When the Earth Tremble
The news of the deadly earthquake in Venezuela reached me while I was writing a commentary on Genesis (1:26-28).
Here in Peru, the announcement has aroused immense emotion: the country hosts more than a million exiles who have fled the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro, heir to Hugo Chávez. In the muffled silence of waiting, many await news of their loved ones.
Despite international solidarity and the deployment of highly qualified rescue teams, the consequences in terms of: loss of human life, destruction of infrastructure, and the number of missing persons cannot yet be calculated; but every human life lost is an irrecoverable wound for each one of us.
Peru is the most active seismic zone on the planet, with daily tremors (when they are below 3.0 on the Richter scale, they go unnoticed). The country has known major historical earthquakes, such as: The one in Lima-Callao in 1746 (magnitude 9.0) or the terrible Áncash earthquake in 1970, where around 70,000 people died and which left close to a million people homeless
The Ancient Made New
Inca megalithic cities and constructions—Cusco, Sacsayhuamán, Machu Picchu, or Huayna Picchu—defy time and devastating earthquakes without any mortar. Their secret?
Foundation stones carved in jigsaw shapes to oscillate with the ground.
Trapezoidal elevation blocks with inverted joints that hold together by the sole force of pressure, in the likeness of the keystones of our medieval cathedrals.
After the devastating Áncash earthquake, anti-seismic technologies in Peru incorporate the traditional knowledge inherited from the Incas into modern construction technology… and with results! Today, Peru has one of the strictest and most effective anti-seismic legislations in the world.
Personal Note: On June 15, 2025, at 11:37 a.m., I was in a videoconference with the United States when a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck Lima-Callao. My correspondent saw the house where I was living move, the walls shake, and was terrified (so was I). The epicenter was 37 kilometers away in the seacoast. There were two losses of human life; in areas of wild urbanization, the destruction was immeasurable.
After the earthquake, I moved to the twenty-second floor of a 24-story tower. When we have an earthquake, I literally see my building oscillate and my stomach turns, but the building stands firm!
These cataclysms, born from the inescapable friction of tectonic plates, remind us that nature is not an idyllic Walt Disney world. Since we cannot oppose geological forces, it is necessary for us to acquire the wisdom to cohabit with them in a prudent harmony. It is precisely upon this concrete relationship with the world that the Hebrew Bible invites us to reflect.
Master of Nothing but Servant of All
It is under this light that one must reread the text of Genesis in Hebrew and in its first translations into Greek and Latin of the key passages:
Genesis 1:26 And God said: "Let us make the human being [Heb. Adam, from adamah 'earth'] in our image and likeness, and let him [Adam/the human being] watch over/preside [Heb. yirdu] over the fish of the sea [...]". 27 So God created the human being in His image [...], male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them and said to them: "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and watch over it; let them watch over [Heb. yirdu] the fish of the sea [...]". (Personal translation)
At this stage, Adam is not a proper name.
The Septuagint (LXX) translates it as ánthrōpon (the one who lifts his gaze to what he sees).
The Vulgata translates it as hominem (accusative of homo). This latest term shares in Latin the same root as humus (the arable earth); a surprising wordplay with the Hebrew adamah (the fertile soil) that will burst forth in Genesis 2:7. Adam, [the human being] is "the Earthly," arisen from the soil of the earth.
Created male (Zacar) and female (Nekeva)—the Septuagint translates ársen kaì thêly and the Vulgata masculum et feminam—this couple, this binomial receives a common and shared responsibility. By passing from the singular to the plural ("let them watch over"), the text establishes that the mission falls upon both genders, bearers of the Divine Image.
To Watch Over, to Care For, and to Preside
The first translations of the biblical text perceived the fluidity of the Hebrew very well:
The Septuagint translates yirdu by archétōsan (a lordship of service).
The Vulgata by praesit ("to preside," like a primus inter pares in the midst of his equals). To avoid repetition in verse 28, the Vulgata uses dominamini (from the verb dominor, to dominate, the dominus, the master of the house).
Now, the root of dominor leads us precisely to the domus (the house). The human being is the administrator who takes care of the dwelling so that it remains a safe place for all those it shelters.
Yirdu rejects possessive domination. Faced with the forces of an earth that trembles as well as the fragility of the living, the human is not an absolute master, but the humble and responsible servant of the balance, of a relative safety of the world that has been entrusted to him and in which he is called to live.
Joseph Bravo ─ Moshe-Hayim Bravo