FROM CAT
OK, I'm going to make this real simple for you.
First creation account:
Gen. 1:11a-31 – And God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind upon the earth.”…And there was evening and there was morning, a third day… Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…so God created man in his own image…male and female…And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
3rd day = vegetation
6th day = man
First the vegetation, then the people.
Second creation account:
Gen 2:4b-7a – In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground—then the Lord God formed man of the dust from the ground…
No vegetation when God made people. First the people, then the vegetation.
CON-TRA-DIC-TION!
Except that it's in the Bible, so I guess that doesn't fit your definition of contradiction.
RESPONSE
It’s clear to me that whatever plants God talks about in Chapter 2 aren’t the same plants He talks about in Chapter 1. The veggies in Chapter 1 needed neither rain nor a man to till the soil for them. God just created them from the earth. I think in Chapter 2, God is speaking of the veggies that would come FROM the initial vegetation in Chapter 1. In other words - crops, agriculture...THAT requires rain and a man to till the soil. So, to mimic your simplicity:
First chapter (Gen. 1:11a-31) – in order to exist, the veggies:
1. Require no rain.
2. Require no man.
3. Require no cultivation
Second chapter (Gen 2:4b-7a) – in order to exist, the veggies:
1. Require rain.
2. Require a man.
3. Require cultivation.
So here is a paraphrase of Chapter 2: "Before any veggies had grown from the seeds of those initial veggies God created (because God had not sent rain, and there was nobody to cultivate the ground and plant them), God created man."
Sorry...no con-tra-dic-tion, lol.