Few people realize that the first character in the Bible (after theheadline sentence of Genesis 1.1) is Earth. What if we read thecreation story and the primal myths of Genesis from the perspective ofthat key character, rather than from the anthropocentric perspective inwhich our culture has nurtured us?This is the project of Norman Habel's commentary, resisting the longhistory in Western culture of devaluing, exploiting, oppressing andendangering the Earth. Earth in Genesis first appears wrapped in theprimal waters, like an embryo waiting to be born. On the third day ofcreation it is actually born and comes into existence with its greenvegetation as a habitat for life of all kinds.It is hardly a moment before Earth is damaged by human sin andsuffers a divine curse, and then must cry out for justice for the bloodof Abel it has been compelled to drink. It is an even greater curse whenEarth, together with almost all life on Earth, comes near to totalannihilation at the Flood. Has Earth brought this fate upon itself, or isit the innocent victim of human wrongdoing?Genesis has God regretting the threat to Earth and its children that theFlood has brought, and vowing to green Earth again, remove the curse, restore the seasons and make a personal covenant of assurance withEarth and its creatures.The ecological approach of this commentary was first developed in thefive-volume multi-authored series, The Earth Bible (2000-2002). InThe Earth Bible Commentary, of which this is the first volume, agroup of scholars dedicated to the re-valuing of Earth pursue thesethemes in their commentaries on the books of the Bible. Othervolumes in preparation are: Deuteronomy, Ruth, Job, Psalms Book 2, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah 1-39, Joel, Matthew, Luke, Colossians, Revelation.The Earth Bible logo was created by Jasmine Corowa, an IndigenousAustralian