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Genesis : an excerpt from Out of the Earth, Civilization and the life of the soil  by Daniel Hillel (University of California Press, Berkeley,1991).

Less widely noticed is the curious fact that the first two chapters in the Book of Genesis actually give not one but two accounts of creation. Of many contradictions between the two, for us the most significant is the role assigned to humans in the scheme of life on Earth. In the first chapter we read that God (called by the plural name ‘Elohim’) decided to "make man in our own image, after our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth". And God blessed man and woman and said unto them: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and conquer it; and rule over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the air and every animal creeping over the earth." And furthermore God said: "Here, I have given you every herb yielding seed and every tree with fruit ... to you it shall be for food." All this can be construed as a divine ordination of humans to dominate the earth and use everything on it for their own purpose.

But the act creation and the divine injunction to man are described quite differently in the second chapter of Genesis: "God Yahweh formed man out of the soil of the earth and blew into his nostrils the breath of live, and man become a living soul. And God Yahweh planted a garden in Eden in the east and placed the man therein." Then comes the crucial statement: "God Yahweh took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to serve and preserve it." Here, man is not given license to rule over the environment and use it for his purpose alone, but - quite the contrary - is charged with the responsibility to nurture and protect God’s creation.

Thus, latent in one of the main founts of Western Civilization we have two opposite perceptions of man’s destiny. One is anthropocentric: man is not part of nature but set above it. His manifest destiny is to be an omnipotent master over nature, which from the outset was created for his gratification. He is endowed with the power and the right to dominate all other creatures, toward whom he has no obligations. In the words of the 115th Psalm: "The heavens are the Lord’s, but the earth He hath given to the children of man." The same notion was expressed by Protagoras: "man is the measure of all things".

The other view is more earthly and modest. Man is made of soil and is given a "living soul", but no mention is made of his being "in the image of God". Man is not set above nature. Moreover, his power is constrained by duty and responsibility. Man’s appointment is not an ordination but an assignment. The earth is not his property; he is neither its owner nor its master. Rather, man is a custodian, entrusted with the stewardship of God’s garden, and he can enjoy it only on the condition that he discharge his duty faithfully. This view of humanity’s role accords with the modern ecological principle that the life of every species is rooted not in separateness from nature but in integration with it.

 2008-11-09 

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