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The Slippery Semantics Of A Word: "Dominion", M. W. Fox

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

The word "dominion," which is often interpreted as equivalent to "domination," is defined in Webster's dictionary as primarily indicating "sovereignty. Roget's International Thesaurus interprets dominion as "realm, domain or jurisdiction" and therefore makes "dominion," "domination," "sovereignty," and "supremacy" synonymous. Thus, the passage in Genesis 1:26 that proclaims that man has "dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth," can be interpreted as meaning that he has been granted sovereignty, jurisdiction, or domination. The passage does not …