Eco-Judaism: Does It Exist? 7
books portrayed the land and cities not only desolate of human beings, but also reinhabited by wild animals while the world of plants reconquered more slowly. God had given the Promised Land to the Israelites , but they had to conquer it, till it, and struggle with all the forces of nature in order to make it productive. Their efforts would be blessed or cursed according to their religious devotion(Deut. 27 and 28). The early postbiblical literature of the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha held a similar view. The poetic passages were filled with awe at the splendor of nature, but they also mentioned the hardships connected with overcoming the world of nature.
Biblical Theology and Idolatry
The biblical poet-theologian saw the natural world as the realm of the creative, all-powerful God . These individuals sought to make this world view that of the ordinary people, but they found it difficult. In the less poetic day-to-day intercourse of the people, the distant God was often in danger of being replaced by nature deities. Nature worship or propitiation had to be combated.“Sacred trees” and“groves” as well as the sun, moon, and stars(Ex. 20:4), were represented by specific pagan deities; they posed problems as did the neighboring religions, which also deified aspects of nature.
Some confusion about nature worship remained in the patriarchal tales as well as in later biblical tales. God appeared to Abraham under a sacred tree(Gen. 12:6). The patriarchs and later biblical figures did not hesitate to worship and sacrifice under sacred trees(Gen. 21:33; Josh. 24:26; Jud. 6:11; 1 Sam. 22:6, 31:13). Worship“on every high hill and under every leafy tree” was denounced(Deut. 12:2; Jer. 2:20) but seemed to have been widely practiced. The menorah may have represented an assimilated remnant of the sacred tree. The golden calf(Ex. 32) as well as the golden mice(1 Sam. 5:4) indicated nature worship. The attacks of the prophetic books against idolatry demonstrated that this remained a major religious problem.
The idols of the countryside and their temples in towns and villages were dedicated to nature deities who needed to be invoked, especially for appropriate weather conditions. The famous scene of Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount