Biblical Geography and the Dominion Mandate

by E. Calvin Beisner, Ph.D.
National Spokesman
Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation

One common element in the teaching of the “creation care” movement is that Genesis 2:15 (“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”) defines and limits Genesis 1:28 (“And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion [or “rule”] over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”). Add to this the assertion that the Hebrew translated “work” in 2:15 properly means “serve,” and the advocates of “creation care” tell us that we are to exercise “dominion” by “serving” and “keeping” the Garden.

While this sounds humble and pious, it is actually quite mistaken, for several reasons.

First, in Genesis 1–2, “Earth” and “Garden” don’t denote the same thing. “Earth” is the whole planet; “Garden” is a particular place: “in Eden, in the east” (2:8), “out of” which a river flowed and divided into four, watering the whole Earth (2:10–14). Thus, what God instructs Adam to do with the Garden doesn’t necessarily equate with, or define, what He instructs him to do with the Earth as a whole.

Second, the word translated “work” in 2:15 (Hebrew abad) can mean “serve,” but only when its direct object is a person (or persons), not when its object is inanimate things. In 2:15, its direct object is the Garden, not a person, and so it is properly translated ‘work” or “cultivate.”

Third, the verbs denoting what Adam is to do toward the Earth in 1:28 (“subdue and rule”) contrast markedly in meaning from the verbs denoting what he is to do toward the Garden in 2:18 (“cultivate and guard”).

Drawing those together, it becomes clear that the two verses relate not by 2:15’s defining 1:28 but by their describing dramatically different activities toward dramatically different things. Adam and his descendants are to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over” it (1:28) and to “work and keep” (or “cultivate and guard”) the Garden.

Here’s the big picture: Mankind begins his residence on Earth few in number and inhabiting one very small, restricted location—the Garden, which differs from the rest of the Earth in that it is already paradisiacal, fully subdued and under godly dominion, whereas the rest of the Earth has yet to be subdued and brought under godly dominion. The one is Garden; the other is wilderness. But Adam and his descendants are instructed to transform the wilderness into garden.

The “creation care” movement thus tends to obscure the meaning of the dominion mandate in 1:28 by weakening its forceful verbs, “subdue and rule”; ignoring Biblical geography, confusing Garden with the whole Earth; mistakenly taking “work” as “serve” (making mankind the servant of that over which he is commanded to “have dominion”); and ignoring the progressive transformation of the Earth by godly human dominion implicit in the relationship of these two key verses.

Godly Earth stewardship thus requires subduing and ruling the Earth, transforming it from wilderness into garden, doing all things to the glory of God, accountable to Him, and for the benefit of our neighbors, incorporating both of the two Great Commandments, to love God, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

For further development of a truly Biblical theology and ethic of Earth stewardship, see our Resisting the Green Dragon book and DVD series.

Recent Significant Developments

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Can a Group of Scientists in California End the War on Climate Change? (Ian Sample; Guardian.co.uk)
A new project hopes to start from a clean slate and reassess global warming claims, pro and con, in a process marked by transparency and interdisciplinary expertise. But there are some hints of bias from the start, e.g., in this statement: “We are doing this because it is the most important project in the world today. Nothing else comes close.”

The Many Benefits of Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment (Science and Public Policy Institute)
A new book outlines 55 benefits of CO2, and shows how plants thrive on CO2.

Economics & Energy

Rush to Renewable Energy Generates "Enormous" Financial Questions in Europe (Jeremy Lovell; The New York Times)
“The spectacular growth in recent years in the number and size of renewable energy sources across the European Union—particularly wind and solar power—driven by high subsidies and government rhetoric on climate change has left the national electricity grids scrambling to cope.” I.e., the renewable sources are too intermittent and unreliable to sustain steady power for electrical grids.

The Third-World Ambition of the UK (Bishop Hill)
The switch from fossil fuels to wind and solar is a switch from inherently stable, constantly available electricity to inherently unstable, intermittently available electricity. The head of the UK’s National Grid concedes as much in comments in the UK Daily Telegraph. As Ron Arnold points out, the current Administration’s energy policy amounts to the same thing for America.

Law, Regulation, & Litigation

Dem to Co-Sponsor Bill Blocking EPA (Darren Samuelsohn; Politico)
Blocking the EPA is one issue both Republicans and Democrats can agree on, and push.

Upton, Hastings Athwart Obama Agenda Yelling "Stop!" (The Washington Examiner)
Upton and Hastings are at the center of the House Republican majority's efforts to stop two major items on President Obama's agenda: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson's attempt to implement by bureaucratic fiat a regulatory version of the cap-and-trade program that was rejected by Congress, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's effort to create out of whole bureaucratic cloth a destructive new public lands designation.

Politics & Debate

Desertec and Environmentalism's North African Campaign (William Kay; Environmentalism is Fascism)
Enormous solar project planned for North Africa gets support from a strange assortment of financial, industrial, and political groups.

One Giant Leap Forward—New Hampshire Smacks Down Cap-and-Trade (Phil Kerpen & Corey R. Lewandowski)
The state of New Hampshire is cutting down cap-and-trade. It's time for the rest of the country to do so as well.

Meet the Critics: Christopher Essex, Ph.D

Landmark Documents from the Cornwall Alliance

E. Calvin Beisner, Ph.D., Founder and National Spokesman
Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation

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