Outside Reading #1

RULERS OVER CREATION

Genesis 1:28 (emphasis added)

“God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the Earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

I think that this is such an interesting verse in the Hebrew Bible. This verse gives off the impression that we, as humans, are rulers over the Earth and have been given dominion over it. This verse could conceivably be used by many who propose that we manage and use the Earth’s resources, but there’s a slight problem with that. So many people read the text and inject their own ideas and cultural presuppositions onto it. The Hebrew mind had no grid for “nature” as we see it today. Nature, as we conceive of it today, is something that totally comes from Hellenistic views. Imposing this onto the text is called eisegesis and is horribly bad interpretation. When Father told us to subdue the Earth, it’s right after it says He made us in His likeness and image. We were made to be like Him. And this was before the Fall. Adam had the same heart, mind, and intentions as God because he lived with Him as a son of God and an heir to all things that God had. I think that, in relation to Ecology, we can try and subdue the Earth, that is to care for it, and steward the gift that God has given to mankind.