Universität Konstanz, Fachbereich: Literaturwissenschaft (Anglistik/Amerikanistik)
Hauptseminar: Another Anthropology: Visual and textual Representations
of Animals - ethical and aesthetical perspectives
Sommersemester 2007, 3. Semester

Animals and Their Importance in the Bible

by: Sandra Kochan

Table of Contents

1. Introduction  1

2. God the Creator  1

2.1 God Created Animals and Man 2
2.2 The Fall of Man 3
2.3 God’s Covenant with Noah  3

3. Animals in the Bible 3

3.1 Animals and God 4

3.1.1 Talking Animals in the Bible  6

3.1.1.1 The Serpent in the Garden of Eden  6
3.1.1.2 The Balaam’s Ass 6

3.2 Animals in Heaven  7
3.3 Animals Are Important to God 9
3.4 Animals and Man  10

3.4.1 The Treatment of Animals  12

3.4.1.1 What God Says About the Treatment of Animals 12
3.4.1.2 The Treatment of God’s Animals Today  14
3.4.1.3 Animals Are Sentient Beings  14

4. Conclusion 16

Bibliography 1

Supplement:
Bibliography

1. Introduction

God is the creator of everything. He breathed life into animals and man, and made them living souls. “The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all His creation.” (Psalm 145:9) God created man and animals according to His infinite love and wisdom.

God values everything He created, including animals, and He wants only the best for them.

2. God the Creator

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and He was pleased with all He made. But He wanted more. He wanted relationship and fellowship. His desire to pour out, and receive love in return remained unfulfilled. So He decided to create animals and man.

God created animals before he created man, and placed them in the perfect serenity that was then earth. He has breathed the same breath of life into all living beings from the beginning of time through today.

“How long will the land lie parched and the grass in every field be withered? Because those who live in it are wicked, the animals and birds have perished.” (Jeremiah 12:4)

“O Lord, how many are Your works! You made them all in wisdom. The earth is full of what You have made. There is the wide sea full of both large and small animals. There are too many for us to number.” (Psalm 104:24-25)

2.1 God Created Animals and Man

God was pleased with His animal creation. I believe God delighted in seeing His creation enjoying the life that He gave them. After God created animals, He created man.

Adam, the first man, was formed by God′s hands from the clay of the earth “in God′s own image,” and was given the directive to care for the earth and her inhabitants. God brought every one of His animals to Adam to see what he would call them. He declared His ownership over animals when He said: “For every animal among the trees is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.” (Psalm 50:10-11) “Let the waters be full of living things. Let birds fly above the earth in the open space of the heavens. God made the big animals that live in the sea and every living thing that moves through the waters by its kind, and every winged bird after its kind. And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:24-25)

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man like Us and let him be head over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every thing that moves on the ground.’ And God made man in His own likeness. In the likeness of God He made him. He made both male and female. And God wanted good to come to them, saying, ‘Give birth to many. Grow in number. Fill the earth and rule over it. Rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’ (Genesis 1:26-28)

“God wanted good to come to them, saying, ‘Give birth to many. Grow in number. Fill the waters in the seas. Let birds grow in number on the earth’… Then God said, ‘Let the earth bring into being living things after their kind: Cattle and things that move upon the ground, and wild animals of the earth after their kind.’ And it was so. Then God made the wild animals of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every thing that moves upon the ground after its kind. And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:20-22)

He then entrusted them into Adam’s care, and He commanded both man and animals to be fruitful and multiply.

Our generous and caring God then decided that it was not good for man to be alone and he created a being from Adam′s rib to be a help meet for him.

2.2 The Fall of Man

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