Dominion and Eschatology
That the two creation stories appear to differ in defining humankind’s relationship to God’s creation has sparked endless debate about precisely what role humankind plays in managing God’s creation. In the first creation story (Genesis 1:1-2:3), humankind is given dominion over God’s earthly creation (Genesis 1:26,28). In the second (Genesis 2:4-2:25), the mandate given to humankind in relation to the earth is “to till it and to keep it” (Genesis 2:15). Those who emphasize dominion argue that tilling and keeping is to be understood within the context of dominion. Those who emphasize stewardship argue that dominion is to be understood as tilling and keeping rather than having ownership or an absolute right to control.
Psalm 8 offers a commentary on the first creation story that leaves little doubt about how the psalmist understands dominion. He marvels at the majesty and glory of God in Psalm 8:1-3, then marvels at the lofty role assigned to humankind in Psalm 8:4-8:
…what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him little less than the angels, and you have crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the Beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea.
As we know, however, parts of the Torah are prophetic. For example, the Fathers saw the protoevangelium (or the first Gospel) in Genesis 3:15 (“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”) as a prophecy fulfilled by the Immaculate Conception and Jesus’ victory over the evil one through his death and resurrection. Similarly, many of the Psalms (such as Psalm 22) were also seen as prophetic both in the Jewish messianic tradition and by the Church Fathers. Is it possible that the promise of dominion is also prophetic?
In his commentary on Psalm 8 (Hebrews 2:5-9), this is precisely how the author of Hebrews understands dominion. As we look about us, he argues, we see no evidence that humankind exercises dominion; as he expresses it, “we do not yet see everything in subjection to him” (Hebrews 2:8). The first creation story in Genesis and Psalm 8 suggest that God had left nothing outside the control of humankind. But a cursory examination suggested to the author that, at least in the first century, humankind controlled very little. In our own day, despite progress in some areas, the fact that we remain subject to elemental forces such as floods, wildfires, and storms, that we still die of diseases that we can’t cure and don’t fully understand, that we are at risk of destroying our common home, and that we have difficulties controlling even ourselves, suggest that very little has happened to call the author’s assessment into question. While we may like to deceive ourselves into thinking that humankind was given dominion, the evidence suggests that we lack the tools, the knowledge, and above all the relationship to God necessary to exercise dominion.
How, then, do we resolve this disparity between the two creation stories, and how are we to understand dominion? We do not see humankind having dominion, the author argues, “but we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels…” (Hebrews 2:9). In other words, the author views God’s gift of dominion to humankind as prophetic, as is the psalmist’s extolling humankind. Jesus is the first realization of that prophecy; just as Paul wrote that He was the first fruits of the resurrection, so the author of Hebrews sees Him as being the first fruits of dominion. The full realization of the promise of dominion, in other words, lies in the future, in the new heaven and the new earth after the Second Coming (see chapters 21 and 22 of the Revelation of St. John).
To put this another way, our mandate is to till and to keep, to be good stewards of all that God has placed around us, and to do our best to preserve God’s creation. Dominion must wait for another day.