You asked
Genesis 2:15
“Yahweh God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it.”
This verse describes the initial role given to humanity shortly after creation in the second chapter of Genesis. It portrays God placing the first human in a specially prepared garden, with a specific purpose related to its care and maintenance.
What responsibility do we feel towards the natural world given our own place within it?
Then — the setting
This passage, found in the Yahwist account of creation (often dated to the 10th-6th centuries BCE), describes humanity's initial purpose. The Garden of Eden serves as an ideal, pristine environment, and the command to 'cultivate' and 'keep' it suggests a relationship of active care and protection rather than passive enjoyment or mere exploitation. For an agricultural people, this instruction would resonate with the daily rhythms of farming, animal husbandry, and land management, emphasizing responsible interaction with the earth as a divine mandate.
Across the Testaments
The Old Testament, particularly here, establishes humanity's original role as stewards of creation. The New Testament doesn't introduce a new command for creation care but deepens the theological understanding of stewardship. It often links stewardship to broader themes of discipleship and ethical living, seeing all of life, including material resources and the natural world, as entrusted by God. Passages like Colossians 1:16-17 emphasize that all creation was made through and for Christ, giving creation an inherent value beyond its utility to humans. This suggests that caring for creation is part of honoring its Creator and Redeemer, framing stewardship as an act of worship and obedience within the new covenant.
Keep thinking
Read alongside it
This psalm speaks of humanity being given 'dominion' over God's creation.
This passage highlights Christ's role in the creation and sustaining of all things.
This describes creation groaning and awaiting liberation, connecting its fate to humanity's.
Ask your own follow-up