Yes, and this difference creates complications.
The
Ainur had not completed the creation work before the 'fallen angel' (
Melkor) disrupted the work, whereas in the Bible, the world was created "And
God saw that it was very good" before it was marred by
evil. The reality of
Arda marred meant that the removal of Melkor would be catasrophic, as his influence (the discord) went right back to the creation song itself.
In the Bible, on day one, God said "Let there be light" and there was light. Strangely, though, he didn't create the 'lights in the sky' until day four, and we don't get a direct explanation of the source of the light. In
the Silmarillion the sources of light for Arda were varied: the
Two Trees of Valinor, the stars alone, the Lamps, and then The Sun and moon, which brought it into equivalence with our own world.
The order of creation is more or less the same for both worlds. Again, Arda is complicated by the number of beings in the higher creation.
Elves and
Men are created, and lie sleeping (Adam slept while Eve was created).
Aule also made
Dwarves, but repented of his folly, and these too were made to sleep. I see the Dwarves as a sort of Ishmael - an interference with God's (Illuvatar's) providence brought about by impatience, who would throughout history be at variance with the Elves.
The next part of the Bible is the flood. In the Silmarillion, this occurs much later on, and seems to have more in common, in its cause, with the Tower of Babel. The similarity between the two floods is that a very few righteous folk survive by taking ship (without
animals, in the case of the Silmarillion).
Next comes Abraham and his sons. I looked for comparisons with
Finwe and his sons. Unique among the Eldar, there were half brothers like the sons of Abraham (though fewer). If I compare
Feanor with Joseph, I see an anti-Joseph - one who leads his people out from blessedness rather than from famine, into trial and tribulation. If I compare him with Moses, again he falls down character-wise, and takes them out of a protected haven into a world where many end up in thraldom because they believed the lies of Melkor. In this sense, the
flight of the Noldor can be compared more with the expulsion from the garden of Eden.
Other things the two have in common are genealogies,
wars, and a succession of
kings of men (this is naturally a much shorter list for the Elves).
Earendil has something in common with Enoch and Elijah, in that he - a mortal - achieved passage to
the blessed realm. In that he went as an ambassador, he more closely resembles Elijah, who was an intercessor for his people whereas all we know about Enoch was that he 'walked with God'.
The obvious and biggest comparison is of course is that of
the Old and New Testaments. The Silmarillion is
Middle-earth's Old Testament (complete with Cosmogeny), and
The Lord of the Rings is its New. The difference is in who the story is about. You can argue about whether there is a Christ figure at the changeover point (
Aragorn, perhaps? In both the New Testament and the Lord of the Rings, it ends with evil overthrown and the return of the King); but
Tolkien warns us that the latter is not intentionally allegorical.
All these musings are off the top of my head (a most unscholarly place if ever there was one) and go way beyond your brief, but maybe they'll help your thinking process.
