What instructions did God give to Adam in Genesis 1 28?

Answer 1

Genesis 1:28 is part of the first biblical creation story (Genesis 1:1-2:4a) and is completely independent of the second creation story (Genesis 2:4b-20) that tells of the creation of Adam. In this verse, God tells man (both male and female) to be fruitful and multiply, to replenish the earth, but also subdue it, and to have dominion over all living creatures.

Leon R. Kass (The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis) says that we should recognise the independence of the two creation stories and adopt a critical principle of reading if we mean to understand each story on its own terms. We must scrupulously avoid reading into the second story any facts or notions taken from the first, and vice versa. Thus, in reading about the origin of Adam and the story of the Garden of Eden, we must not say or even think that man is here created in God's image or that man is to have dominion over the animals.

For more information, please visit: http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-story-of-creation

Answer 2

Genesis ch.1 and 2 are the narrative of how God created the universe. In verse 1:28, God said "Be fruitful and multiply and fill up the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that swarms upon the earth."

Rashi commentary (2:8) explains that Genesis ch.1 and 2 form a single set of events, as chapter 2 expands the brief verses of ch.1 with further detail.

An attempt to split the text artificially has been perpetrated by people such as Wellhausen (the father of modern Biblical-criticism, 1844-1918) who suggested attributing the narrative to various authors, despite the Torah's explicit statement as to its provenance (Exodus 24:12, Deuteronomy 31:24). Wellhausen's claims have been debunked one by one, as Archaeology and other disciplines have demonstrated the integrity of the Torah. No fragments have ever been found that would support his Documentary Hypothesis, which remains nothing more than an arbitrary claim, whose falsehood has been pointed out:

http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=6&article=1131(a Christian author)

http://www.whoreallywrotethebible.com/excerpts/chapter4-1.php

http://www.pearlmancta.com/BiblicalcriticswrongRShlomoCohen.htm