Many critics attack the inerrancy of Scripture by claiming that Genesis 2 contradicts the creation sequence of Genesis 1. Genesis 1 presents a broad, structured chronology: land animals are created, and then humanity is created as the climax of Day 6 (Gen 1:24–31). By contrast, critics often read Genesis 2 as a different chronological sequence: (1) the creation of the man (Gen 2:7), (2) the planting of the garden and the growth of its trees (Gen 2:8–9), and (3) the formation of the animals and birds (Gen 2:19). On a surface-level reading, that ordering can appear to conflict with Genesis 1. What should we make of this? The Relationship of the Garden to the Creation Account A key assumption in the “contradiction” argument is that when Genesis 2:8–9 describes God planting a garden and causing trees to grow, it must be describing the same event as the creation of vegetation…