Ecology and Genesis 1:26-28

1
Ecology and Genesis 126-28

• Anthony Ceresko, OSFS (2002)

2
The Anti-monarchical tradition in Gen 126-28

• Cerekos reading against the grain
• Against the common understanding that
• kabash and radah
• are a language of royal absolute power.

3

• The OT bears an anti-monarchical tradition
• Roots in the origins of Israel
• Bitter experience of oppression and exploitation
  of fleeing refugee slaves from Egypt led by Moses
  and protesting Canaanite peasant farmers.
• A theory of Norman Gottwald, Tribes of Yahweh
  (1979)

4

• Other anti-monarchical texts
• Sauls tragic end
• Davids sin with Bathsheba

5
Rafaello
6

• Solomons mistakes
• Hammas (forced labor)
• Ol (heavy yoke)
• He and 1000 wives and concubines
• Worshipped Chemosh and Molech
• Kings being condemned is pervasive.
• Read the irony of the blind and the lame in 2 Sam
  56-10
• in the Prophetic literature,
• also in Wisdom Literature (book of Job)

7

• This text (Gen 126-28) rejects the monarchical
  model.
• Note what is being emphasized
• Interdependence of all creation
• Not human power over creation.
• Solidarity and mutuality with nature.
• Hence, an opening toward equality.

8
Kabash and Radah as rebuilding the earth

• Cereskos reading with the grain
• With the common understanding that these two
  words mean human being subdues the earth.
• Subdue in the sense of rebuild, restore, put in
  order
• The historical context
• Critical life just after the exile
• Poverty, see Nehemiah 51-5
• Lack of clean water see Isaiah 4117-18

9

• Genesis 126-28 divine call for human beings to
  make use of their intelligence and technological
  ability to
• Build and to plant
• Construct towns and cities, roads and bridges
• Farm and harvest.