28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
31. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
comments:
First off, a brief comment on the multiplication of humankind: it has been said by some that when God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and replenish (or fill) the earth, that it was a commandment to do so. It may have been, depending on what the word forms and grammatical structure was in the original text, in its original language. Or, perhaps, it would be a commandment later, but may not have yet been in force, since it has also been commented, and may well be true, that Adam and Eve lacked the knowledge of how to have children, being in a state of innocence and having not yet eaten from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Or, it may well be that for some other reason (or in addition to a state of innocence) they may not have been able to have children just yet. One certain thing, is that the book of Genesis does not say that they had children until after they left the garden of Eden. More on these topics later...
...for now, what I want to say is this: regardless of what else was being communicated (or may not have been directly communicated) at this point, I believe that God was making a point of saying that humankind, like all other life God had put upon the earth, was given the gift of being able to reproduce, to have the ability to perpetuate one's own species. Even if they might not have been able to make use of that gift yet while in the garden of Eden, I believe it was a gift given to humankind, every bit as much as it was a gift given to all other forms of life that God created upon the earth, and that it was included in the part at the end of this chapter where it says that "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."
As for the rest of these verses: God had previously given to all other living things the ability to multiply, and told them to do so. God does the same for humankind, but also tells them a bit more about life on earth; specifically, that God gave every other living thing into their care. Recognizing humanity as having more ability to control or change everything around them, than all the other living things God had previously made, God did something he had not done with the other living things - he told the humans that he'd made, that they would have dominion over the other living things. In other words, that they would have responsibility or custodianship, with regard to other life on earth. Fortunately for them, God had created all the other living things with ability to sustain themselves, to find their own food and continue their own existence and that of their species, without needing to be constantly babysat or micromanaged all the time.
It does not say in any way, that God told them to do whatever they wanted with the earth and be irresponsible, in the same way that one does not give a toy to a child and tell them to break it. Instead, one gives a toy to a child and instructs the child to take care of it. With older children, one may give them a useful tool or something else of value and make a point of saying that they are responsible for it - it is their duty to take care of it and use it correctly. In the case that the thing given is something beyond their ability to repair or replace should they break it, they may well be warned that it is important they care for it properly, because they only get the one. If they mess it up, they have to make due because they're not going to simply be given another one, brand new.
I believe in a similar concept as applies to humankind's custodianship of the earth: God, acting as a parent might, gives to his children something that is not only valuable and useful, but life-sustaining and essential. He says that it is for their use, but similarly to when something is only loaned, he doesn't say he is giving it to them as though it would no longer belong to God who created it. He may not expect to get it back in the same pristine condition in the end, but he surely expects it to be responsibly used and not broken.
In this translation it uses the word "subdue" which, I think, reflects the view of many people in ancient times, of seeing the world as a dangerous place, where places without human population or under cultivation were viewed as wild, savage, and dangerous. For one to enter such places untrained and unprepared to protect oneself (or accompanied by someone so trained) could easily be fatal. To subdue and cultivate a place and tame or capture the animals, was to make it safe for all. The way this is written, to me simply reflects that humans were given permission to cultivate and tame, to make places safe for human habitation, and is not saying that humans are commanded to do so to absolutely everything - only as much as is necessary.
We now live in times where far more about the world is understood, and we have many ways of keeping safe when entering "wild" lands... and also there are less fully "wild" lands than there used to be. I think that "manage" might be a good suggestion as a word to currently reflect humankind's dominion over the world now, a responsibility to watch over and care for all of nature and the living things in it. Not that everything needs to be managed directly (or micro-managed), but that it should be looked after and given consideration. Our abilities have grown beyond only having the two extremes available of dealing with the world: to either avoid a place, or to take it over and cultivate it. Humankind doesn't need to tame and cultivate everything in order to care for it.
The responsibility is to care for things and protect them; not to exploit, abuse, neglect, or otherwise misuse or mistreat the living things under one's care and supervision.
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