This is a physical light, but at the same
time it is also an internal spiritual light. A Nature Trail Through the Bible
corrections: p. 15
Old Testament
1. The Creation
Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
commentary
God is the Creator. He makes the world and all that is in it. From this first verse of the Bible a distinction begins between Creator and the creation which becomes a continual theme of the Bible. When the Bible speaks of the world, it is usually in the context of what God has made, i.e., the creation.
The word “creation” introduces a world view which is fundamentally different from the view conveyed by the ecological term “environment.” The word “environment” means that portion of the living creation as perceived through science and other human perspective. People, however, are not usually included in this word’s meaning. No reference to a Creator-God or spiritual understanding is implied. This reflects how modern ecological understanding has largely been divorced from God and a sense of divinity.
Environmental science sees a network of biochemical forces plus animal, plant and microbial species interacting with geological, hydrological and climatological forces. The understanding which arises from these disciplines is not wrong, but it represents an incomplete view of the world – because it is exclusively material. The biblical perspective integrates the spiritual and physical and so it represents wholeness; it begins with the Creator and proclaims a comprehensive view of life.
In the environmental view of the world, there is no center; neither is there any clear organizing principle. and so no frame of reference exists through which to understand either the world or the crisis of the environment. Confusion results because there are only relationships without a clear sense of purpose or meaning beyond enlightened self-interest, i.e., saving the world for ourselves and our descendants. While this certainly has some merit, everything ultimately revolves around human interests which leads to various forms of relativism and actions motivated by a survival instinct. This works to varying degrees, but the nature of this framework allows anthropocentric or perhaps biocentric perspectives to dominate. The problem with these perspectives is that do not harness the selfless altruism or the fire of the human spirit because the basic appeal is to self-interest. This leads to conflicts because a wide range of human interests exist which compete for attention, including commercial, recreational and spiritual interests.
By contrast, the biblical view provides a Center which is God. This connects the world to Meaning. With meaning, perspective is transformed. Now there is purpose and a panorama of values. A holistic world view emerges and with it direction for both human action and the creation.
The environmental movement has conspicuously lacked an acknowledgment of God. Without the Creator at the center of reflection, only human self-interest motivates remedial action. Once God is acknowledged as the center of one’s world view, everything comes alive with significance. A healing vision emerges. A purely ecological view of “the world,” based upon environmental science, can never generate this dynamic because it sees only the material side of creation, and is therefore limited and incomplete.
The implication, then, is that only a vision of creation which encompasses heaven and earth (i.e., which seeks wholeness) can heal the brokenness of our planet. A striving for this integrated world view leads into an ever deeper appreciation of the beauty and mystery of the infinite depths of creation.
Ultimately, the biblical world view, because it is rooted in the explicit commands of God, empowers a more vigorous and inspired response to the problems caused by pollution and degradation.
2. The First Day
Genesis 1:3
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and morning were the first day.
commentary
God speaks creation into being. Light is its substance. The fact that creation is spoken into being means that word is fundamental to its nature. In the Epistle of John, the Bible equates God to light, and says, “...in Him is no darkness at all”
(1 John 1:5).
This passage declares that on the first day God divided light from darkness. This is light before the creation of the sun or the stars, and so this is a light which is fundamental to the substance of creation. This is an atomistic or primal light, even a mystical light, a light which underlies the nature of matter and which vitalizes all substance and eventually all living things.
Particle physics understands created (or visible) light as being beyond time and without dimension. It is everywhere in creation and yet nowhere grasped. It is so basic to the inner structure of creation that it becomes elusive in its implications. Astronomers see the light of stars and discern distinct elements from its spectral colors. Physicists see light as a foundation of matter and its speed as an interstellar constant and limit to velocity. In the plant world, botanists see sunlight as fundamental to the growth and nurture of greenery through photosynthesis. All life depends upon light.
Mystics from Jewish, Christian and Eastern religions share a common experience when they describe light as an interior, “illuminating,” and brilliantly transforming experience. In the Gospel of John, Jesus pointedly tells us, “I am the Light of the world; he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus connects light to our own personal experience. He tells us,
“...if thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be filled with light” (Matt. 6:22). (See also John
1:19; 3:19-21; 8:19; II Cor. 4:6, among many). So that there is no doubt about the meaning of
this word, the Greek word for “light” which Saint Matthew uses in this passage is “phos,”
which is visible light, or that which gives illumination.
This is a physical light, but at the same
time it is also an internal spiritual light.
“Singleness of eye” means a steadfast focus and emphasis upon God rather than broad concern for many things which is the way of worldliness (see Jesus’ comments to Martha, in Luke 10:41-42).
To demonstrate that the experience of light is accessible to every person, Jesus pointedly invites us, “take my yoke upon you, and learn of me... for my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:29-30).
Ecologically light is significant because it is a foundation of creation which begins in God and which penetrates and connects to the human and the natural. Throughout creation, in every leaf and in every molecule, in every living thing, there is light which gives an inward and sacred dimension to all being.
Light links God to every part and parcel of His creation. At the same time it also inwardly links every parcel of creation to every other part.
3. The Separation of Land and Water; Creation of Plant Life
Genesis 1:7-13
And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called He seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.
commentary
God gives order and a natural progression to creation. First He divides light from darkness. Then he creates the heavens. In these verses he now divides the earth from the heavens, and sub-divides the earth into land and water. The earth then brings forth plants and trees. Creation flourishes with life. An organic sequence emerges in which “layers” of creation exist. This equates to a mineral and then a plant or vegetable sequence.
Great stability and peace is implied. There is no sense of sin or disorder. At this stage of creation God calls forth all of the features of creation and He identifies each one as good. He exercises an intimate connection and loving dominion over the emerging creation. Each part of creation has its seed within itself which provides species autonomy and continuity.
Notice how creation flourishes without people. This orderliness exists because each part of creation obeys the principles inherent in its nature. There is a deep lesson here: As humans function within creation, they have a responsibility to respect the harmony and integrity of what God has created and to restrain human potential so that it adheres to the principles of creation. When this principle is observed, human action does not disrupt the internal ability of creation to reproduce itself and flourish.
A disturbing development from the application of technology is that some chemicals carry mutagenic properties. This means that they can disrupt the processes by which creation reproduces itself. Mutagenic chemicals are able to penetrate the genetic structure of living creatures and disrupt their ability to replicate “after their own kind.” This interrupts a basic principle of creation because these chemicals cause genetic mutations. Genetic mutations involve alterations of the structures by which life reproduces itself. This is a grave disruptive to the natural order because mutagenic chemicals tamper with the building blocks of a stable and integrated creation. The consequences are mutant creations which are not integrated into the network of local life systems. This results in the possibility of deformed young, new diseases, plus disorder, suffering and chaos in plant, animal and human life alike. These will translate into future sorrows for human society.
The long term implications of these sins against the stability of life and its ability to reproduce itself with generational integrity are still difficult to know in their fullness. Regardless it takes no great theological penetration to discern that disruption of the transmission of genetic memory of living things “after their own kind” may not be done without violation of the basis for a stable continuation of life.
While mutagenic chemicals unintentionally alter the genetic code and its transmission into future generations, the new science of genetic engineering goes further and intentionally manipulates and redefines the structures of life. This is fundamentally different from previous technologies because it operates on the deep interior of living things. Moral inhibitions scarcely restrain its redesigning of the life forms which God has called “good.”
Genetic engineering represents an attempt at a “new Genesis,” a redefining through human ingenuity of creatures and plants and even human nature. With genetic engineering “designer” creatures can emerge, made to fit specific human needs. This can include entirely new and perhaps bizarre creatures (such as the “geep” which combines genes from goats and sheep). New creatures in many cases will not integrate well with other parts of a natural ecosystem.
Already, unusual and unpredictable forms of behavior or anatomical disfunction are emerging. Genetically engineered pigs, for instance, have a high tendency to crippling arthritis; many of them are born blind. Dairy cows injected with bovine growth hormone (rBGH) to foster greater milk production require protein in their diet to fuel accelerated lactation. Because ruminant metabolism does not easily digest the protein, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) can be contracted (a neurological disease often called “mad cow” disease). Some pathologists believe BSE is the bovine equivalent of Creutzfeld-Jakob’s disease, but too little of its etiology is understood to determine the extent to which this constitutes a public health danger. Suffice it to say that genetic engineering means that society will face new challenges that are not well understood as these new bioengineered species may not fit well with other forms of life. Rogue Frankenstein-like creatures become real possibilities.
For these reasons, fundamental to the Judeo-Christian world view of a sacred character to life, Christians should be reticent of efforts to manipulate the genetic building blocks within creatures. Genetic engineering unleashes unprecedented power over the shape of life. Because power has a corrupting tendency and because genetic engineers seldom possess the ethical training and spiritual formation necessary to enter this arena with a heartfelt respect for their living creations, strong curbs need to be placed on biotechnological exploration. Some powers are too potent for the present level of human moral and ethical formation.
Biotechnology, it must be emphasized, does not merely represent a new field for human discovery and exploration; the implications are more basic. Biotechnology represents a redesign of the matrix for life for which we scarcely have any precedent. Life is sacred because it comes from God. When humans reduce life to chemical combinations held together by bioplasma, something vital goes out of human sensitivity. Then there is no morality beyond what is commercially profitable. When birds and bees and flowers are reduced to sets of genetic transmitters, what is the value of any living creature if we regard the bird or animal as merely a chemostat?
When these issues of modern technology are examined in light of the Bible, it is not enough to examine a few texts. The Bible certainly addresses these cutting edge questions, but it does so through principles. This allows issues like this one to be examined in the light of Christ’s witness.
What is presented in this short commentary is only a beginning. More reflection is needed to develop a Christian ethic of biotechnology. Still sufficient information is available to make some basic determinations about the morality of products made through the genetic engineering processes.
Even though it is claimed that there may be medical and financial benefits that will emerge from the reorganization and manipulation of genetic structure, the huge potential for abuse and for unforeseen adverse consequences make this a “Pandora's box” fraught with immense dangers. The power to manipulate life without recourse to God becomes intoxicating and in the end demonic.
4. The Creation of the Animals
Genesis 1:20-22
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
commentary
God creates all the birds, aquatic animals and plants on this fifth “day,” and each has a place in creation. Biodiversity is inherent in the original plan of creation. Each species has value in the sight of God because He calls their creation “good.” If God sees the creatures as good, so should people. This means that each person should be concerned for the creatures and care about the preservation of the animals and plants. This further means that an exclusively utilitarian view of creatures is not an appropriate Christian perspective as intrinsic value fills all parts of creation.
God gives a command to every creature to “be fruitful and multiply...” and to fill the earth. They owe an obedience to God to perpetuate themselves. Human action cannot therefore abrogate or set aside what God has commanded by destroying any species. God has commanded it to live and be fruitful. This implies that preservation of each animal and plant species is a ministry of preservation and protection, and a noble work of discipleship because it gives service toward the sustenance and maintenance of the good creation.
Importantly, the command to each of the animals to be fruitful and multiply comes before the command to humans to be fruitful and multiply. This means that any action which destroys a species or which passively stands by and fails to act when this command of God is being violated disregards God's intent for the world. God’s command to the animals requires respect by humans. It also requires acknowledgment for their prior responsibility to live and fulfill their purpose. The failure to honor this command represents not only a personal sin, but a willful disobedience against what God has decreed for them and for the good of the world.
God's command that the waters and every place where creatures dwell bring forth abundantly presumes suitable habitat. This means a healthy environment in which birds and mammals and fish and even insects can function according to the way in which they were created. This presumes that human society will integrate with the prior demand from God for the animals to exist and multiply upon the earth. Construction and development without regard for God's creatures is actually callous disregard for this command.
An ancient prayer, written during the fourth century by Saint Basil, has great relevance to this theme:
O God, enlarge within us the sense of fellowship with all living things, even our brothers, the animals, to whom Thou gave the earth as their home in common with us.
We remember with shame that in the past we have exercised
the high dominion of man with ruthless cruelty so that the voice of
the earth, which should have gone up to thee in song, has been a groan of pain.
May we realize that they live, not for us alone, but for themselves and for
Thee and that they love the sweetness of life.
This prayer captures the traditional Christian attitude toward our animal cousins. But as much as our modern minds have grown arrogant and proud and distant from the natural world, so we consider this sort of prayer as the sentimental romanticism of a by-gone era. But if we listen closely, perhaps we can discern in Saint Basil's prayer a reminder from the Holy Spirit of our kinship with the created world and the sanctity of all life. If we can discern this much, then perhaps we can once again discern something of the original spirit implied in the creation of the animals.
5. Dominion Over Creation
Genesis 1:26
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,... and over all the earth.
commentary
This pivotal and seminal passage introduces two key principles which continue throughout the Bible. The creation of people “in the image of God” provides vision and perspective on human nature, while the task of dominion gives direction to the character of behavior. Together, these intertwined principles frame the human role in creation.
When God declares us that people are made “in our image” and “after our likeness,” this means that people are different from the other creatures. They are different because they are images of the Creator. Because humans are the image of God, they serve as the crown of material creation and share in a creative nature from which derives intellect and reasoning. The early Church distinguished between image and likeness in that “image” equates to latent potential while “likeness” represents the extent to which one realizes or actualizes that potential.
Being in the image of God establishes a link to God’s nature which permeates all further biblical discourse. The principle of dominion flows directly from being in the image of God. Because people uniquely bear God’s image in creation, they carry authority and so are given “dominion” over creation.
The command to take dominion over the earth bestows a duty upon each person to treat the land as the Lord would treat it. The word “dominion” derives from the Hebrew word “râdâh” which is to rule as a king. Ancient Hebrew theology emphasized a responsibility of the ruler to exercise absolute authority on behalf of the Lord and to “trample out” iniquity just as the Lord would do it.
The English word “dominion” conveys this same principle from the Latin "dominus," which literally means Lord or king. Because a king rules in the place of the Lord, he strives not only for the will of the Lord, but also for the attitudes and perspectives of the Lord. Dominion therefore means that each person should rule the land with care, benevolence, mercy, justice, wisdom and regard for its ultimate end. As the Lord lays down His life for his children and redeems them, so each person, acting as king over the material world, is supposed to follow the example of the Lord. As one practices dominion, it relentlessly leads to a deeper understanding and imitation of Christ.
Inherent in this biblical principle is that each person is responsible to exert a dominion first over his or her own “human nature” as a prerequisite for a balanced and benevolent dominion over exterior nature. This means that dominion is first interior, and provides for the combating of attitudes which would desecrate both the soul and the land. The obvious implication is that purification of heart and mind is integral for a right exterior “rulership” or dominion to flourish. Without this prior interior dominion in which Christ is central, no check restrains human nature and the greed, gluttony, insensitivity, pride and other rapacious tendencies which defile the individual and the land. Without self-control over these tendencies to sin and a committed seeking of the will of the Lord, there is no basis for either a right Christian dominion to exist – or spiritual transformation.
Dominion also implies a spiritually awakened sensitivity to creation. After Adam was given
dominion, he was told to name the creatures. Naming the creatures is not an arbitrary exercise; it
requires penetration into the spiritual essence of each creature coupled with a sufficient
understanding of language so that it can be given its rightful “name.” This penetration into creation
is a reciprocal function of dominion. This means dominion can also be described as a mediation by
man
between heaven and earth. It means penetration and understanding of how creation works is
important. Dominion applied to naming blends inspiration from God with discernment of the
features of creation. Naming becomes a blessing of meaningful words which bestow particular
attributes in the form of a name upon God's creature.
Within the academic community, the principle of dominion has often been attacked as responsible for the ecological ills of society. First Arnold Toynbee, then Lynn White and a host of others, claimed that the theological concept of dominion gave humanity license to dominate nature. This wrong-headed and false interpretation is the result of a superficial equating of dominion with an arbitrary dominance which was never the intent or meaning of this command. But this erroneous interpretation is also the consequence of a fractured understanding of transformation and the failure of many church denominations to retain a whole theology of creation. The fact that Christian people have sometimes participated in an unfeeling destruction of the land is no more an indicator of righteous belief or conduct than participation in robbery is Christian.
The more a person penetrates and embraces the original meaning of dominion, and grasps the manner in which it binds heart and mind back to the Lord, the more its perfect appropriateness is realized and the more it is seen as a pillar of Christian ecological concern. To paraphrase the Gospel of St. Mark, “The principle which the ecologists rejected is made the pillar of earth restoration!”
6. Replenish the Earth
Genesis 1:28
And God said, "Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it..."
commentary
This verse is similar to the command which God earlier gave to the animals except now the additional injunction to “replenish the earth and subdue it” is added. Why is this command to replenish and subdue given to humans and not animals?
The obvious reason is because this function is within human capability. This could not be given to creatures because they do not have the same capacity to reflect or reason. These functions follow from being in the image of God and they further inform the God-given command to exercise dominion over creation.
The word “replenish” in its simplest form means “to resupply” or “to put back” what is taken. When this directive is applied rigorously, it informs every aspect of human interaction with the earth.
The command to replenish provides the biblical basis for recycling. This is more than the curbside recycling of paper and cardboard. This pointedly addresses the way extractive enterprises should operate and it provides direction for the management of forests, farms, fisheries and every other interaction with the natural world. More specifically, this means that after trees are cut for lumber or pulp, new trees must be planted; it means that the natural services of forests much be maintained. For fields it means that after crops are harvested, farmers must practice soil conservation and guard against erosion or fertility depletion. The regeneration and replenishment of natural systems becomes integral to every facet of human interaction with life and creation.
If human society acknowledged this principle, the natural processes of replenishment which recharge resources would be accorded great respect. Wetlands which percolate surface water into aquifers would remain undrained and largely undeveloped. The tropical rain forests which replenish oxygen would be respected and valued for the vital function which they perform for the planet. These systems are all more valuable to the community of life for their natural services than for any commodity or utilitarian services they may afford.
Significantly, this responsibility comes immediately after the command to be fruitful and multiply. If this original charge were scrupulously obeyed, the structure of human society would be dramatically different and population pressures would not be what they are because of the continual reuse and replenishment of resources. Instead we have the deplorable condition in which natural resources are often depleted and exhausted because of greed and carelessness.
The command to replenishment also applies to human spirituality. Just as creation needs replenishment, so do people. Spiritual fervor needs nurture and this comes in a number of ways which reconnect the soul to Christ. Human replenishment is fostered through prayer, through participation in the requirements of one's Church, through a complete practice of faith coupled with spiritual reading and reflection, plus all the strivings outlined in scripture.
Another sort of replenishment comes from unfettered nature. When people become weary of duties and obligations, they sometimes discover the amazing ability of the natural world to revitalize the human spirit and reinspire the individual to the beauty of life and the glory of God through the good earth. Among trees and mountains, seas, plants and animals, there is deep rest and renewal. Wilderness can provide “a chapel of the world” in which the human soul finds rest, inspiration and a uniquely refreshing natural therapy. Without some form of personal replenishment, the individual is easy prey to those tendencies which destroy the land. This realization means that Christians should remember to protect wild areas as they contain special places for the restoration of the human spirit. When Jesus prepared for his ministry, the Holy Spirit did not send him to the temple for forty days. Rather he was directed into the wilderness. There is deep meaning in this action.
The command “to subdue” further informs this process. It means to bring creation into accord with the nature of God. This command, like others, is perverted by interpreting it in a human-centered manner. What is forgotten is that humans are made in the image of God and so they have a responsibility to look to the nature of God to understand their own nature. When human vision is fortified with holy (wholistic) perspective, the command to subdue means to bring all of creation into a greater harmony and glorifying of the Creator, not the creature.
Similar to the command to replenishment, subdue means that human creations as well as human interaction with creation, must reflect God’s principles and processes. In practice, this means human development must be designed so as to integrate into the ecosystems of the planet. Implied in this assertion is an understanding of the ecosystem as a reflection of the finely-tuned, interwoven nature of God’s principles and laws integrated into a glorious tapestry of life.
7. A Second Beginning to Creation
Genesis 2:4-7
These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,
And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
commentary
The story of creation is recounted here in a second version. This rendition, without
contradiction, offers substantial differences from the version in Genesis 1. According to
Biblical scholarship, this is because it represents the work of different author(s), with a different
emphasis, and at a different and substantially earlier time.
In Genesis 1, creation happens through the Word of God. In Genesis 2, the process and sequences of creation are less precise, but an epic story of cosmic proportions emerges that is laden with rich ecological meaning.
In these four verses, a second story of creation unfolds by declaring the primordial emergence of creation, the latency or germinal potentiality of plants and herbs within the nascent creation, the origin of water, and the appearance of humans as the ordering principle in this paradisaical setting.
God’s formation of the first “man,” “out of the dust of the ground,” suggests the relationship of humanity to creation. The phrase “out of the dust of the ground” is one word in Hebrew, “adama.” This literally means “fertile red earth.” The color red is significant because the Hebrews believed that red symbolized activity and vitality. Red, when coupled with earth, implies that the living presence of God vitalized creation and gave it a more intimate connection with the Spirit through “breath.”
A connection between this man, formed “out of the dust of the earth,” and creation is demonstrated in three ways, which will continue to have significance for the rest of time:
First, the “man” is formed from the earth. This being derives a body of flesh from the materials of creation. Therefore, he is living earth, or “fertile red earth.” The obvious implication is that man is part of creation.
Second, his living spirit derives from the breath of God, “for God... breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” While his body is of the earth, man’s life derives from the “breathe of God,” which gives him a soul and a personalized, or n individualized, spirit. Because God is in eternity, what He gives to his human creation will also live to eternity. His potentiality, then, is the likeness of God, i.e., in the future, “we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2). The implication is that man is begotten out of the heavenly realm from whence his spirit and soul derive.
Third, creation does not flourish until after this “man” is created. Only after the creation has been vitalized by the creation of spirit-man does a full flowering of primordial creation take place. “There was not a man to till the ground.” The text is difficult to translate and perhaps even harder to comprehend because it seems to go against assumptions about evolution, the order of creation and the findings of anthropology and geology. Clearly it says, again quoting, “And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew.”
In other words, the plants and herbs did not grow before this “composite being” of both heaven and earth was brought into the sphere of the world. While this literal meaning seems contrary to scientific understanding, let us examine it further. This is an “Adam” who is strikingly different from what we now understand of fallen humanity and from what we every day see and experience. This is human nature before the Fall. To comprehend this state of being, it is helpful to set aside stereotyped and idealized physical images and concepts of Adam in the Garden and take this section at its literal meaning. Then perhaps a deeper meaning will emerge. This is “adama,” the vitalized and fertilized “living red earth” that we call “Adam.” This is sinless man in paradise, created in the image of God, connected, but distinct from God. This is the breath and spirit of God, having the image of God and possessing a living soul, but also being without desire, without needs, and even without carnality. In other words this is man as spirit and without a physical body.
The anthropomorphizing images of this paradisaical scene has created so many material assumptions about Adam in the Garden of Eden that we scarcely know how to conceptualize the milieu of this spirit-being except as a human look-alike in a semi-earthly context. Usually most people imagine a scene that is so much like a sustainable agroforest teeming with African wildlife that we can scarcely read in this text an important teaching about primordial anthropology.
To better appreciate this state, notice that during this early stage, no gender is yet implied to Adam. This is man as the breathe of God who is formed of dust but who is also a living soul. In this context, the word “man” is more appropriate than similar English words such as humanity, persons or people. The reason for this becomes more apparent if we search out the root meaning for the word “man” in the languages from which English was formed.
The English word “man,” as far as etymological research traces it, derives originally from the ancient Sanskrit word, “ma.” This means “that which uses mind.” No gender connotation is implied. Gender differentiation has not yet emerged at this early stage of human development. The word “ma” only conveys the meaning of mind and soul in “dust,” or perhaps more accurately, “wispy, activated matter.”
(By contrast, the word woman is different: it derives from the combination of the words “womb” and “man,” contracted into wo-man, and indicates mind with a
self-contained creative component.
) With gender differentiation (which does not occur until
several verses later at the formation of Eve), a further and perhaps more developed stage of
human formation is implied.
This linguistic study helps us to understand that man in this early era prior to the Fall was not constituted in the same manner as man after “the Fall.” One might argue that another word entirely is necessary to avoid comparison with what we now in our after-the-Fall state generically call man. From any perspective, “man” in this sinless primordial state was a vitalizing force for all other parts of creation. Plants could not grow until this “mind” or “breathe of the Spirit of God” appeared within creation – but still before it has incarnated into earth. This means the effect of man could not be localized within the physical body which the Creator formed out of the earth from His own Spirit. To vitalize all parts of creation, this spirit of man had to be spread throughout the land and transmit the energizing, nurturing, sustaining presence of God into the world. Before man, as these verses imply, the plants and animals were only germinal potentialities. After the appearance of this spirit man, they become living creatures.
When man fell, his original spirit-like nature in the glory of paradise changed. Now he became earthly, bound to matter and subject to sickness, aging, accidents and death. As man fell, creation, which in this characterization is dependent upon mind (“man”), also becomes subject to sin and decay. And so it awaits the arrival of the sons of God who will bring healing and restoration from the effects of sin and death.
The primary ecological meaning of this passage is that creation is dependent upon the quality of human behavior for its vitality and existence. As man sins, creation suffers.
Conversely, as man repents and becomes obedient to God, creation flourishes.
The connection between the flourishing of the biotic world and the requirement for Adam to be created is clearly different than the narration in Genesis 1 with its zoological classifications and layers of creation according to sequential days.
Genesis 2:4-7 stands as an alternative, but a substantially older, narration of how creation comes to be. Importantly, this does not contradict the later creation narrative which was appended before it (in Genesis 1:1-2:3). Rather it embellishes and deepens the implications of the emerging story of creation.
Interestingly, a literal understanding of this passage is remarkably similar to Native American views about the role of the person before birth. In fact it is closer to their view of the person’s role in creation than it is to the misbegotten image of “Adam” in some idyllic agroforestry garden of Western European conception.
The Early Christian Church characterized this world before the Fall as a place in which death did not exist. No accidents or sicknesses took place here. This is a bright world of spirit, certainly not the same setting as our present physical world.
Several early theologians, as they address this subject, help us understand the deeper concepts
in these passages. Origen, father of early theology, says that the word “Adam” was not intended
to represent a particular individual, but represents generic humanity.
St. Gregory of Nyssa describes these early chapters of Genesis as representing creation doctrine
under the guise of an epic narrative story.
St. Basil goes further and calls these first chapters “a grand parable” to make the story of creation and the genesis of humanity comprehensible to ordinary folk. In reality, he says, the full story of creation stretches vastly beyond our feeble powers of understanding and so this story must suffice for us.
This introduction to the second description of creation at minimum reveals that the biblical story of creation hides a deep perception of the origins of human life.
The careful review of this second creation narrative shows that the story of creation has not been well told in either popular Christian literature or pictorial depictions of Adamah in what is called “the garden.” Deeper reflection on this second story provides a much more nuanced and insightful understanding of the meaning of the creation of Adam in paradise. This in turn contributes to a better Christian understanding of anthropology and our roots at once out of God’s spirit and his earthly creation.
8. Dressing and Keeping Creation
Genesis 2:15
And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it
and to keep it.
commentary
In this passage is found the primary function assigned to humanity. God tells the newly created man “to dress it and to keep it.” “Dressing,” or “tending,” the garden means that people should care for the earth as the Lord would care for it. To “dress” the garden means to raise it up. This should be distinguished from a charge to merely improve it, for dressing means to cultivate it into fruition and completion.
The original Hebrew word for “dress” is "abad" (or "avad") which means to bring to completion, as in the way seeds are brought from planting through nurturing and cultivation to harvest. Some translators maintain that "abad" also conveys a sense of service, and most nuanced translations include this meaning. Adam is given the garden as a living seed which is to be cultivated through service into its full flowering and completion or perfection.
What is “completion” in terms of the earth? In the fourth century St. Basil interpreted this passage as a charge to raise the earth “to its full cosmological potential” which required inspiration from Christ for each step of direction or progression. This implied a relationship to God based upon cooperation and participation, not separation. This further implies a living discipleship.
As Adam was charged to “dress” the garden, so he was also charged to “keep” it. The word “keep” is used in its archaic English sense to convey the meaning of the Hebrew word “shamar” which involves spiritual renewal, vigilance, and especially protection from desecration or evil. Included in the meaning of “shamar” there is a vigilant watching for and guarding against anything which would destroy that which is being “dressed.” These things must be rooted out for the continued growth and flowering of the garden.
Great wisdom and balance exist in the complimentary character of these twin commands. Without vigilance, neither the garden nor human society can be rightly cultivated for “weeds and thistles” spring up. “Keeping” is a vital partner-component to dressing the Garden in a manner that can raise it up into a fulfillment of its purpose.
Because this task requires a spiritually alert humanity, it can be concluded that inherent in keeping the garden is an implied demand for personal transformation. This is necessary to allow the creative process in “dressing” to develop along with “keeping” to preserve the “garden” from attack or pollution.
The twin charges of dressing and keeping relentlessly imply a working relationship with the Lord. Otherwise there is no sense of direction in “dressing,” cultivating and serving, and then no ability exists to discern how to rightly go about protecting and “keeping.” Like the command to take dominion, the meaning of this passage intimates a deep and continuing connection to the Lord. Thus the Psalmist rightly proclaims, “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it; except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain” (Psalm 127:1).
It might be parenthetically noted that the biblical picture is not a “sustainable society” as envisioned by secular environmentalists. Rather the biblical vision portrays a society that lifts into higher degrees of righteousness, virtue, fruitfulness and attunement to its Creator-Source. This does not deny balance with the environment, but invokes the dynamic vision of a step-by-step journey of human transformation, even transfiguration, in which God and creation come into an ever finer attunement through the mediating agency of submitted human action. This may include sustainability and the integration of human society into the ecosystem of the planet, but most importantly it includes a continually active human responsibility to renew and transform the earth.
9. Two Trees
Genesis 2:9,16-17
And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight,
and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge
of good and evil. ...
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden, thou may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
commentary
After the Lord God formed the first humans (Genesis 2:7), He set a garden in paradise. There He placed the first, still-unnamed people (2:8). Without any introduction or explanation the first thing which God then creates and makes to grow are trees. Many trees grow in this paradise, but two trees are pointed out by God, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (2:9).
God next gives a command to this man which He has created. His duty will be to “dress and keep” the garden (2:15). This means he is to nurture and care for it and to protect it from harm.
God tells this man, now named Adam, that he man may eat of any of the trees in this beautiful garden; they are available to him as food. However God expressly tells Adam that he is not to eat from one tree: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If he disobeys this command, then God says, you “shall surely die” (2:17).
The story thus far is that the first humans have their initial encounter with creation through trees. Henceforth, throughout the Bible trees will become the most frequent non-human feature, and will be mentioned over 400 times. At the end of the Bible, in the final chapter of the Book of Revelation, trees again play a role for the leaves of the tree are “for the healing of the nations” (Rev. 22:2).
Throughout the Bible, trees serve as the biblical emblem or symbol of the living earth. This is because trees introduce the creation, because they are the most numerous non-human feature of the Bible, and because trees and forests, from both a biblical and scientific perspective, provide the foundations for a healthy world. Where there are healthy forests, there are clean waters, clean air, stable hillsides, fish and wildlife, even spiritual inspiration. Healthy forests also demonstrate that humans are rightly caring for the earth.
Subsequent to this passage a principle emerges from Scripture that the quality of human obedience to God shapes the fruitfulness of the land. As the land goes, so goes the health and vitality of society. A vision is hidden in this concept: as there is respect for the Word of God, then creation flourishes, because obedience is tied to a benevolent caring and stewarding of the land – and its forests.
Adam and Eve disobeyed the charge given to them. The tempter spoke to Eve and told her that she may eat of the tree, but she will not die. Rather her eyes will be opened to a knowledge of both good and evil, and so she and her husband will become “as gods” (3:3-5). Eve takes of the fruit of the forbidden tree and shares it with Adam. After this disobedience, Adam and Eve, sensing the presence of God in the garden, hide themselves from the Lord. God then sends them out of the Garden and posts a mighty cherubim with a flaming sword at the Gate of Paradise to guard and protect the way back to the Tree of Life (3:22-24).
Modern commentators often focus on just one aspect of this story: that the disobedience of Adam and Eve causes the Fall. This is true, but there is a further dimension to the story. The Early Church, like the rabbis and elders of Judaism before them, taught that the choices posed before Adam and Eve are still choices before each person. They say that each person is still faced with those same choices anciently placed before Adam and Eve. We can choose to obey the commandments of God and so choose life and with it the integrity of God’s good earth. Or we can choose to deny contemporary meaning to this story, deny meaning to the creation, and exploit the earth without care for the consequences. Then the features and the creatures of the earth suffer, and together all humanity shares in the price of a degraded land and a coarsened culture. And then humanity continues to fall even deeper into darkness and distance from God.
A vision then is hidden in this story of Adam and Eve and their Fall from the Garden. It is a vision of good and evil, of obedience and disobedience and the consequences of sin. This is a vision which applies to every person and the choices which we make. In contrast to this vision, rampant consumerism coupled with the greed of a corporate-dominated, multi-national industrial agenda is destroying the great forests of the world. As the forests fall, so the world is impoverished of the life-giving benefits of trees: the metabolizing of carbon dioxide, the releasing of oxygen, the transpiration of moisture to aid rainfall, the habitat for innumerable creatures, and their own brand of giving glory to God.
Therefore at the end of the Bible as the plagues rage around the world, the good angel, marked with the seal of the living God, appears and says, “Hurt not the earth, neither the seas nor the trees” (Rev. 7:3)
10. Naming the Creatures
Genesis 2:19
Out of the ground the Lord formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every creature, that was the name thereof.
commentary
The power to name requires a deep penetration into the qualities of life and a discernment of the indwelling “logos” which animates all things. In biblical scholarship, “name” involves an individualized aspect of the Word of God which assumes a uniquely differentiated character as it exists in a particular living being. This character is what we identify by “name.”
The discernment and articulation of “name” for English-speaking people is a far more difficult task than it was for the Hebrew people. The ancient demand to name was informed by the fact that each Hebrew letter had a specific meaning, based upon the implications of each sound in the word of G-d. Not only is our English language built upon a different linguistic basis, the Hebrew religion included a mystical cosmology called “Kabbalah” which saw the cosmos as a “cube of space” (or materiality) in a divine milieu. All the aspects of the Creator were identified through sounds and these permeated creation. Each attribute of G-d took the form of consonants; the vowels were aspects of divinity and never written because that would profane the representation of the Creator. “Naming” involved an identification of those primordial aspects of God in the natures of the living creatures.
One of the later patristic writers, St. Maximos the Confessor, provides insightful guidance about discerning those primordial aspects of created things which he calls “their inner essences.”
If, instead of stopping short at the outward appearance which visible things present
to the senses, you seek with your intellect to contemplate their inner essences,
seeing them as images of spiritual realities or as the inward principles of sensible
objects, you will be taught that nothing belonging to the visible world is unclean.
For by nature all things were created good.
Penetration into an experiential knowledge of inner essences requires prayer and contemplation in order to open up and learn about this interior dimension to creation. Without prayer there is no key to open the deeper realms of appreciation for what God has created. This is not casual prayer; this is a steadfast prayer which stays focused on God and grows in spiritual sensitivity. This is the transforming wellspring which allows discernment and identification of “inner essences.” Then contemplation of living creatures becomes possible which brings inspiration and Godly perspective to human understanding of the world.
For ecologists, what is significant is the remembrance of the potential to discern the inner qualities of animals and plants. From this can derive a richer experience of nature and the knowledge that each part of creation has qualities which reflect something of the Divine Nature.
The ability to name the features and creatures of creation reflects the human ability to discern these inner qualities and therefore the potential to enter into an interior discernment of the energies and forms of creation. From this prayerful process a non-linear system of knowledge emerges upon which a mystical experiential knowledge of creation might be founded.
11. The Consequence of the Fall
Genesis 3:17-19
Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
commentary
This verse represents the pivotal point of division between the world of paradise and the world in which sin and death prevail. Prior to this first sin, Adam and Eve dwelt in the grace and unending goodness of paradise. After this time, they were cast out of paradise into a world in which sin, spiritual darkness and even death prevailed. This is the Fall and the Biblical basis for the doctrine of original sin.
The Fall creates a distance between God and humanity. This distance makes it harder to see and feel and know the Creator. By the Fall, humanity becomes susceptible to aging and accidents, to sickness, short-sightedness and feebleness of intellect and understanding, and finally death.
Notice that creation as a whole is not cursed because of the Fall. Rather “cursed is the ground” because of Adam's disobedience. Creation has not sinned; Adam has. And yet because creation is under human dominion, there is the influence of human sin upon the condition of the creation. Oxford theologian Vincent Rossi comments on the ecological implications of this passage:
If God “cursed” the ground, He did so only because of human disobedience. This shows two things:
(1) that creation is essentially innocent, and (2) that in God's eyes, our thoughts,
words and deeds and the state of the earth are interdependent, inextricably bound up
together.
Ecologically, creation reflects both the original goodness of God and the spiritual state of fallen humanity. Just as paradise was the state of humanity when it lived in a loving and gracious submission to the Creator, so the world we know and experience daily follows from weak obedience coupled with virulent disobedience and a sometimes flagrant disregard for God’s commandments. As long as humanity acts in a willful and arrogant manner, forgetting or ignoring the Creator, life continues to be hard. Thorns and thistles, sweat and toil, continue to be the fruit of disobedience.
Conversely, the consequences of the Resurrection are now accessible in the world. These provide evidence of the inception of the New Earth. Jesus pointedly declares that when the “Comforter” is come, He will reprove the world (kosmos) of sin (John 16:8). This means that as Christ redeems humanity, this redemption extends even into creation.
Jesus further says, “Seek you first the kingdom of heaven and its righteous, and then all things will be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). In other words, through obedience the blessings of providence will return to you and give you such things as you need.
A further promise of Christ is the dictum, “Happy are you as you do these things” (John 13:17), meaning the things which he tells us to do. The things which Christ tells us we should observe include the teachings about simple living, about charity and about possessions. The practice of these virtues alleviates the burden of worldly living and blunts the thorns and thistles of the Fall.
The Apostle Paul tells us that we all die in Adam, but in Christ are we made new. Therefore he says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But who made himself of no reputation and took upon himself the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:3-8).
12. The Stability of Creation
Genesis 8:21-22
And the Lord said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every living thing as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
commentary
The “curse” (or Fall) sent Adam and Eve from Paradise into the world (Gen. 3:17).
In this passage, which occurs immediately after the flood, but before the “rainbow” and the Noahic Covenant, God declares that there will not be a further “curse” upon the earth. Neither will He again destroy all creatures as in the flood.
This word “curse” needs explanation. The original Hebrew meaning of “curse” is not the modern
sense of invoking damnation or evil. Rather, it conveys the solemnity of an oath, or an
unbreakable promise, or some other binding condition. Dr. Robert Murray, SJ, president of the
Society for Old Testament Study and a Hebrew scholar at the University of London, maintains
that this passage does not convey a sense of condemnation because other Hebrew words had that
function.
Rather, it establishes a relationship between human activity and the earth in which
people use the “ground” as the toiling and laborious framework for their sustenance.
Biblical scholars such as Murray see this passage as a reflection of a cosmic dimension to the covenant in which God makes an oath or declaration about how life will be within creation. He promises that certain aspects of creation will remain unchanged This means that humans can count on a stable framework for the behavior of creation. Order, integrity, the rule of God's immutable law, and therefore predictability are established.
For ecological concern, a key observation from this passage is that the curse on the ground does not mean the world is cursed, as has sometimes been suggested. The “curse” was never license to pollute the land and cut down the trees and extract the minerals in a utilitarian scramble for profits. In fact, it is because of this “curse,” which is the basis for the Fall, that Jesus Christ comes to earth to right the ancient transgression, to eliminate the effects of the Fall. If in Adam we all sin, in Christ we are again inheritors of redemption and atonement. Through atonement we can again find “at-one-ment” with heaven.
There is hope here and reason for thankfulness. God will not again destroy all life as in the flood. But this does not say He will protect the earth from human rapacity. This is our human responsibility.
The final verse conveys a pastoral feeling of rhythm and regularity, of taking from the fruit of the earth for the sustenance of human needs. This covenant reflects the stability and predictability of the workings of creation. The yearly progression from summer to fall to winter to spring will not change. The pattern of day and night will not change. The need to plant and to harvest will not change.
Even though modern society brings drastic changes to the way we conduct our lives, this last verse brings comfort because it tells us that some things are stable; they are so basic that they will not be altered. The rhythmic change of seasons becomes a sign of stability and the dependability of God’s promise amidst a human society in which change is increasingly the norm.
13. A Second Beginning for Creation
Genesis 9:1-3
And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
commentary
The Biblical narration declares that Noah was a righteous man. He obeyed God when all others were disobedient. Thus only Noah and his family survived the great flood which enveloped the earth (cf. Genesis 7). As the flood receded, the animals from the ark are returned to the land. Noah and his family restart human society. A new beginning is at hand, based upon those few who have obeyed God's commands.
God then reissues the key commands originally given to Adam in the Garden. Again humans are told to be fruitful and multiply, and again they are told to replenish the earth. But now, because the taint of original sin lingers, the animals live in fear of Noah and his descendants. Every moving thing is now food whereas in the Garden only the plants were food.
Even though Noah is righteous, he does not quite overcome the effect of Adam's sin. This is evidenced in the fact that he still ages, but his great holiness is shown in his aging at a slower rate. Because aging unto death is one of the effects of the Fall, this is evidence that he has almost, but not quite, overcome the effect and pain of sin. He still lives to be over nine hundred years old (Genesis 9:29).
While we are all descendants of Adam, we are also descendants of Noah. While we inherit Adam’s sin, we also inherit