The First Creation Story
In the first part of Genesis, the writer tells us that the animals were created before man:
25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, (Genesis 1:25-26)
Readers will note below that the author of this second story first tells us that God made man, then he tells us that God said it IS (present tense) not good for man to be alone and that he WILL (future tense) make animals for man. It is evident that the Bible writer wants us to know that the reason God is creating the animals is to relieve man's loneliness.
The Second Creation Story
7 The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being...18 The LORD God said, "It IS not good for the man to be alone. I WILL make a helper suitable for him." 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. (Genesis 2:7-18)
How could the writer have made such a mistake? How could he tell us first that the animals were created before man, then later tell us they were created after man? The answer is, there were two different authors telling us two different stories based on two different cultures with different beliefs about God and creation; one group called the deity "God," while the other called him "Lord God." As evidence that there were two different writers at work in Genesis 1 and 2, the reader may note that the first author referred to the deity as "God" thirty-five times in a row from Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:3, and never referred to him by any other name. Then, suddenly, beginning at Genesis 2:4, where the creation story begins again, the writer starts calling the deity "Lord God," and does so nine times in a row, without ever referring to him by another name. Can anyone believe that it is just a coincidence that at the very point in Genesis where the creation story begins again, the writer begins to refer to the almighty by a different name, and never again in the creation story calls him by the other name?
The conclusion a reasonable person must reach is that two different authors, who each called the deity by a different name, told two different creation stories. The first author thought that "God" created the animals first, then man second, while the second author thought that "Lord God" created man first, and the animals second. They can't each be correct, so there is a contradiction in the Bible.
A Possible Harmonization?
Some apologists for biblical literalism argue that the phrase "HAD formed the beasts" (Genesis 2:19) means that the author is referring to something that HAD been done before man was created. However, one may equally reasonably well believe that after Lord God said he "WILL make" a helper, the narrator, writing from the perspective of one looking back into the past, is telling us what Lord God HAD done next, after he said he "will make" a helper for the alone man. The fact that the author was speaking in his own voice, and not God's voice, lets him use the past tense; when he put God's words in quotes, he would have God speak in the present tense ("It IS not good"), or the future tense ("I WILL make") because God is speaking of something in God's present or near future time.
But, which interpretation is the correct one? The correct one should be determined by context. I believe the evidence shows that the second one is correct. Let me explain why.
The author uses the word "will," when referring to the helper he would create for the "alone" man. Hopeful literalists believe he was referring to Eve, not the animals; this is wrong, I believe. To clearly see that the helper Lord God "will" create in the future is an animal, and not Eve, one only has to look at the last sentence in the passage above: "But for Adam NO SUITABLE HELPER was found." (Genesis 2:20)
Note that "no suitable HELPER was found " among the beasts of the field which were paraded in front of Adam. Clearly, the word "helper" refers back to the "helper" Lord God said he would make in Verse 18. Thus, the helper Lord God said he "will make" (future tense) was not Eve, but in fact was intended to be found among the "beasts of the field" Lord God made for man's inspection. We must conclude, therefore, that the "beasts of the field" were created after man was created, and this is in direct contradiction to Genesis 1.
Joseph F. Alward
"Skeptical Views of Christianity and the Bible"
http://members.aol.com/jalw/joseph_alward.html