Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Science

Gospel and Plough institute of Theology

Subject: Biblical Interpretation
Topic: Eco- Justice reading of the Bible
Course Guide: Dr.(Mrs) Imleinla Ao
Presenter: Nitoyi Yeptho
Respondent: Nukshinaro T Jamir
***************************************************************************
Introduction
The Bible begins with God's creation of the universe and all living creatures. God's work of
salvation and liberation does not only include oppressed people in the Bible but also
oppressed land and nature. God's covenants and promises apply to the whole range of created
life as well as human beings. It is indeed remarkable how the whole of the Old Testament
makes references to the nature, and how God takes delight in all the different spices and the
complexity of the ecosystems. When we turn to New Testament, this approach continues.
Here every single species comes out of God's wisdom and love and its part of his tender care.
1. Environmental Concerns and Biblical Interpretation
It is important to locate environmental approaches to the Bible in the wider context of human
attention to threats to the natural environment. Explicit concern with the environment and
ecological issues is a relatively modern development, with its roots in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries. In important ways, it represents responses to the industrial
revolution with its machines and technologies that have the capacity to wreak serious damage
on the land, sea, and air, and all creatures that depend on the earth.1
1.1. The Earth Bible Project and Ecological Hermeneutics
Without a doubt, the most significant development with regard to the interpretation of the
Bible from the perspective of concern for the environment is the Earth Bible project, under
the leadership of Norman Habel. The roots of the project are in the soil of Australia, and
many of the participating scholars are from Australia and New Zealand. However,
participants and contributors come from around the globe.
Beginning in 2000, the project has published five volumes addressing various parts of the
Bible, from Genesis to the New Testament. The project has succeeded in generating a
remarkable amount of research, reflection, insight, and public discourse on the Bible and the
environment. In the process, it has shaped that discourse in new and often promising
directions.2

1
Joel M. LeMon and Kent Harold Richards, eds., Method Matters: Essays on the Interpretation of the
Hebrew Bible in Honor of David L. Petersen (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009), 349.
2
Ibid.

1
While earlier work on this topic had sought to understand and set out what biblical texts say
about the earth and its various parts, or to examine various themes related to the environment,
the Earth Bible means to be guided by a set of principles of interpretation and evaluation.
These “eco-justice principles” are:
1. The Principle of Intrinsic Worth. The universe, Earth and all its components have
intrinsic worth/ value.
2. The Principle of Interconnectedness. Earth is a community of interconnected living
things that are mutually dependent on each other for life and survival.
3. The Principle of Voice. Earth is a subject capable of raising its voice in celebration
and against injustice.
4. The Principle of Purpose. The universe, Earth and all its components, are part of a
dynamic cosmic design within which each piece has a place in the overall goal of that
design.
5. The Principle of Mutual Custodianship. Earth is a balanced and diverse domain
where responsible custodians can function as partners, rather than rulers, to sustain a
balanced and diverse Earth community.
6. The Principle of Resistance. Earth and its components not only suffer from
injustices at the hands of humans, but actively resist them in the struggle for justice.3
These principles are elaborated especially in the initial volume with an introduction by Habel
and a further chapter by the Earth Bible team. Arguing that most previous biblical and
theological scholarship has treated earth as an object, Habel states a major goal of the project:
Our approach in this series attempts to move beyond a focus on ecological themes to
a process of listening to, and identifying with, Earth as a presence or voice in the text.
Our task is to take up the cause of Earth and the non-human members of the Earth
community by sensing their presence in the text—whether their presence is
suppressed, oppressed or celebrated. We seek to move beyond identifying ecological
themes in creation theology to identifying with Earth in its ecojustice struggle.4
Any set of principles for interpretation should generate a respectful dialogue about their
validity and usefulness. First, there is the very idea of principles to guide a project of biblical
interpretation; the need to set out such principles would not have come up as recently as three
or four decades ago. Most scholars were taught to avoid imposing their preconceptions on the
text or even deciding in advance what they wanted to discover. An inductive rather than a
deductive approach was preferred; just read the text and see what comes out—that was the
modern critical approach.
The Earth Bible Project means to focus on understanding (and comprehending the biblical
understanding) of the earth and all its components. In that process, some of the Earth Bible
principles seem more fundamental than others. One could argue that the first two and the fifth

3
24. Norman Habel, The Land is Mine: Six Biblical Land Ideologies (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995).149.
4
Joel M. LeMon and Kent Harold Richards, eds., Method Matters…, 351.

2
would be sufficient. The first, the principle of intrinsic worth, is a moral claim. 5The second,
that all “living things … are mutually dependent on each other for life and survival,” may be
indebted to traditional religious beliefs, but it summarizes what earth, biological, and
ecological science has taught us. Anyone who experiences and observes the world closely
knows this to be true. Moreover, the only principles that make sense are those that see human
beings as part of the natural order.
2. Ecological Reflections on the Land in the Old Testament
The Old Testament has persistently been read as a story, a history of YHWH with a people,
and too often this focus on history or story has blinded readers to the fact that the story
happens in real places, on actual land. Moses was called to lead the people of Israel out of
Egypt so they could enter “a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exod 3:8), and the spies
sent from the wilderness said that is just what they found, “a land flowing with milk and
honey” (Num 13:27). This description is common in the Hebrew Scriptures, occurring more
than twenty times.
There is hardly a biblical book or document in which reflection on or assumptions about the
earth and the land are not of vital importance. The biblical understanding cannot be reduced
to a single point of view or even a single category, such as the political or economic or even
theological dimension.6 The perspectives are diverse, from texts that suggest domination of
the land by human beings, to those that emphasize identification with it, to those that stress
divine care, even for the desert. The land is known to be supportive, but the environment is
experienced as hostile and dangerous as well. There are even deep tensions in attitudes
toward the earth and the land. It brings forth its fruits, but it also bears thorns and thistles, and
it must be worked with the sweat of one’s brow (Gen 3:18–19). When one considers land in
terms of that whole system of weather—Leopold’s “all things on, over, or in the earth,” and
one must, for land needs rain—then it is indeed both supportive and threatening. This is the
experience of farmers, from the time of ancient Israel to the present day. There is even in the
Hebrew Scriptures the profound sense that, although it is solid ground, the earth is fragile and
finite.56
Underneath it all is an awareness of the land as the symbol for life, for the interdependence of
all living things as well as all non-living things that sustain life. The understanding that
human beings are seen to come from and return to the earth is not a curse so much as an
observation: “until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to
dust you shall return” (Gen 3:19). The Bible teaches its readers to love life. “To live long on
the land that the Lord your God gives you” is a blessing and a benediction (see Deut 25:15).
3. Biblical Concern on Ecology
When we go through the Bible we see the concern of the creator God about the creation, both
human and non-human. The Bible explicitly draws the importance of His Creative power and
value of each created element. God had not created anything without any purpose, so
everything that created has its own importance. Social scientists and theologians from
different traditions were among the first to pay attention to the need for a new understanding

5
Ibid.
6
David J. A. Clines, The Bible and the Future of the Planet: An Ecology Reader (Sheffield: Sheffield
Academic Press, 1999), 104.

3
of the relationship between humans beings and the world, God’s gift of creation, in light of
new data and scientific developments. Biblical scholars followed suit and focused with
renewed energy on the witness of the Scriptures.
3.1. Old Testament Basis for Eco-justice
The Hebrew Bible and Christian traditions are firmly placed in a cosmic context. God who
brought the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt and created from them the nation of Israel, who
revealed himself in Jesus Christ and who acted to overcome human sin through Jesus’ death
and resurrection, is presented as the Creator of the entire universe. Many scholars have
focused on the Hebrew Bible and its witness to God’s creation, epitomized in texts such as
Genesis 1 and 2; Isaiah 11; 35; 24: 1-13; 40-55; the Wisdom Traditions, and the Psalms.
Research around the issue of the land and of the meaning and insights of the Jubilee
(Leviticus 25) contributed to the rediscovery of the holistic perspective of the Hebrew Bible.
Some prominent concepts in Old Testament are:
a. Creation ex-nihilo7: Genesis 1:2 describes the primordial earth as formless and void.
It is significant for a theology of nature because it means that even the humblest
matter is an integral and fundamental part of God’s good creation, and this also has
profound ecological significance.
b. Creation as a Speech-act: God created the word through his powerful word and so
even the words of the Creator has creative energy. Genesis 1: 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24,
and 26 shows the response of the formless and void to the word of God.
c. The goodness of nature and the divine blessing: Seven times in Genesis 1, God
declares creation to be good. Non- human creatures are stated to be good without
reference to humankind. It is a divine judgment about creation. 8 The creature is good
and beautiful by virtue of its standing relationship with its Creator.
d. The Status of Humankind: The primeval history confers the special status of
humankind. With the creation of Adam in Genesis 2, God appears to give us a special
blessing. We are portrayed as being made in the image of God in contrast to other
creatures.
e. The prophetic visions of the Kingdom include a redeemed creation: In the
prophetic books we see the Kingdom includes all creation. For example, “The wolf
will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion
and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.” (Is 11:6). “The wolf and
the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be
the serpent’s food. They will do no evil or harm in all my holy mountain.” (Is 65:25).
“In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds
of the air and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I
will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.” (Hos 2:18).
f. The environmental implications of human disobedience: The prophet Jeremiah
notes how creation and creatures suffer the consequences of human disobedience:
“How long will the land lie parched and the grass in every field is withered? Because
7
A. Wati Longchar, ed. Green Theology (Kolkata: SCEPTRE, 2014), P.107.
8
Bernhard W. Anderson, ed. Creation in the Old Testament (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), 85.

4
 those who live in it are wicked, the animals and birds have perished.The ground is
cracked because there is no rain in the land; the farmers are dismayed and cover their
heads. Even the doe in the field deserts her newborn fawn because there is no grass.
Wild donkeys stand on the barren heights and pant like jackals; their eyesight fails for
lack of pasture” (12:4; 14:4-6).

3.2. New Testament Basis for Eco-justice

Besides the Hebrew Bible the New Testament especially the Gospels brings a lot of reflection
about ecology and importance of eco-theology. The Gospels in New Testament presents
Jesus as embedded in the natural world, which was clearly of extreme importance for his
daily living. After his death and resurrection his followers reflected deeply about the
relationship between the one whom they served and the whole creation. The notion of
‘cosmic Christ’ emerged and has informed Christian theology through the ages.
a.Nature in Gospel and its implication in Incarnation
Jesus is indeed a man and part of the human race, but, as we know with our ecological eyes,
his coming made him part of the web of creation, the web of life. His incarnation as Jesus of
Nazareth meant that he visibly and palpably entered not just the human race but the total
cycle of life, just as we do at our birth. The contemporary New Zealand theologian Neil
Darragh puts it this way: 9
‘To say that God become flesh is not only to say that God become human, but to say also that
God become an Earth creature, that God become a living being (in common with other living
beings), that God became a complex earth unit of minerals and fluids, that God became an
item in the carbon and nitrogen cycles; in other words, God became a vital element in that
ecosystem of which Jesus of Nazareth was a vital element.’
Besides in Gospel there is a fair amount of evidence that Jesus was very conscious of the
environment in which he grew up and that he related closely to it. After all he was raised in
the country, in Nazareth in Galilee, a relatively mountainous region in the north of Palestine.
Galilee has fertile river valley and consequently is an important agricultural region where a
good deal of grain is grown.
The Gospel accounts of Jesus’ ministry do not indicate any direct teaching about natural
world. However nature imagery does constitute an interesting part of his teaching about
God’s grace and cares for human beings. It is asserted that God’s cares sparrow; this became
the basis for the great assurance that God cares for individual human beings. As Jesus’
audience today we accept this great truth implicit in his teaching about God’s fatherly care
for human beings because of his fatherly care even for the least significant of creatures. (Luke
12:6-7).
Jesus affirmed that God created all things (Mk 10:6; 13:19; Mt 19:4) and that nature reflects
the activity of God, who sustains and cares for it (Mt 5:45; 6:26-30; Luke 12:6). He looked to
nature for ethical lessons (Mt 5:44-45) and used nature to teach spiritual truths (Mk 4:1-8, 13-
20; Mt 13; Luke 13:6-9; 21:29-30). Christian traditions have taken a vital element in Jesus’
9
Robert Barry Leal, Through Ecological Eyes- Reflections on Christianity’s Environmental
Credentials (Mumbai: St. Pauls, 2010), 138.

5
teaching and developed it concerning the natural world. This is his teaching about the Holy
Spirit in John 6:63: “The Spirit gives life.” He is “the Lord, the life-giver.” The Spirit plays a
role in sanctifying the natural world as well as humankind.
b.Nature in Pauline Christianity
A biblical bases theology of nature with reference to Paul and Pauline tradition in Roman
8:18-25 give us the inspiration, which is a biblical doctrine of nature. Here Paul deals with
the new law of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s gift of hope. The passage is very pertinent for
the whole creation- both human and the non-human: “The suffering of this present time are
not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with
eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility...
For in this hope we are saved.” By ‘creation’ Paul means the entire created order: angelic,
human and non-human.10
Paul does not teach that nature is itself fallen; rather its fulfilment is bound up with the
destiny of humankinds. It is our disobedience bring with it ecological crises. Our
disobedience presents the natural order from achieving its goal. Creation is cheated so long as
man, the chief actor in the drama of God’s praise, fails to contribute his rational part. Paul
sees Christ’s redemptive activity as effecting not just the reconciliation of
humanity with God but also the consummation of the entire created order. 11 The non-human
part of creation is itself able to share in the ‘glorious freedom’ which Paul envisages for the
covenant community.
In Colossians 1: 15-20 Paul says about Jesus as “He is the image of the invisible God, the
first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible
and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities- all things were
created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold
together....” As ‘first-born’ all things were created in, through and for Jesus Christ. He is the
agent of God’s creative activity, the frame of reference for creation, the divine context or the
created order and its eschatological end. These assertions are summarised in the statement
that in him ‘all things hold together’. He is the sole basis of unity and purpose in the cosmos.
We highlight Roman 8, as a key to understand the whole of Paul’s theology. Here Paul
speaks about the groaning of the whole creation and thereby anticipates the day of the new
heaven and the new earth, familiar in apocalyptic expectation. “.... when all things are
subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things under
him, that God may be all in him.” (1 Cor. 15: 22-28). “For from him and through him and to
him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Rom. 11:36). Descending to earth in the
midst of a renovated creation. (Rev. 21:1-4). There is one God, the Father, from whom are all
things and for whom we exist and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and
through whom we exist.” (1 Cor. 8:6). “In him all things hold together.” His rule is with the
Father (Col. 1:17) from beginning to end of the whole creation. He is the Father’s creative
Word (John 1:1) “fill all things” (Ephesians 4:10) “to unite all things in him, things in heaven

10
R.L. Sarkar, The Bible, Ecology and Environment (Delhi: ISPCK,2000), 98.
11
Richard C. Austin, Hope for the Land: Nature in the Bible (Nashville: John Knox Press, 1988),109.

6
and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:10). “New heavens and a new earth in which righteousness
dwells.”
Romans explicitly states that nature’s witness is sufficient for faith: “For since the creation of
the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly
seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (1:20).
Conclusion
The Creator created the whole universe and assigned human beings to take care of the
creation, that is, to till and keep the nature and whole creation. Human beings due to their lust
exploited the whole creation and argue that the Creator created the whole rest for their calm
and perfect living. They forget their duty of stewardship. Besides they have not given
sufficient care for the nature that resulting in many ecological problems that even questioned
the existence of human beings in the created world. But the Bible firmly uphold the
importance of considering and caring the universe for better tomorrow and it also states that it
is the duty of human beings to protect the environment as they are the co-creators of the
Creator.

Bibliography

Anderson. Bernhar W., ed. Creation in the Old Testament. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984.

Austin, Richard C. Hope for the Land: Nature in the Bible. Nashville: John Knox Press,
1988.

Clines, David J. A. The Bible and the Future of the Planet: An Ecology Reader. Sheffield:
Sheffield Academic Press, 1999.

Habel, Norman. The Land is Mine: Six Biblical Land Ideologies. Minneapolis: Fortress,
1995.

Leal, Robert Barry. Through Ecological Eyes- Reflections on Christianity’s Environmental

Credentials. Mumbai: St. Pauls, 2010.

LeMon, Joel M. and Kent Harold Richards, eds., Method Matters: Essays on the
Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Honor of David L. Petersen. Atlanta: Society of
Biblical Literature, 2009.

Longchar. Wati, Green Theology. Kolkata: SCEPTRE,2014.

Sarkar, R.L. The Bible, Ecology and Environment. Delhi: ISPCK,2000.