Keywords: Bible, Old Testament, nature, creation, plants, animals
Abstract:
The nature is one of the most important themes that we find in the Old Testament books. Plants and animals are present in the life of the old Jews, as they were descendants of cattle and sheep breeders. From the first two ancestors Adam and Eve that were created by God in a beautiful garden full of plants and animals that Adam named, this bond between the chosen people of Israel and nature kept going through the pilgrimage of the Jews in many lands, until they found the “promised land”. In this study I analysed some of the opinions of contemporary theologians regarding this relationship; I considered the bond between man and the land that they cultivate, but also we made a list of the most important plants and domestic animals present in the books of the Old Testament and we explained the role they had in the life of the old Jews, before Christ. As a case study, I considered the Psalm 103, a psalm that tells about nature and animals more than any other books of the Old Testament. The text is analyzed it in the light of commentaries made by the Holy Fathers of the Church. The conclusion I reached is that nature is one of the most important theme in the biblical events in the times before Christ, one that manage to influence significantly human behaviour. The bond between the old Jews and nature is one that can’t be broken, but one that can be used positively nowadays in the environmental and ecological crisis that have surrounded the whole world.
Pages: 35-67