Last week I led a funeral service for a wonderful lady whose passion through her life had been for animals and nature and who had worked in ecological conservation. I used a part of Genesis 1, the first account of creation found in the Bible – today we have heard part of the second account (Genesis 2.4-17). I used that reading in order to speak about that person’s ecological action but chose to read the passage in the version written by Eugene Peterson called The Message.
I did so because of a key difference in the translation of a key word. Many English translations of Genesis 1 states that human beings have been given dominion over the natural world. Dominion is generally understood to mean the right to govern or rule or determine. Those who have dominion are understood to possess the ability to wield force, authority, or influence, to direct and restrain, to make arbitrary decisions and compel obedience. As a result, humans having dominion over nature has generally been understood as meaning that we have the right and the ability to exploit natural resources and to shape nature to serve our needs. In other words, all the attitudes and actions that have led to the climate emergency.
Eugene Peterson resists that understanding of the relationship between human beings and the natural world by using a different translation. He writes of human beings being responsible for every living thing that moves on the face of the Earth:
God spoke: “Earth, generate life! Every sort and kind:
cattle and reptiles and wild animals—all kinds.”
And there it was:
wild animals of every kind,
Cattle of all kinds, every sort of reptile and bug.
God saw that it was good.
God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them
reflecting our nature
So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
the birds in the air, the cattle,
And, yes, Earth itself,
and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”
God created human beings;
he created them godlike,
Reflecting God’s nature.
He created them male and female.
God blessed them:
“Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”
That responsibility for, rather than dominion over, the natural world is what we also see in today’s reading from Genesis, where human beings are placed in the Garden of Eden in order to till it and keep it, or as The Living Bible says, to tend and care for it.
Later this year, we will be having a Stewardship month in which we will reflect on different aspects of stewardship as part of our response to the generosity of God towards us. One aspect of our stewardship involves stewardship of the natural world and its resources. Being a good steward means caring for and conserving the world in which we live and the resources within because to do otherwise selfishly uses up those resources for ourselves and alters the natural cycle of life in ways that harm the world and all that lives on it. We will, therefore, be encouraging all of us, as we have done previously, to look again at the actions we can take to show responsibility by caring for this world, rather than acting in ways that dominate and exploit the natural world.
The words we use have consequences and significant impacts, so we need to be careful about our use of words, including within scripture. The difference between domination of nature and responsible care for nature is immense, as is demonstrated by the climate emergency and the actions of those on opposing sides of the debate. Let us be those who seek to tend and care and keep the earth. Amen.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment