The Birth, the Curse and the Greening of Earth

Few people realize that the first character in the Bible (after the
headline sentence of Genesis 1.1) is Earth. What if we read the
creation story and the primal myths of Genesis from the perspective of
that key character, rather than from the anthropocentric perspective in
which our culture has nurtured us?
This is the project of Norman Habel's commentary, resisting the long
history in Western culture of devaluing, exploiting, oppressing and
endangering the Earth. Earth in Genesis first appears wrapped in the
primal waters, like an embryo waiting to be born. On the third day of
creation it is actually born and comes into existence with its green
vegetation as a habitat for life of all kinds.
It is hardly a moment before Earth is damaged by human sin and
suffers a divine curse, and then must cry out for justice for the blood
of Abel it has been compelled to drink. It is an even greater curse when
Earth, together with almost all life on Earth, comes near to total
annihilation at the Flood. Has Earth brought this fate upon itself, or is
it the innocent victim of human wrongdoing?
Genesis has God regretting the threat to Earth and its children that the
Flood has brought, and vowing to green Earth again, remove the curse,
restore the seasons and make a personal covenant of assurance with
Earth and its creatures.
The ecological approach of this commentary was first developed in the
five-volume multi-authored series, The Earth Bible (2000-2002). In
The Earth Bible Commentary, of which this is the first volume, a
group of scholars dedicated to the re-valuing of Earth pursue these
themes in their commentaries on the books of the Bible. Other
volumes in preparation are: Deuteronomy, Ruth, Job, Psalms Book 2,
Ecclesiastes, Isaiah 1-39, Joel, Matthew, Luke, Colossians,
Revelation.
The Earth Bible logo was created by Jasmine Corowa, an Indigenous
Australian