When were the animals created?

[Davidius]

This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

....

And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.

According to Genesis 1, God created the marine and winged animals on the fifth day, other animals at the beginning of the sixth day, and man after animals on the sixth day. In Genesis 2 it looks like man is created before the animals. What's up with that?

 

[VictorBravo]

This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

....

And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.

According to Genesis 1, God created the marine and winged animals on the fifth day, other animals at the beginning of the sixth day, and man after animals on the sixth day. In Genesis 2 it looks like man is created before the animals. What's up with that?

Chapter 2 is not a sequence but a recap. A very common middle eastern method of relating a story.

Sort of like this: you listen to a baseball game for the first 7 innings. Every detail, in order, is provided. Then there is a break. The announcer comes back and says, OK, the score is such and such, and so and so was pitching in the sixth and there was a grand slam in the second.

Nobody would take the recap to override the more detailed early narrative.

 

[bookslover]

Genesis 1 gives the creation narrative, and Genesis 2 focuses in especially on the creation of man.

Liberals complain that the two chapters give two different and contradictory creation stories. But, then, they love being wrong, so what're you going to do?