The Bible’s Challenge to Technofans and Technophobes

The first time we encounter new technology in the Bible, it has a dark side.

Human beings are exiled from the Garden in Genesis 3. Cain kills Abel in the first half of Genesis 4. Then, in the second half, we hear about six innovations—cities, tents, livestock farming, musical instruments, bronze, and iron—which change the way human beings live from that point onwards (4:17–22).

These represent major technological leaps forward. To this day, we refer to the dominant eras of ancient societies using these categories: “civilizations” (as opposed to nomadic groups), “farmers” (as opposed to hunter-gatherers), the Bronze Age and then the Iron Age (as opposed to the Stone Age).

You might think that the writer of Genesis would want to associate these advances in technology with God’s people. We generally do this when we tell the story of industrial, economic, or medical progress. (I do it myself!) But Genesis does the opposite. It clarifies that none of these transformative innovations came from the godly line of Seth, whose arrival marks the start of people calling on the name of the Lord (4:26). Rather, all these new technologies emerged from the wicked line of Cain. Indeed, they appear in Scripture sandwiched between two murderers: fratricidal Cain (4:8) and violent, vengeful, polygamous, boastful Lamech (4:23–24). This gives technology an inauspicious start.

It gets worse. Nimrod, the original warrior-king and a descendant of Ham, founds great imperial cities of the ancient Near East like Uruk, Akkad, and Nineveh (Gen. 10:8–12). Arrogant people build the city of Babel in explicit defiance of God’s purposes (11:1–9). Both Nineveh and Babylon oppose and oppress God’s people over the next few thousand years. Innovations like stone cities and wheeled chariots enter Scripture under a cloud, sometimes ending up reduced to rubble or submerged under the sea (Josh. 6:15–21; Ex. 14:1–31). Iron beds and weaponry likewise appear in association with God’s enemies (Deut. 3:11; Judges 4:3), while his people fight with mere tools.

If this were the whole story, then it would imply that technological progress is evil: idolatrous in origin, oppressive and violent in nature, and exploitative in effect. (Many today view artificial intelligence in this way, for example.) In that scenario, technophobia would be entirely appropriate. We would hold the responsibility of raising the alarm, resisting the allure of new devices, raging against the machine(s), and rejoicing in their destruction.

Scripture, however, contains another strand to the story of technology. Yes, the wicked introduce new inventions like tents and cities, chariot wheels and livestock farming, lyres and pipes, bronze and iron. But as Genesis shows, the righteous quickly adopt and often redeem these technologies. Abraham and his family live in tents and herd livestock. Musical instruments appear in the Jacob story (Gen. 31:26–27). Joseph feeds the known world from a city (41:48–56). And in the New Testament, we read that Abraham himself has his heart set on a city whose designer and builder is God (Heb. 11:10).

More significantly, God himself chooses to dwell in a tent, where people sacrifice the livestock they farm. Then he takes up residence in a city, in a building fitted with bronze, iron (1 Chron. 29:7), and chariot wheels (1 Kings 7:15–16, 33). People are summoned there to praise him on the lyre and the pipe.

Notice: Nothing is left unredeemed. Every piece of technology introduced by the Cainites is appropriated for the worship of Israel’s God. Jerusalem itself emerges as the biblical ideal of a city. Scripture describes it as the joy of the whole earth, the one of whom glorious things are spoken (Ps. 48:2; 87:3). Jerusalem becomes a central image of the church and the heart of the new creation (Rev. 21:2).

On the whole, then, the Bible gives an ambivalent vision of technology, accounting for both its sinful origins and righteous appropriations. New tools, machines, devices, and systems are often introduced by wicked people for dubious or evil reasons, including greed, pride, lust, and power. Yet they are also taken up and turned for good by the God who created music, medicine, metal ores, and physical laws. Both of these were true of cities, metallurgy and farming; they will be also be true of the internet, mobile technology and AI.

This presents a challenge to both technophobes and technofans. We must not live in fear, burying our discoveries underground because we do not appreciate the goodness of God and his ability to redeem all things. But nor should we adopt new technologies without asking some searching diagnostic questions: Who made this? For what purpose? To whose glory? What good does it make possible? What sins does it encourage? How will I guard against them? How can it be used to worship and serve, to love God and love my neighbor?

All these questions have been asked for thousands of years, and all of them need to be answered afresh in each generation. May God grant us wisdom.

Andrew Wilson is teaching pastor at King’s Church London and author of Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West.