Deserts and wells, harvest and droughts

A scientific approach to the biblical environment

In his now classic Guns, Germs and Steel Jared Diamond argued that environment determines culture. In the Near East, as opposed to the Pacific region in particular, the predominance of east/west mountain ranges that allowed the exchange of crops across climatically similar areas, and the ready availability of animals which were easy to domesticate (goats, cows, horses, as opposed to elephants, hippos, etc.) contributed to the comparatively rapid rise of civilization.  Culture can also determine environment — Easter Island being a drastically negative example.  So the people affect the land and the land affects the people.

In The Natural History of the Bible, a perhaps timely work, Daniel Hillel argues that the environment also shapes a people's religion.  He is not the first to claim that his own particular slant allows us to read the Bible "as it was meant to be read" (if ever there was a phrase that alerts us to a particular agenda it is that!). But in investigating the 'primal setting' of the Bible, an environmental scientist, as he somewhat defensively suggests, has much to say.  He is surprised that environment has been so little considered in biblical studies, surmising that the "environmental dimension should be traceable in the Hebrew Bible". 

Hillel is Jewish, and he restricts this study to the Hebrew scriptures (or Old Testament). From a Christian perspective this is perhaps appropriate as while the man Jesus was certainly of a particular time and place, his message, saving work, and the New Testament's elaboration of this is of course of universal importance, not being tied to a 'promised land'. 

The Natural History of the Bible: An Environmental Exploration of the Hebrew ScripturesDaniel Hillel(Columbia University Press)

In the Old Testament the land of Canaan — getting there, keeping and losing it — is central, but Hillel empha­sizes the Israelites as a "nation of seekers that was never confined entirely or for long to a single, distinct environment", in contrast to neigh­bouring nations. In Hillel's book various chapters follow Abraham and his descendants on their travels, filling in details of the climate, topography, flora and fauna that move on and off stage as the biblical story progresses. It is an at times fascinating description of the various 'domains' that the Hebrews traversed as they left Sumeria, settled in Canaan, sojourned in Egypt, wandered in the desert, re-settled Canaan, and were taken into exile. Hillel describes how Abraham's original homeland, the "riverine domain", with its sophisticated "hydraulic" system of canals and dykes eventually degraded the land by raising the water table and increasing salinity. In contrast, Egypt, which also relied completely on the water from the river was, as we would say now, more sustainable because of the Nile's annual flushing flood.  He takes us on a tour of the Sinai and other deserts of the region, with their caves, wadis and springs, and Canaan's rocky, low-yielding hills and fertile Jordan Valley.

The Bible is of course saturated with pastoral imagery. The Psalms abound in majestic descriptions of the natural world; its breadth and wonder obviously pointing at the majesty of its Creator.  The deserts and wells, and harvests and droughts often parallel the spiritual lives of the Israelites. Hillel suggests that Yahweh was a God who suited the Israelites' situation. As they were precariously situated between warring empires, a warrior God could protect them. The longing for a messianic age that runs through the Old Testament is predictable when the environment itself is so unpredictable.  

His is a wholly scientific approach. He rejects the miraculous (manna "must be regarded as completely mythical") for the mundane and the sometimes ingenious (he explains Moses drawing water from the rock as a breaking of the calcite accretions stopping a spring). He is a close and attentive reader — but not always. In his analysis of the crossing of the Red Sea, he notes that it is actually "Reed Sea", but in his explanation that the Egyptians were likely stopped by boggy marshes, fails to note the "strong easterly wind" that the Bible says parted the waters.

Hillel sees a process of abstraction and consolidation in the Israelites' construction of Yahweh, from a god who competes with other gods and is placated by sacrifices to one who is the only god and is served by his followers' application of justice and mercy. But this process could also be seen as God gradually revealing himself (a process culminating in Jesus). It is not merely that we focus on aspects of God that suit our situations (oppressed minorities emphasize the exodus from Egypt; in our individualistic society we emphasize God's relationship with ourselves as individuals). A message of the Old Testament is that God works in history, with whatever clay is available, in our time and in our environment.

by Nick Mattiske