The Environment in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures

Why is the Environment a Religious Concern?

The Environment in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures

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Religious text has played an indispensable role for centuries in forming and sustaining the Christian and Jewish communities. The Bible is an integral part of the worship, teaching, spirituality, and ordering of community life. It has inspired great art, music and literature and motivated acts of service and movements for social reform. Its language and ideas have become common currency even in the wider “secular” culture.

In times of crisis, perplexity and challenge — for societies as well as for individuals — Jews and Christians turn to the Bible with new questions and concerns. In doing so, they may become sensitized to previously overlooked themes and texts that penetratingly address present challenges.

So it is that, with eyes opened to planetary deterioration and faced with clashing environmental values and visions, people of faith have found fresh insights in ancient texts that speak to the new responsibilities born of our unprecedented powers over creation. Well-known and well-loved stories — the Creation, the Garden of Eden, Noah’s Ark, Job hearing the voice in the whirlwind — acquire striking new dimensions of relevance to our times.

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As they have re-read the Bible in the light of the environmental crisis, the faithful have been reminded that the world can only be understood and valued rightly by seeing it in relation to its Creator, and that God supports and sustains the whole community of life with loving care. They have recollected how the diversity, beauty, and integrity of the natural world manifest the divine wisdom and glory. Through religious texts they have heard anew the call to be keepers of the earth and to seek justice for the poor and vulnerable.

Selected Passages

The seven days of creation
Genesis 1:1-2:4a (Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation)

Noah and the flood
Genesis 6:9a-14, 17-22; 7:11-14, 18-19, 21; 7:23b-8:3; 8:15-19 (New Revised Standard Version)

Adam in the Garden of Eden
Genesis 2:7-9, 15 (New American Bible)

God's covenant with the earth
Genesis 9:12-15 (New International Version)

The sabbath commandment and creation:
Exodus 20:8-11 (JPS)

And rest for animals
Exodus 23:12 (JPS)

The sabbatical year
Exodus 23:10-11 (NAB)
Leviticus 25:2b-7 (NAB)

Against wanton destruction
Deuteronomy 20:19-20 (NRSV)

Protecting species
Deuteronomy 22:6-7 (NIV)

Precaution
Deuteronomy 22:8 (JPS)

Mysteries of creation
Job 38:25-27, 39:1-4 (NAB)

Limits to human dominion
Job 39:9-12 (NRSV)

Divine majesty and human dignity
Psalm 8 (NIV)

The earth is God’s
Psalm 24:1-2 (JPS)

Let the earth rejoice
Psalm 96:11-13 (NAB)

God sustains a diverse creation
Psalm 104:10-32 (NRSV)

Creation’s praise of God
Psalm 148 (NIV)

Nature rejoices at God’s redemption of Israel
Isaiah 55:10-13 (JPS)

God’s renewal of creation
Isaiah 65:17-25 (NAB)

Creation suffers from human sin
Jeremiah 4:23-26, 12:4 (NRSV)

God’s people restored on the land
Ezekiel 34:25-31 (NIV)

God’s care for creation
Matthew 6:25-30 (NAB)

Jesus’ example of dominion as service
Matthew 20:25-28 (NRSV)

The Word in creation and incarnation
John 1:1-14 (NIV)

Creation reveals God
Romans 1:20a (NAB)

Creation waits for redemption
Romans 8:19-23 (NRSV)

Christ and creation
Colossians 1:15-20 (NIV)

God the Creator
Revelation 4:11 (NAB)

Destroying those who destroy the earth
Revelation 11:18 (NRSV)

New Heaven and New Earth
Revelation 21:1-2, 22:1-2 (NIV)

More in this category: « Selected Scripture Passages Links To OnLine Bibles »

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