|
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.
|
|
|