Many passages from the Bible support and inform Jewish and Christian care for creation. While those listed below have been singled out here in order to highlight them, they do not exhaust scriptural wisdom on this topic, nor can they be regarded as isolated, self-contained or self-explanatory.

Such passages always part of longer texts, and have to be understood in the light of that larger context. They also come to us from ancient civilizations, whose language, ways of living on the land, and cultural assumptions are very different from our own. Moreover, members of religious communities also read, interpret, and apply these words in the context of their own communities’ centuries of experience, teaching, practices and spiritual life.

Even so, these short, condensed statements reward contemplation. They offer a wealth of inspiration and imagery, vivid stories, concise summaries of a faithful attitude toward the natural world and our place in it, and guideposts for learning to live responsibly on earth.

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

When God began to create heaven and earth — the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water —God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, a first day.

God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the water, that it may separate water from water." God made the expanse, and it separated the water which was below the expanse from the water which was above the expanse. And it was so. God called the expanse Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. God said, "Let the water below the sky be gathered into one area, that the dry land may appear." And it was so.

God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering of waters He called Seas. And God saw that this was good. And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation: seedbearing plants, fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.”