Same Story, Different Style

Forty-four men have become president of the United States (as of 2018), and 43 of them were married at one time or another. (James Buchanan, elected in 1857, was the only unmarried president to stay single his whole life.) One of the most interesting insights into these men are the letters they wrote to their wives. Thousands of personal letters, telegrams, cards, and even teletype messages have been saved in collections at the Library of Congress, in public institutions, private family collections, and published works.

Letters expressing fondness are common among the presidents and their wives. Some are flirtatious; others are formal. A few are silly; others express sadness and loneliness. While separated, James Madison wrote to his wife Dolley, “Everything around and within reminds me that you are absent.” Lyndon Johnson wrote to his wife, Lady Bird, “I am very madly in love with you.”

Obviously, the gushing letters of couples like the Reagans and the Wilsons were completely different in style than when they wrote to senators or ambassadors. And that’s true within the Scriptures. Some critics have stated that there are two different accounts of Creation in Genesis 1 and 2 because the style of each differs; one writer could not have written both chapters.

The large overview of Creation in Genesis 1 is complimentary to the narrower view of Genesis 2, which focuses more on the creation of mankind and describes his environment in the garden. The first is more chronological, while the second is more topical and focuses on the nature of humanity and the divine government. Genesis 2 explains, “This is the history (literally “generations”) of the heavens and the earth when they were created …” (v. 4).

Christ had no difficulty harmonizing Genesis 1 and 2 when He quoted them both within the same sentence: “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female’, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” (Matthew 19:4, 5). If Jesus accepted both accounts as divine Scripture, connected and harmonious, so should we.

Apply It:

See if you can dig up two different styles of letters from your (or your family’s) personal collections.

Dig Deeper:

Genesis 1:1–31; Genesis 2:1–25

Key Bible Texts

These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, (Genesis 2:4 KJV)