Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 94 No. 5, 2024.
Review article
https://doi.org/10.53745/bs.94.5.5
Two Ecologically Debatable Imperatives in the Bible
Pero Vidović
orcid.org/0000-0002-0788-9231
; Philosophical and Theological Institute SJ in Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Ivan Antunović
; Philosophical and Theological Institute SJ in Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
This study examines two ecologically debatable biblical imperatives (Gen. 1:28), the verbs to subdue ( כבשׁ ) and to have dominion ( רדה )), using both a philological and a contextual approach. A broader biblical philological inquiry shows that each of the two verbs carries multiple nuanced meanings, including invasive ones, each dependent on its distinctive context. This suggests that the context of the two imperatives is the appropriate locus to study them. Their immediate context (Gen. 1:28) reveals them as parts of God’s blessing focused on life. Their entire context, the priestly creation text (Gen. 1:1–2:4a), yields three exegetical results hermeneutically relevant to both verbs: ethical and aesthetic, theological, and anthropological outcomes. These contextual features carry four hermeneutic criteria pertaining to the ecological nature of the two contested imperatives and on the ecological nature of the first creation text of the Bible (Gen. 1:1–2:4a) as well.
Keywords
Bible; ecology; subdue; have dominion; blessing; aesthetics; cosmos; God’s image.
Hrčak ID:
328735
URI
Publication date:
3.3.2025.
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