Antioch Biblical Seminary &College, pondicherry-14

An Assignments

By
A.Shyamjeyaraj

Submitted by Partially fulfilment of the Course

Bible and Eco Concerns

As A Part of Requirement for the Programmed

Master of Divinity

To
Eslish Bhuyan
On

13 August 2020
 M.Div. 1 year--A. Shyamjeyaraj 1

OUT LINE

S:no Title page no

1 Introduction 2
1.1, Why is this problem 2
1.2, Water pollution in the bible 3
2 Water pollution in the bible 3
3 What can we do to help 4
4 Environmental pollution Old Testment 4
5 Problem and the possibilities for the
New Testament in the environment 5
6 Pollution Control 7
7 Conclusion 8
 M.Div. 1 year--A. Shyamjeyaraj 2

WATER AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION IN OLD TESTAMENT

NEW TESTAMENT

1. INTRODUCTION

All religions respect the world around them and offer guidance on environmental issues.
Christians believe that the Earth belongs to God and that humans are stewards in charge of its
care. To look after the Earth, and thus God's dominion, is the responsibility of the Christian
steward. A useful quote explaining stewardship 1can be found in Psalm 24:1: "The Earth is
the Lord's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it ―Water has the power to
purify, to provide deliverance, Bible Verse: Genesis 1:10 says, "God called the dry ground
'land' and the gathered waters he called 'seas.' And God saw that is was good." From the very
beginning of time the waters were good, and we need to keep it that way. There are animals
living in the water and we need it to survive. Without it there would be no life at all.

1.1. Why is this a problem?

Water pollution causes the death of many aquatic animals. Dead animals will often be found
on beaches because of the pollutants in their natural environment. It also disrupts the food-
chain. Sometimes the animals at the bottom of the food chain eat lead and cadmium in the
water and when bigger creatures at those creatures they die from the pollutants.

1. 2. Water Pollution on old testament?

and the flight of Israel from Egypt (Exodus 14:1-15:21).Water Pollution is the contamination
of water, usually from human activities. Water pollution happens when unnatural objects are
put in bodies of water without being cleaned enough to get rid of harmful compounds. Most
of the time when water pollution happens it is because of humans. However, any change in
the water that will badly affect living things is water pollution. During the Moses period the

1
Stewardship is a Jewish Arbor day theological belief that human are responsible for the world
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river water was entirely turned into a blood because of the God punished the Egypt king due
to his disobedience to the moses words so God get punished we read in Exodus chapters

2. Water Pollution in the bible

In genesis it can also destroy evil and enemies as in the stories of the Flood (Genesis
6:17) 70 to 75% of the earth's surface is covered with water. Had an experience of bitter
water at Marah (Ex 15:23). The city of Jericho had its water sources polluted in the days of
Elisha (2 Kg 2:19-22). Isaiah also mentions ―water of affliction‖ which possibly is a supply
from a polluted source or due to scarcity (Isa 30:20 cf. 1Kg 22:27; 2Chro 18:26).

During Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry, the prophet implies the water sources of Judah
because of her disobedience, had been polluted by God (8:14; 9:15; 34:18). A ―water of gall‖
was all that she had to drink. Drinking water could be polluted by the feet of animals or
human activity (Ez 32:2,13; 34:18). In the face of polluted water sources, with limited
options, the agricultural life is hindered, poverty may set in, the people’s corporate existence
is threatened, and the reactions could be distressful

Reactions to Water Scarcity and Pollution At least two reactions that follow water scarcity
and pollution can be seen from two incidents above.

These reactions led to rescue of unpleasant water situations and succour for the life of the
people. First, Israel in the wilderness fearing its corporate existence and that of its
agricultural life because of the absence of water protested the situation to Moses (Ex 17:3.
15:22-25).

The reaction of the people awakened the consciences of their leader to the predicament; thus
motivating him to act appropriately. Secondly, conscious of the adverse effect of the source
of water on its land and the health of the people, despite its desirable location, the
inhabitants of Jericho made a community effort to manage this situation. In this instance,
the effort was directed at an appeal to Prophet Elisha to intervene. This he did by purifying
the water source miraculously by putting salt in a new bowl and subsequently
throwing it into the water source. (2 Kg 2;19-22)
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3. What can we do to help?

Reduce the use of fertilizers that will make its way to a body of water, especially if you live
on/near a lake don't throw/drop things in the water. A survey of water reveals that its
importance can be categorized into four, namely,

i) agricultural

ii) human and animal health

iii) ceremonial

iv) metaphorical importance

This section would briefly discuss each of these significances. Water and Agriculture,
it is a common knowledge that vegetation is refreshed by water from rainfall and dew.
Scripture captures this when it compares the righteousness as: Trees planted by the rivers or
water, that brings forth its Fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither (Ps 1:3).

4. Environmental Pollution on old testament

Sodom and Gomorrah were two cities mentioned in the Book of Genesis and
throughout the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and in the deuterocanonical books2, as
well as in the Quran and the hadith.

According to the Torah, the kingdoms of Sodom and Gomorrah were allied with the cities
of Admah, Zeboim, and Bela. These five cities, also known as the "cities of the plain" (from
Genesis in the King James Version), were situated on the Jordan River plain in the southern
region of the land of Canaan. The plain was compared to the garden of Eden as being well-
watered and green, suitable for grazing livestock. Divine judgment was passed upon them
and four of them were consumed by fire and brimstone. Neighbouring Zoar (Bela) was the
only city to be spared. In Abrahamic religions, Sodom and Gomorrah have become
synonymous with impenitent sin, and their fall with a proverbial manifestation of divine

2
The deuterocanonical book (from the Greek meaning “belong to the second canon”)
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retribution. The Bible mentions that the cities were destroyed for their sins, an attempt
at rape, haughtiness and egoism.

Sodom and Gomorrah have been used historically and in modern discourse
as metaphors for homosexuality, and are the origin of the English words, sodomite,
a pejorative term for male homosexuals, and sodomy, which is used in a legal context under
the label "crimes against nature" to describe anal or oral sex (particularly homosexual)
and bestiality. This is based upon exegesis of the biblical text interpreting divine judgement
upon Sodom and Gomorrah as punishment for the sin of homosexual sex, though some
contemporary scholars dispute this interpretation. Some Islamic societies incorporate
punishments associated with Sodom and Gomorrah into sharia. The story of the judgment of
Sodom and Gomorrah is told in Genesis 18–19. Three men come to Abraham in the plains
of Mamre. After the angels received the hospitality of Abraham and Sarah, the Lord reveals
to Abraham that he would confirm what he had heard against Sodom and Gomorrah, "and
because their sin is very grievous. This is the example of the environmental pollution God has
destroy the cities the land get polluted until now a day also

5.Problems and possibilities for the New Testament in the environment

While there are clearly problems with trying to read the New Testament as an
"environmental" document, there are also many promising possibilities. On the one hand, the
New Testament does not have extended descriptions of creation and of nature like the Old
Testament has. On the other hand, there is more in the New Testament about creation and
nature than first meets the eye.

Unlike the Old Testament, there are no stories about God's creation of the world, stories that
explicitly articulate conceptions of creation and the place of humans in creation. This
situation makes it difficult to discern the point of view of the New Testament writers on these
matters. However, the New Testament writings usually assume fundamental points of
continuity with Old Testament views about creation. Also, several New Testament writers
assign a role for Christ in creation as well as a role in redeeming the (whole) creation. In
addition, the New Testament tells many recreation stories -- stories about the restoration of
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creation and stories of people who recover their proper place in creation. These stories affirm
that the redemption of Christ does not abandon creation but rather fulfils creation.

Also, unlike the Old Testament, there are no extended passages in the New Testament that
describe the larger natural world, such as we find in some psalms or in certain passages in the
prophets or in the book of Job. Nevertheless, there is much more about the natural world in
the New Testament than interpreters have usually acknowledged. Views of nature are
embedded in or implied by the New Testament writings in a line here or a brief passage there
-- in a metaphor or a parable or a wisdom saying or a credal formula. When we treat these
brief passages as windows through which to discern the affirmations and assumptions about
nature behind these passages, then the whole writing in which they are embedded looks
different. In this process, the purpose is not to identify proof-texts but rather to see each
whole writing in a new way. Then we can integrate the particular view of creation into our
overall understanding of that particular writing.

Also, the New Testament is more anthropocentric than the Old Testament. Recent scholarship
has made it clear that salvation history in the Old Testament encompasses both human history
and natural history as one unified story. By contrast, salvation in the New Testament is
predominantly anthropocentric, that is, centered on human beings. For example, in the New
Testament there is no covenant that includes animals, no promises connected with the land,
and the metaphors for salvation are overwhelmingly anthropocentric -- as if redemption
existed for humans alone and not for all of creation.

Nevertheless, here again, there is much more for us to recover in the New Testament than
seems apparent at first sight. In the New Testament, as with the Old Testament, human
salvation and judgment are never divorced from the rest of the natural world -- a star appears
at Jesus' birth, the arrival of the kingdom involves the calming of storms at sea, the
oppression of humans will be accompanied by signs in the sun and stars, in the end time the
trees will produce fruit all year round, Jesus will return on the clouds, and so on. In the New
Testament, as in the Old Testament, there is no separation between human history and the
natural world. They are not even two different things kept together. Rather, there is simply
one world.

Finally, there are several dualistic aspects of thought in the New Testament not generally
found in the Old Testament. Such dualistic aspects of thought tend to discourage a concern
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for the natural world. They include a dualistic contrast between God's Spirit and the life of
the flesh, an apparent concern with individual, personal salvation after death in a heaven
separate from the earth, and an early Christian expectation that Jesus would return soon to
usher in the end of the world. In the view of many first century Christians, the form of this
world was passing away as the new age was arriving. Such other-worldly ideas tended to treat
this world not as an abiding home but simply as a place of pilgrimage on the way to heaven.

However, even the seemingly dualistic aspects of New Testament thought are not as negative
toward creation as they may seem. In the New Testament, Spirit fulfils the material; it does
not do away with it. It is an "orientation to the flesh" that the New Testament condemns, not
flesh or body as such. After all, as John testifies, the word became flesh. Also, in the New
Testament, there is no salvation apart from community, and there is no community apart from
the whole (re-)creation. North America Christians have tended to read the New Testament
with the individualistic eyes of our culture and failed to see the assumptions of the early
Christians that all life is communal life. Finally, the coming apocalyptic age focuses not on
heaven, but on a transformed earth, for the expectation was that Jesus was coming back -- a
view that supports the vision of the new creation as an affirmation of the world rather than as
a rejection or an abandonment of it.

6.Pollution control

If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his
beast, and shall feed in another man’s field; of the best of his own field, and of the best of his
own vineyard, shall he make restitution. If fire break out, and catch in thorns, so that the
stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field, be consumed therewith; he that kindled the
fire shall surely make restitution. (Ex. 22:5-6)

These verses make plain at least three facts. First, the Bible affirms the moral and legal
legitimacy of the private ownership of the means of production. Fields and cattle and crops
are owned by private individuals. Second, private property rights are to be defended by the
civil government. The State can and must require those people whose activities injure their
neighbours or their neighbour’s property to make restitution payments to those injured. Third,
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owners are therefore responsible for their own actions, and also for the actions of their
subordinates, including wandering beasts.

This combination of privately owned property, personal liability, and court enforcement of
private property rights is the foundation of capitalism. It is surely the foundation of long-term
economic growth. This property ownership arrangement is also important for the reduction
and allocation of pollution. Initially, these verses may seem self-explanatory. Nevertheless,
when we consider them in the light of the many intellectual and institutional problems related
to the whole question of pollution, their application in society becomes an enormously
complex task. Without these legal guidelines, however, we could not deal effectively with the
pollution problem. Contrary to many of the twentieth-century critiques of both capitalism and
pollution, socialist commonwealths have not produced reasonable, cost-effective, workable
solutions to the pollution problem. More than this: such solutions cannot be implemented in
socialist societies, for it is the private ownership of the means of production which is the
basis for a successful program of pollution control. In fact, it is common ownership—
bureaucratic ownership—which creates most of the economic incentives to pollute and
exploit the environment.

7.CONCLUSION

Water is a very significant substance in nature. It is pictured in the Bible as

very important to human life and activities. It affects human’s physical, socio-economic and
spiritual life. It scarcity is a threat to the existence e of a people. The water situation in the
Delta occasioned by the environmental challenges the region faces because of the oil and gas
industry and other human activities portends danger. Efforts must therefore be made, both the
Christian faith communities and the other interests to arrest the situation.
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All creation is the Lord’s, and we are responsible for the ways in which we use and abuse it.
Water, air, soil, minerals, energy resources, plants, animal life, and space are to be valued and
conserved because they are God’s creation and not solely because they are useful to human
beings. God has granted us stewardship of creation. We should meet these stewardship duties
through acts of love, care and respect. Economic, political, social, and technological
developments have increased our human numbers, and lengthened and enriched our lives.
However, these developments have led to regional defoliation, dramatic extinction of species,
massive human suffering, overpopulation, and misuse and overconsumption of natural and
non-renewable resources, particularly by industrialised societies. This continued course of
action jeopardises the natural heritage that God has entrusted to all generations. Therefore, let
us recognise the responsibility of the Bible to place a high priority on changes in economic,
political, social, and technological lifestyles to support a more ecologically equitable and
sustainable world leading to a higher quality of life for all of God’s creation. Until we are
willing to recognise the reparations that are involved in environmental destruction, we will
have a very hard time confronting the evil that leads to this degradation of the environment.
Every action that harms the ecology of the planet is ultimately a personal decision, and every
decision is either in accord with or in violation of the will of God.
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Bibliography

 Gary North, 1985. Reprinted with permission from the December/January 1986 issue
of Biblical Economics Today.
 Nwaomah, Sampson M. (2008). Water in the Bible in the Context of the Ecological
Debate in the Nigerian Delta. The Journal for Faith, Spirituality and Social Change.
JFSSC.