The fourth session of Doyt’s 12-part Bible study on AI and human identity took a surprising turn: examining how God engages with technology throughout Scripture. Far from being irrelevant to ancient texts, technology appears constantly in the Bible—from the first garments to the cross itself. Understanding God’s varied responses to human tool-making reveals crucial wisdom for navigating our AI-saturated world. Three key insights emerged about technology’s role in the biblical narrative.
Technology Emerges From Sin but Is Permitted by Love
The Bible’s first technology appears immediately after humanity’s expulsion from Eden. In Genesis 3, God makes “garments of skin” for Adam and Eve—the very first tool created in Scripture comes from God’s hands. But why was technology absent in the Garden?
Eden was frictionless. No plows needed when food grows abundantly. No clothes required when shame doesn’t exist. No buildings necessary when there’s no threat. Technology emerges precisely at the moment of separation from God’s perfect provision.
The second technology—the plow—comes from human hands as Adam begins the toilsome work of cultivation. “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread,” God declares. Technology becomes humanity’s response to struggle with God’s economy. We develop tools because we’re trying to manage a world that no longer flows effortlessly.
Immediately after, we see Cain—having killed his brother—go “east of Eden” and become a city builder. Cities in the ancient world weren’t just population centers; they were technologies of power. Built with bricks (the next major technology), fortified with walls, cities centralized control and often represented acts of economic independence or even aggression. Why did ancient kings rush to destroy cities being built in their territories? Because a completed city became a technology of war—a protected center for accumulating and defending resources.
Here’s what’s remarkable: God permits all of this. God doesn’t command technology, doesn’t prescribe how to build or what to make, but allows humanity the freedom to develop tools. Why? Because God loves us, and love requires freedom. The same free will that led to sin also leads to tool-making. God permits technology because God gave us agency, even knowing we’d use it imperfectly.
God’s Varied Responses: Inspire, Allow, Resist, Oppose
The Bible reveals God doesn’t have a single stance toward technology but responds variously depending on how it’s used. This nuanced approach offers crucial guidance for thinking about AI and other emerging technologies.
God Inspires: Noah’s ark represents technology directly inspired by God. God provides specific instructions for construction—dimensions, materials, design—toward the end of preserving life. Throughout history, we see echoes: code breakers in World War II, the Underground Railroad, innovations that serve human flourishing. Technology can be a vehicle for divine purpose.
God Allows: The development of written language—appearing throughout the ancient world—enabled information to move across time and space. Stories that once changed with each telling became fixed. Knowledge could be preserved, copied, disseminated. God allowed this powerful technology that would eventually preserve Scripture itself.
God Resists: The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) presents technology used for centralization of power and self-glorification. “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves.” The people weren’t building for God but for their own glory, creating hierarchy where those at the top gained value while workers below became expendable. God scattered the people, saying “nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them”—recognizing that unchecked technological power divorced from divine purpose leads to exploitation.
God Opposes: In Exodus, enslaved Israelites labor in Egyptian brick factories, building monuments to Pharaoh’s power. This represents technology yoked to oppression. God’s response? Direct opposition. The Egyptian chariots—advanced military technology—pursue the escaping Hebrews only to be destroyed in the Red Sea. God actively intervenes against technology used for subjugation.
God Transforms: Most remarkably, the cross—Rome’s torture technology designed to terrorize and market imperial power—becomes the instrument of salvation. Humanity uses technology to kill God, and God responds with resurrection. “The bad thing is never the last thing.” The cross demonstrates that God is always master over technology, transforming even humanity’s most violent tools into vehicles of redemption.
Jesus: The Tecton Who Used Technology to Reveal God
Understanding Jesus’s relationship with technology adds another dimension. The translation “carpenter” misses something important: Jesus was a tecton—a stonemason, a builder who worked with the primary material of his landscape. Joseph wasn’t “some schlub” but a skilled technician who knew math, measurement, reading, writing, and rational problem-solving. Jesus received a technological education.
But Jesus’s most profound use of technology wasn’t in construction—it was in teaching. His parables constantly referenced familiar technologies: vineyards and winemaking, yokes, lamps and lampstands, sowing and reaping. Why? Because Jesus always taught within his immediate context, connecting abstract spiritual truths to concrete technological realities.
“The kingdom of heaven is like…” a wedding feast (happening right there), buried treasure (familiar agricultural experience), a mustard seed (they’re walking past plants). Jesus didn’t ask people to imagine some abstract, otherworldly realm. He revealed that God dwells precisely where we are—amid our tools, our work, our daily technological interactions.
This matters immensely for how we think about AI and digital technology today. If Jesus were teaching now, would his parables reference algorithms, smartphones, social media feeds? Absolutely. Not because technology is God, but because God is present in the world where technology operates. We don’t need to fear technology or sanctify it—we need to ask where God is in the story of its development and use.
Wisdom for the Age of AI
The biblical pattern offers crucial guidance:
Never fear technology ultimately, because God is always master over it. Even the cross—humanity’s attempt to kill God—becomes resurrection.
Always examine technology critically. Ask the Tower of Babel questions: Who benefits? Who’s exploited? Is this centralizing power for self-glorification or serving human flourishing? What happens to the “workers” in this technological system?
Recognize our freedom and responsibility. God permits tool-making because God gave us agency. That freedom means we can create for good or ill, and we’re accountable for how we wield technological power.
Look for God’s presence in the story. With every new technology—from the plow to the printing press to AI—we should ask: Where is God in this? How does this reveal or obscure divine truth? Does it serve love and reconciliation, or does it create hierarchy and exploitation?
Remember the resurrection principle. Technology will never have the final word. God’s love, God’s purposes, God’s redemption transcend every tool we create. The bad thing—whether it’s algorithmic bias, job displacement, or digital deception—is never the last thing.
As we continue exploring AI and human identity, these biblical patterns ground us. We’re not the first generation to face disruptive technology, and Scripture has been grappling with humanity’s tool-making from the very beginning. The question isn’t whether technology is good or bad—it’s how we use our God-given freedom, whose purposes it serves, and where we locate divine presence in the midst of technological change.