The Bible contains two different versions of the creation story. The first story is written in a repetitive poetic manner and claims that God created humans last, while the second creation story is not written in the same poetic form and affirms that God created humans first. Although the two stories seem to contradict one another, the second story actually complements the first story in two particular instances. First, the second creation stories reveals the intimate bond shared between God and human beings, and secondly it reinforces the idea that God gave human beings power over everything else that was being created. This notion of human power is represented when God brings the birds and other animals to the human to be named, which was a symbolic gesture used to convey power. .
Copies of the Old Testament were circulated orally for a great deal of time before they were actually written down. When information is communicated orally, it is natural for there to be some discrepancies within the subject matter. Due to the Bible's oral nature, two different creation stories most likely developed throughout the centuries. The Biblical editor was definitely aware of the two conflicting stories but decided that it would be best to include both of them to better enlighten the reader about the story of creation. It is highly probably that both stories were included because while he was being inspired, the Biblical editor did not want to "leave anything out" and was probably unsure as to which story was the correct one. He then decided to place the stories back to back so that the reader could choose which story to adhere to. The stories were not separated because it really would not make any sense whatsoever to place them in different sections of the Bible. The editor also chose to place the stories near each other because he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to do so. In short, yes the Biblical editor was aware of the two conflicting creation stories and he choose to place them back to back because he was inspired to do so.