Questo articolo è disponibile anche in: Italian English Spanish

Hello father,

A boy posted a video showing that God created animals twice, proving he found a contradiction in the Bible.

In fact, he takes a copy of the CEI Bible and indicates “God made the wild beasts according to their species…”.

Next, he points to the verse “then the Lord God formed out of the ground all kinds of wild beasts…”.

More than one pointed out in the comments that the animals were placed first on earth and then in Eden.

Can you clarify the issue?

Thanks, Giovanni.


Priest’s answer

Dear Giovanni,

1. in this regard four things must be kept in mind.

The first concerns what the Pontifical Biblical Commission wrote to Cardinal Suhard, archbishop of Paris: “The first eleven chapters of Genesis… report in simple and figurative language, adapted to the intelligence of a less advanced humanity, the fundamental truths presupposed to economy of salvation and at the same time the popular description of the origins of the human race and of the chosen people” (16.1.1948 T-N).

Therefore it would be out of place to find in Genesis a chronology in the scientific sense of the succession of events.

2. The second concerns the composition of the text of Genesis whose author apparently collected different traditions which he then tried to merge together.

It should be borne in mind that the text of Genesis was first transmitted orally for generations and generations and only later was it written down.

Names have been given to these traditions to identify them due to some characteristics of the text. We thus speak of the priestly tradition, of the Javista, Heloist and Deuteronomistic tradition.

Thus, to refer to our topic, the first chapter of Genesis would be of the priestly tradition, the second of the Javist tradition.

Whoever compiled the text of Genesis attempted to merge the various traditions.

It is plausible that this happened, giving rise to a dual narrative of the creation of man and woman.

The fusion of the two traditions would open up a conflict regarding the creation of animals which according to the first chapter of Genesis occurred before the creation of man, while in the second it would have occurred after.

This is what the guy mentioned in your email found.

3. But are things really like this?

The Dominican biblical scholar Marco Sales, who preceded the theories of the various traditions, and yet was a great biblical scholar to the point of being assumed as the very prestigious position of Master of the Sacred Palace (today he is called the Theologian of the pontifical house) resolves the question very well presenting a translation that seems more precise than that of the Italian Episcopal Conference, which translates Genesis 2.19 with these words: “then the Lord God shaped all kinds of wild herbs from the ground”.T-N

Here is the translation that he inherited from Antonio Martini, the 18th century translator into Italian of the Bible: “The Lord God having shaped from the earth all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air, he leads them to Adam…” . T-N

And he notes: “having therefore shaped… is also the meaning of the Hebrew, from which it can be deduced that animals were created before man, as he said in the first chapter, and not after, as the rationalists claim that is stated here ” (Commentary on Genesis 2.19). T-N

In fact, the Latin text of the Vulgate, which is the official text of the Church, translates from the Hebrew: “Formatis igitur, Dominus Deus, de humo cunctis animalibus terrae”. It assumes that animals were created and are now presented to Adam.

With this translation we find a perfect conciliation between what we read in the first chapter and what we read in the second.

4. Marco Sales further underlines: “from the earth refers only to the animals of the field”.

5. The fourth thing to keep in mind is the answer given to that boy: “More than one pointed out in the comments that animals were placed first on earth and then in Eden” and it’s true. However, the translation of the Italian Episcopal Conference says shaped. And this verb is misleading.

The commentators you refer to perhaps say this because regarding the creation of Adam the sacred text says that he was first created and then placed in Eden, that is, in the earthly Paradise.

Here both the text of Martini’s translation and that of the Italian Episcopal Conference agree because it reads: “The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden”.

Marco Sales comments: “from this we deduce that man was created outside the earthly paradise. He should not think that such a stay was his due, but be persuaded that it was an act of pure goodness on the part of God.” T-N

This detail must also be kept in mind.

Therefore, just as God took Adam and brought him to the earthly paradise, he would also do the same with the animals.

Then the commentators you speak of would be right.

If also, I repeat, the verb shaped confuses.

It would have been better if the translation of the Italian episcopal conference had remained closer to the Latin and also the Hebrew text.

So here is the clarity on the question you asked me.

I bless you, I wish you all the best and I remember you in prayer.

Father Angelo