Christians Keeping Aquariums With Fish And Corals
The Biblical Basis for Christians Keeping Aquariums
The Bible provides the foundation for understanding the Christian perspective on keeping aquariums with fish and corals. The scriptures mention fish and coral in various contexts, often symbolizing God's creation and humanity's relationship with it.
The biblical account of creation in Genesis highlights God's dominion over the sea and its creatures, including fish [3]. The Mosaic law also contains provisions related to fish, pronouncing those without fins and scales as unclean [3]. Coral is mentioned in Job 28:18 and Ezekiel 27:16 as a valuable commodity, indicating its significance in ancient cultures [1, 2].
Theological Perspectives on Creation and Stewardship
Christian traditions have interpreted the biblical account of creation and humanity's role within it in various ways. The Reformed tradition, represented by John Calvin, emphasizes the importance of understanding God's creation and humanity's place within it. Calvin notes that God's creation is not just a distant act but an ongoing reality that surrounds and sustains humanity [4].
The concept of stewardship is also relevant to the discussion of keeping aquariums. Christians are called to be good stewards of God's creation, exercising care and responsibility towards the natural world. This principle can be applied to the keeping of aquariums, where Christians are encouraged to care for the fish and coral, appreciating God's creation and promoting its well-being.
Patristic Views on Creation and Beauty
The early Church Fathers also reflected on the beauty of God's creation and its significance for Christian life. Hippolytus, for example, encourages believers to contemplate the beauty of the world, including the natural world, as a way of appreciating God's handiwork [5]. This perspective suggests that keeping aquariums can be a way for Christians to appreciate and reflect on God's creation.
Implications for Keeping Aquariums
While the Bible does not directly address the keeping of aquariums, the principles of stewardship and appreciation for God's creation can be applied to this practice. Christians who keep aquariums can view their hobby as a way to care for God's creation and appreciate its beauty.
Sources
- Smith's Bible Dictionary “Smith's Bible Dictionary: Coral — (Ezekiel 27:16) A production of the sea, formed by minute animals called zoophytes. It is their shell or house. It takes various forms, as of trees, shrubs, hemispheres. The principal colors are red and white. It was used for beads and ornaments. With regard to the estimation in which coral was held by the Jews and other Orientals, it must be remembered that coral varies in price with us. Pliny says that the Indians valued coral as the Romans valued pearls. (Job 28:18)”
- Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: Coral — Heb. ramoth, meaning "heights;" i.e., "high-priced" or valuable things, or, as some suppose, "that which grows high," like a tree (Job 28:18; Ezek. 27:16), according to the Rabbins, red coral, which was in use for ornaments. The coral is a cretaceous marine product, the deposit by minute polypous animals of calcareous matter in cells in which the animal lives. It is of numberless shapes as it grows, but usually is branched like a tree. Great coral reefs and coral islands abound in the Red Sea, whence probably the Hebrews derived their knowledge of it. It is f”
- Smith's Bible Dictionary “Smith's Bible Dictionary: Fish — The Hebrews recognized fish as one of the great divisions of the animal kingdom, and as such gave them a place in the account of the creation, (Genesis 1:21,28) as well as in other passages where an exhaustive description of living creatures is intended. (Genesis 9:2; Exodus 20:4; 4:18; 1 Kings 4:33) The Mosaic law, (Leviticus 11:9,10) pronounced unclean such fish as were devoid of fins and scales; these were and are regarded as unwholesome in Egypt. Among the Philistines Dagon was represented by a figure half man and half fish. (1 Samuel 5:4) On this account t”
- CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 83: by not knowing how to set bounds to their offence. For where the Lord requires mercy they omit it, and give themselves up to immoderate severity. Thinking there is no church where there is not complete purity and integrity of conduct, they, through hatred of wickedness, withdraw from a genuine church, while they think they are shunning the company of the ungodly. They allege that the Church of God is holy. But that they may at the same time understand that it contains a mixture of good and bad, let them hear from the lips of our Sa”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 5: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian — ON THE PUBLIC SHOWS.[1] (part 8): cannot yet contemplate, he has that beauty of the world to look upon and admire.[3] He may gaze upon the sun's rising, and again on its setting, as it brings round in their mutual changes days and nights; the moon's orb, designating in its waxings and warnings the courses of the seasons; the troops of shining stars, and those which glitter from on high with extreme mobility,--their members divided through the changes of the entire year, and the days themselves with the nights distributed into hourly periods; th”