NATURE, NATURAL (לֵחַ, H4301, γένεσις, φύσις, φυσικός, ψυχικός). There is no hypostatization or personification of nature in the Bible as is found commonly in Gr. philosophy, nor anywhere the enunciation of a full-blown cosmology, for both the OT and NT speak in terms of ultimates rather than secondary causation, and view creation primarily as a backdrop to redemption. The closest one gets in Scripture to nature as a separate entity functioning on its own is in the wording “all the host of them” of Genesis 2:1 in reference to the totality of God’s creation (the LXX trs. צְבָאָֽם as ὁ κόσμος), Paul’s statement in Romans 1:26 regarding the ungodly changing the course of “nature” (φύσις, G5882), and the apostle’s appeal in 1 Corinthians 11:14: “Does not nature itself (ἡ φύσις αύτή) teach you?” The emphasis in Scripture is on the facts that (a) God the Father is Creator, Sustainer, and Ruler of all (Gen 1; 2; Isa 44:24; Amos 4:13); (b) God is omnipresent in all He has created (Ps 139:7-12); (c) Christ the Son also must be spoken of in terms of Creator, Sustainer, and Ruler (John 1:3; Col 1:16, 17; Heb 1:10-12); (d) the order and beauty of the universe reflect and proclaim the existence, wisdom and power of God (Job 38:4-39:30; Pss 8:1-4; 19:1-6; 104:1-32; 136:6-9; Prov 8:22-31; Rom 1:19, 20); and (e) one may learn from God’s bounty and care in nature regarding God’s provision and concern for man (Matt 6:25-34; Luke 12:22-31).

Of the words often tr. “nature” and “natural,” φύσις, G5882, denotes (a) a condition, endowment, or status inherited from one’s ancestors, as in reference to those who “by nature” are Jews (Gal 2:15), heathen (Rom 2:27), “children of wrath” (Eph 2:3), or the “natural” and “wild” branches of the olive tree (Rom 11:21, 24); (b) innate characteristics and instinctive dispositions, as of false gods (Gal 4:8), men (Rom 2:14; James 3:7b), or even God (2 Pet 1:4); (c) the established order within nature, as of sexual relations (Rom 1:26b) or decorum (1 Cor 11:14); and (d) a creature or product of nature (James 3:7a). In Deuteronomy 34:7 לֵחַ, H4301, has the connotation of vigor usually associated with youth and stems from the idea of “freshness” or “moistness.” The adjective φυσικός, G5879, is employed with reference to the natural instincts of man (Rom 1:26, 27), and in a deprecatory sense of only the natural instincts (2 Pet 2:12). The noun γένεσις, G1161, denoting birth, is used by James as a locution for physical existence (James 1:23; 3:6). And the adjective ψυχικός, G6035, signifies the life of the natural world and whatever belongs to it, always to be contrasted with the supernatural world and that which may be characterized as belonging to the Spirit (1 Cor 2:14; 15:44-46; James 3:15; Jude 19). It is in this latter theological and ethical sense that the word comes to its distinctive expression in the Bible, identifying the state of man as he is “in Adam” and serving as a backdrop to God’s complete redemption “in Christ.” The adverb γηνσίως, having lost its etymological sense in the Koine period, is best tr. “genuinely” or “sincerely” (Phil 2:20).

Bibliography E. Griffith-Jones, “Nature and Natural Phenomena,” HDCG (1908), II, 233-235; W. F. Arndt and F. W. Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (1957); M. H. Cressey, “Nature,” NBD (1962), 869, 870.