Reference: Nature
Hastings
The term 'nature' is not used in the OT. nor was the conception current in Hebrew thought, as God alone is seen in all, through all, and over all. The idea came from the word physis from Hellenism. Swine's flesh is commended for food as a gift of nature in 4Ma 5:7. In the NT the term is used in various senses: (1) the forces, laws, and order of the world, including man (Ro 1:26; 11:21,24; Ga 4:8); (2) the inborn sense of propriety or morality (1Co 11:14; Ro 2:14); (3) birth or physical origin (Ga 2:15; Ro 2:27); (4) the sum of characteristics of a species or person, human (Jas 3:7), or Divine (2Pe 1:4); (5) a condition acquired or inherited ('/Ephesians/2/3/type/mstc'>Eph 2:3, 'by nature children of wrath'). What is contrary to nature is condemned. While the term is not found or the conception made explicit in the OT, Schultz (OT Theol. ii. 74) finds in the Law 'the general rule that nothing is to be permitted contrary to the delicate sense of the inviolable proprieties of nature,' and gives a number of instances (Ex 23:19; 34:26; Le 22:28; 19:19; De 22:9-11; Le 10:9; 19:28; 21:5; 22:24; De 14:1; 23:2). The beauty and the order of the world are recognized as evidences of Divine wisdom and power (Ps 8:1; 19:1; 33:6-7; 90:2; 104; 136:6 ff., Ps 147; Pr 8:22-30; Job 38; 39); but the sum of created things is not hypostatized and personified apart from God, as in much current modern thinking. God is Creator, Preserver, and Ruler: He makes all (Isa 44:24; Am 4:13), and is in all (Ps 139). His immanence is by His Spirit (Ge 1:2). Jesus recognizes God's bounty and care in the flowers of the field and the birds of the air (Mt 6:26,28); He uses natural processes to illustrate spiritual, in salt (Mt 5:13), seed and soil (Mt 13:3-9), and leaven (Mt 13:33). The growth of the seed is also used as an illustration by Paul (1Co 15:37-38). There is in the Bible no interest in nature apart from God, and the problem of the relation of God to nature has not yet risen on the horizon of the thought of the writers.
Alfred E. Garvie.
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The Earth was void and empty and darkness was upon the deep, and the spirit of God moved upon the water.
The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt also not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.
The first of the first fruits of thy land, thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God. And see that thou seethe not a kid in his mother's milk."
"Drink no wine nor strong drink - neither thou nor thy sons with thee - when ye go into the tabernacle of witness, lest ye die. And let it be a law forever unto your children after you:
"'Keep mine ordinances. Let none of thy cattle gender with a contrary kind, neither sow thy field with mingled seed, neither shalt thou put on any garment of linen and woollen.
Ye shall not rent your flesh for any soul's sake, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.
They shall make them no baldness upon their heads or shave off the locks of their beards, nor make any marks in their flesh.
Thou shalt not offer unto the LORD that which hath his stones bruised, broken, plucked out or cut away, neither shalt make any such in your land,
And whether it be ox or sheep, ye shall not kill it and her young both in one day.
Ye are the children of the LORD your God; cut not yourselves nor make you any baldness between the eyes for any man's death.
Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seed: lest thou hallow the seed which thou hast sown with the fruit of thy vineyard. Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together. read more. Thou shalt not wear a garment made of wool and flax together.
And he that is a whore's child shall not come in the congregation of the LORD; no, in the tenth generation he shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.
{To the Chanter upon Gittith, a Psalm of David} O LORD our governour; how excellent is thy name in all the world; thou hast set thy glory above the heavens!
{To the Chanter, a Psalm of David} The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork.
By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together, as it were upon a heap, and layeth up the deep, as in a treasure-house.
Before the mountains were brought forth, before the earth and the world were made, thou art God from everlasting and world without end.
"The LORD himself had me in possession in the beginning of his ways, before he began his works afore time. I have been ordained from everlasting, and from the beginning before the earth was made. read more. When I was born, there were neither depths nor springs of water. Before the foundations of the mountains were laid, yea before all hills was I born. The earth and all that is upon the earth was not yet made, no not the ground itself. For when he made the heavens, I was present; when he set up the depths in order; when he hanged the clouds above; when he fastened the springs of the deep; When he shut the sea within certain bounds, that the waters should not go over their marks. When he laid the foundations of the earth, I was with him, ordering all things, delighting daily, and rejoicing always before him.
For thus sayeth the LORD thy redeemer, even he that fashioned thee from thy mother's womb: I am the LORD, which do all things myself alone. I only have spread out the heavens, and I only have laid the foundation of the earth.
For lo, he maketh the mountains, he ordaineth the wind, he showeth man what he is about to do: he maketh the morning and the darkness, he treadeth upon the high places of the earth: the LORD God of hosts is his name.'"
"Ye are the salt of the earth: but and if the salt have lost her saltiness, what can be salted therewith? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden underfoot of men.
Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither reap, nor yet carry into the barns, and yet your heavenly father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
And why care ye then for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They labor not, neither spin:
And he spake many things to them in similitudes, saying, "Behold, the sower went forth to sow. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and the fowls came, and devoured it up. read more. Some fell upon stony ground where it had not much earth, and anon it sprung up, because it had no depth of earth: And when the sun was up, it caught heat, and for lack of rooting withered away. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up and choked it. Part fell in good ground, and brought forth good fruit: some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Whosoever hath ears to hear, let him hear."
Another similitude said he to them, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven which a woman taketh and hideth in three pecks of meal, till all be leavened."
For this cause, God gave them up unto shameful lusts. For even their women did change the natural use unto the unnatural.
For if the gentiles, which have no law, do of nature the things contained in the law: then they having no law, are a law unto themselves,
And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it keep the law, judge thee, which being under the letter and circumcision, dost transgress the law?
seeing that God spared not the natural branches, lest haply he also spare not thee.
For if thou wast cut out of a natural wild olive tree, and wast grafted contrary to nature in a true olive tree: how much more shall the natural branches be graffed in their own olive tree again?
Or else doth not nature teach you, that it is a shame for a man, if he have long hair:
And what sowest thou? Thou sowest not that body that shall be: but bare corn - I mean either of wheat, or of some other - and God giveth it a body at his pleasure, to every seed a several body.
We which are Jews by nature and not sinners of the gentiles,
Notwithstanding, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them, which by nature were no gods:
among which we also had our conversation in time past, in the lusts of our flesh, and fulfilled the will of the flesh, and of the mind: and were naturally the children of wrath, even as well as others.
All the natures of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and things of the sea, are meeked and tamed of the nature of man.
by the means whereof are given unto us excellent and most great promises; that by the help of them ye should be partakers of the godly nature, in that ye flee the corruption of worldly lust.
Morish
The inherent qualities of a being manifested in the various characteristics which mark and display its existence: the aggregate of such qualities is what is termed its nature, and one class or order of being is thus distinguished from another. Men by nature are the children of wrath, Eph 2:3; whereas the Christian becomes morally partaker of the divine nature, 2Pe 1:4; of which love is the characteristic: he is made partaker of God's holiness. Heb 12:10. The work of God in the Christian which forms his nature thus finds its expression in him. The Creator can design and predicate the nature of a being before that being has an actual existence in fact; but we, as creatures, can discern the nature only from the existent being, and cannot therefore rightly speak of the nature save as characteristic of the being.
Nature is also a term descriptive of the vast system of created things around us, to each part of which the Creator has given not only its existence, but its use, its order, its increase, its decay
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Or else doth not nature teach you, that it is a shame for a man, if he have long hair:
among which we also had our conversation in time past, in the lusts of our flesh, and fulfilled the will of the flesh, and of the mind: and were naturally the children of wrath, even as well as others.
And they verily for a few days nurtured us after their own pleasure; but he learneth us unto that which is profitable, that we might receive of his holiness.
by the means whereof are given unto us excellent and most great promises; that by the help of them ye should be partakers of the godly nature, in that ye flee the corruption of worldly lust.
Watsons
NATURE. In Scripture the word nature expresses the orderly and usual course of things established in the world. St. Paul says, to ingraft a good olive tree into a wild olive is contrary to nature, Ro 11:24; the customary order of nature is thereby in some measure inverted. Nature is also put for natural descent: "We who are Jews by nature," by birth, "and not Gentiles," Ga 2:15. "We were by nature the children of wrath," Eph 2:3. Nature also denotes common sense, natural instinct: "Doth not even nature itself teach you, that if a man have long hair, it is a shame to him?" 1Co 11:14.
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For if thou wast cut out of a natural wild olive tree, and wast grafted contrary to nature in a true olive tree: how much more shall the natural branches be graffed in their own olive tree again?
Or else doth not nature teach you, that it is a shame for a man, if he have long hair:
We which are Jews by nature and not sinners of the gentiles,
among which we also had our conversation in time past, in the lusts of our flesh, and fulfilled the will of the flesh, and of the mind: and were naturally the children of wrath, even as well as others.