Formed from the dust
From Reconciling understandings of Scripture and Science
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Made from the dust, earth or clay
The Bible describes all of humankind as made from the dust or from earth or clay.
- Genesis 2:7 — made by the potter
- Numbers 23:10 — "dust" as a collective image of the descendants of Jacob
- Job 10:8-9 — fashioned like clay
- Psalm 103:13-14 — all of us, God's children
- See 1 Corinthians 15:47 and F.F. Bruce: "a man of dust" — who was "the first man"?
Birth and death
The images of people being made by God from earth or clay, and the related image of returning to it in death, are common in the Bible.
Examples:
Mother Earth
A further extension of the image of humankind being formed from earth is the personification of "Mother Earth". This is scriptural, but rare.
- Job 1:21 — very clear in the literally translated KJV, NRSV etc.
- John 3:4 — perhaps an allusion to Job (but it was a common idea – see reference to Sirach 40:1 below.)
- Ecclesiastes 5:15 — not explicit, but see REB's free translation at the link
- Sirach 40:1 — also very clear in the KJV, and other translations
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