love and support with this ongoing project refuting the skeptics, and also on Mewe. God bless you very much sir! Also wanted to ask if you can check your spam filter to see if any of my comments got caught up on there…seems some of my responses if they are short isn’t going through and WordPress thinks I’m spamming
Thank you for reminding me to check the spam folder. Three of your comments were there as well as comments from someone else. I will have to remind myself to check this daily.
Online atheists love to pit Genesis 1 and 2 against each other. I would love to see you respond to more of these alleged contradictions the skeptics bring up
Thanks for the thorough debunking of this ridiculous “contradiction.” Steve/Stephen Wells has no shame on how low he’ll stoop to rack up another one for the atheists.
You are right the lack of shame with how low Steve Wells will go, is incredible. Seems from the responses in the comment section many feel this is clearly a hack job by Wells…and I agree. Even in the English its clearly not a problem and I can’t help but to think of Wells knew Hebrew it would even be more clear there’s not a problem. Well isn’t well spiritually obviously, that’s why he’s attacking the Bible the way he’s attacking it, I pray he repents and comes to Christ instead of adding more contradictions which he did this month…how goes your day so far Tom, is it still super cold today??? Is it snowing???
We have a heat wave here in ROC at 25F but a high of only 16F predicted for tomorrow. Yup, more snow last night which means I snowblowed again today. Have to accomplish something else today so I’m going to get off the couch and spend an hour organizing my home office area. I’ll do that every work-free day until it’s finished.
What does your Tuesday look like?
Gotta agree, Jim! The skeptics are interpreting these Verses on their desire for a contradiction, rather than evidence in the Text.
You are right; after over 200 of these so called contradictions have been refuted on our blog I think you see more a strong desire by the skeptics it’s a contradiction rather than objectively there is a contradiction. How’s weather in SC? I see Florida’s cold and so too NY from those commenting on this post, was wondering if it’s all East coast including South Carolina. Also can you check if any of my comments on your illustration posts are in your spam filter? WordPress seems to think my short comments are spam this week..,
It’s a bit chilly still, but not looking for anymore snow (except in the higher elevations).
I found a couple of your comments in the spam folder of my gallery. Not sure why WP put them there but thanks for commenting!
Continue in prayer.
Thanks Steve Wells need it, also praying for your recovery from Bronchitis!!! Praying much Maw Maw
Thank you, Grand.
You are putting their website to the fire of sound reason and interpretation
This one was really weak by the skeptics
So silly! Interpreting verses anyway they want. Utterly ridiculous!!
Well done brother calling out their nonsensical interpretation.
I agree this one is rather ridiculous. This shows more Steve Wells of the Skeptic Annotated Bible has more of an ax to grind than objectively studying the Scripture. I’m praying for Wells to repent and trust in Jesus before its too late, as he’s very old now and yet this month he added one more weak case for an alleged Bible contradiction! Lord have mercy on him….
Praying with you for this lost soul.
Wow he’s still alive? The site looks like a 90s atheist troll site, its so old I thought the writer isn’t alive anymore
There is another possible explanation for the “contradiction.” Perhaps Adam was created androgynous, with both male and female reproductive organs, and the rib God used to make Eve was the female part of him. I believe this view can be supported Biblically and I made an entry in blog in which I tried to show that this was true:
Hi Clyde, I saw in your article that you quoted gotquestions.org. Got questions does not affirm Adam being androgynous https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-androgyny.html Sir, I mean no disrespect but that is a lot of hurdles to jump to come to the conclusion that God did not create Adam fully physiologically, anatomically and biologically male. Aimee Byrd had a guest writer yesterday, Anna Anderson who puts forth in one of the comments “exegetical evidence for the woman as Zion/sacred space at the beginning of Genesis” using the Hebrew word for rib/side. If you’re interested you can find her comment and post here: https://aimeebyrd.com/2022/01/25/a-new-reading-of-desire-and-rule/ Respectfully, Mandy
A beautiful post thank you so much
Thank you so much Abubaker for reading this and also your comments on this blog!
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There is virtually nothing in the Bible that is an actual contradiction, and what atheists presents crumbles under the slightests scrutiny.
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