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Thursday, January 24, 2019

Why does the Bible say so little about nature's beauty?



orange bougainvillea
Bougainvillea flowers, with orange bracts

In an address a few years ago, Bible scholar N. T. Wright answered the question of the title of this post. His answer was that creation's beauty is an intrinsic property of nature, and, as such, not generally described just for itself.

God's creation surely is beautiful, and can be appreciated by anyone with normal or nearly normal vision.

I found a few Biblical references to the beauty of nature:
2 Chronicles 3:6a He garnished the house with precious stones for beauty:

Hosea 14:6 His branches will spread, and his beauty will be like the olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon. (Apparently referring to the fragrance of the plant life in Lebanon.)

Genesis 49:21 "Naphtali is a doe set free, who bears beautiful fawns. ..."

Ecclesiastes 3:11a He has made everything beautiful in its time.

Psalm 104:31 Doesn't mention beauty, but it sounds like it is there, in God's creation: Let Yahweh’s glory endure forever. Let Yahweh rejoice in his works.

James 1:11a For the sun arises with the scorching wind, and withers the grass, and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. (There are other verses which speak of plant life losing beauty, such as this one. But they do state that plant life has beauty, however temporary it may be. The Bible also speaks, in several places, about women's beauty, and Moses was said to be a beautiful child, but this post is about the beauty of non-human nature.)

Although the last chapter in the Bible doesn't specifically mention beauty, it's hard to read it without imagining great beauty in the new earth: Revelation 22:1 He showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2 in the middle of its street. On this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. The first chapter in the Bible says that everything God created was good, implying that it was beautiful.

Thank God for the beauty of God's creation, from the sub-microscopic to the cosmic!

2 comments:

Weekend Fisher said...

I think my favorite is Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God. It doesn't explicitly say "beauty" but the concept is there.

Take care & God bless
Anne / WF

Martin LaBar said...

Yes. I think it is. Thank you!