Eco Theology: To Serve and Protect

Eco Theology: a series which explores the theology of creation care in bite-size chunks

To Serve and Protect

If there’s one thing you learn when you study other languages in depth, it’s that translations do not fully capture what was originally said.  Translation is not mathematics.  There is not a 1 to 1 relationship between the meanings of most words.  For example, if my bilingual daughter uses the word “guardar” I might translate it as “keep” when I tell my wife.  But that might leave out much of the original meaning of the word which can also be "guard, watch over, put away, save, observe, bear, protect."  You see, when separated from the original language, the event, and the cultural and linguistic context, we face many challenges in understanding what was meant.  This is why computers, as smart as they are, still have so much trouble translating from one language to another.  Likewise, that is why we often have such trouble understanding what the Bible says or why we misunderstand certain things when relying only on the translation of it.

This is the case with some key creation care scriptures.  When read out of context or without an informed understanding of the original text, we can miss the meaning.  So, today we will look at one of those passages in depth to better understand its meaning and our theology.

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.

Genesis 2:15

It is unfortunate that this verse has often been translated inadequately and that the deeper meaning does not come through in the English translations. As such, this verse is often skipped over as the language merely appears to apply to gardening.  If I understand it only as tilling the earth (in an agricultural sense), I can think that Adam was a farmer and I am not.   So I might think that this verse does not apply to me.  However, a look at the original language reveals there is a much deeper meaning behind this scripture. The Hebrew word here translated as “till” is abad. The basic meaning of this word is “to serve,” which implies a very different relationship.

Also, the word translated as “keep” is shamar. While this is not a bad translation is does not capture the fuller sense of the word which includes the ideas of: guarding, watching over, protecting, taking care of, preserving, and devoting oneself to.  This implies a much more caring relationship. Calvin DeWitt says, “God calls us to give the garden of creation our caring service.”  God has placed man and creation in a symbiotic relationship.  Man is not simply told to use creation for his own benefit, but is to devote himself to the care and preservation of creation.

Furthermore, this helps me to better understand Genesis 1:28 in which God tells mankind that they should subdue the earth and have dominion over living things.  We often think of this dominion as dominating.  But what we see here is more of a servant leadership.  Additionally, in Genesis 1 we see God using “sovereign power in a way that shares life and life-giving power, and human beings are in a position to master creatures in an appropriate way because they share these characteristics” (From John Goldingay’s Old Testament Theology).  If our great God, the Creator, uses His power in this way and we are made in His image, how do you suppose we ought to use our power?  Mankind’s use of authority should not inhibit and damage creation but free and develop it so that it may flourish.

In my personal journey, understanding this difference is where things really began to change.  No longer did I have this mentality that I should dominate the earth for my own selfish purposes.  Rather, I realized that we have been called into a caring, protecting, symbiotic relationship with God’s creation.  What a difference!

Also consider:

Eco Theology: It’s All Good

Definitions: Creation Care

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