SPECIAL QUESTIONS REGARDING THE BIBLICAL ACCOUNT OF CREATION

1. Did Moses receive the account of creation by direct divine revelation, or was it handed down to him by oral transmission from our first parents, who received it from the Lord? (See Luther on Gen. 25:5-6, St. L. I:1758.) That is immaterial, for in either case the Biblical report is God’s own report, since all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Besides, the Biblical record, especially if it is compared with the creation myths of other nations, bears the divine stamp so unmistakably that even natural reason can recognize it. (Zoeckler, R. E., 2d ed., XIII, 631 f.) — Because the modern theologians do not receive Scripture as God’s Word and will therefore not recognize the Biblical account of creation as God’s account, the compliments which at the outset they shower on the Biblical account naturally end with a criticism, which arises from the impious Ego of speculating theologians.22

2. Genesis 1 and 2 are not two essentially different stories of the creation, but Genesis 2 is plainly seen to be a fuller report of the creation and of the first dwelling place of man. The reason why “Elohim” of Genesis 1 is changed to “Jehovah Elohim” of Genesis 2 is that from here on God’s activity pertaining to man is the subject of the story. Hence we have in Genesis 2 the beginning of the history of mankind. 23

3. The controversy as to the best world. We know that the world as created by God was good. Gen. 1:31: “And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Could God not have created a better world? This is a foolish question, since God’s will is the standard of all things, therefore also of goodness and beauty. The creatures were good because they were exactly as God desired them to be. Axiom: Causam exemplarem (pattern) creationis ideae divinae rerum creandarum constituunt. (Baier-Walther, II, 96.)