Be Fruitful & Multiply - Jonathan Voos
- Ryan Culp
- Jul 5
- 8 min read
"Be fruitful and multiply" was commanded or promised each time God formed a new covenant with man in Genesis. What does the command mean for Christians today?
Dear reader,
2025 was a year to remember. From getting married and finishing law school to passing the bar and starting work, I rarely had a dull moment. And with Baby Voos arriving in 2026, this trend seems likely to continue!
Babies are a huge blessing, and we can’t wait to meet our little one. Stroller shopping, doctor appointments, and the cutest little baby kicks have consumed our time and attention recently. Accordingly, it’s fitting to delve into a baby-related topic here.
“Be fruitful and multiply” is part of God’s first command to humanity in Genesis 1:28:
“And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”
Some version of this verse is reiterated or promised several more times in Genesis, including every time God forms a new covenant. Adam, Noah, and Jacob are each commanded to “be fruitful and multiply,” while Abraham and Isaac are promised that their offspring will be as plentiful as the stars.1 Given that “be fruitful and multiply” is ubiquitous in the Genesis covenants, how does it apply to us today?
Be Fruitful & Multiply
Let’s start by analyzing the text in context. Textually, “fruitful”, “multiply", “fill”, “subdue”, and “dominion” collectively point toward creation, production, and abundance. Fruitfulness denotes wholesome spiritual growth,2 “fill” and multiply” reflect abundance, and “subdue” and “have dominion” show man’s authority to tame, rule, and cultivate the earth.
Contextually, Genesis 1:28 appears near the end of the creation account. After creating earth and most living things in it, God created man “male and female,” and thrice reiterated that He made man in His image. God then “saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” Thus, Genesis 1 teaches that God created the world, God’s creation is very good, and man is made in God’s image.
Because man is made in God’s image and part of God’s very good creation, human life is inherently valuable. This inherent value comes with a creation-ordained calling—we all can use our unique skills and talents to help cultivate the earth. Thus, human reproduction fills the earth with more image bearers who further God’s purpose for man. It is definitively good—so good, in fact, that God promised or commanded fruitful multiplication in every covenant in Genesis.3 Let’s look at each one in turn.
Fruitful multiplication in Genesis.
Noah: After Noah left the ark, “God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.’” A few verses later, God reiterated that man is made in His image, and again told Noah to “be fruitful and multiply.”4 To establish His covenant with Noah, God then gave the sign of the rainbow.5
Abraham: Next, God established his covenant with Abraham through a name change and a promise of future fruitfulness: “here is my covenant with you: You will become the father of many nations. Your name will no longer be Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I will make you the father of many nations. I will make you extremely fruitful and will make nations and kings come from you. I will confirm my covenant that is between me and you and your future offspring throughout their generations.”6 God never commanded Abraham to “be fruitful and multiply”. Rather, God promised that Abraham’s offspring would be as numerous as the dust of the earth7 and stars of the heavens.8
Isaac: God likewise told Abraham: “I will confirm my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this time next year.”9 This happened in Genesis 26 when God promised to “establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”10
Jacob: After Jacob obeyed God, God blessed him and renamed him “Israel” while establishing His covenant. God then said, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation, indeed an assembly of nations, will come from you . . . .”11
Thus, with every Genesis covenant, “be fruitful and multiply” was either the first covenantal command or the primary accompanying promise.
“Be fruitful and multiply” & other covenants in the Old Testament.
Beyond Genesis, “be fruitful and multiply” appears several times in the Law and the Prophets, and God forms additional covenants with Moses and David.
I will briefly tackle the covenants first. Moses’s covenant reaffirms the Abrahamic covenant and alters how it applies to the Israelites through the establishment of the Law.12 David’s covenant, meanwhile, promises that David’s throne will be established forever (arguably another form of fruitfulness).13 These covenants have specific applications and do not contradict or supersede the covenants of Noah and Abraham.
Next, as this “canonical reading” article shows, the Law expressly adopts “be fruitful and multiply” as covenantal language, and the Prophets foreshadow Jesus’s spiritual commission to be fruitful and multiply. None of the phrase’s mentions in Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, or Malachi nullify the covenantal nature of “be fruitful and multiply.”14
Paul’s writings corroborate this point. In Romans 4, Paul quotes God’s promise to make Abraham the father of many nations with descendants as numerous as stars in the sky.15 God’s covenant with Abraham was a covenant of faith, and just as Abraham’s faith was credited to him for righteousness, our faith is “credited to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.”16 In Galatians 3, Paul adds:
Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. . . . This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.17
Thus, our heritage still lies within the Abrahamic covenant of faith. God’s promises about Abraham’s fruitfulness were not annulled by Mosaic law nor anything else in the Old Testament.18 Absent some new covenant change, they still apply to us today.
The New Covenant
This tees up the big question: Did the new covenant change how Abraham and Noah’s covenants apply to Christians? The new covenant commenced when Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection fulfilled the Law and the Prophets. In Matthew’s account, Jesus inaugurated the new covenant with the Great Commission:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”19
That sounds a lot like Genesis 1:28. In Genesis, man had dominion over every living thing, while here, Jesus has authority over Heaven and Earth. In Genesis, man had to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it,” while here, Jesus commands man to “make disciples of all nations.” Given these similarities, might fruitfulness mean something different under the new covenant?
Yes and no. The new covenant certainly expands the meaning of “be fruitful and multiply” to making spiritual disciples of all nations. Still, it doesn't nullify the plain reproductive implications of “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”.
Those who object to Genesis 1:28’s modern reproductive implications commonly cite Jesus’s unmarried and childless life, Paul’s encouragement of singleness, and the problem of infertility. But these objections don’t necessarily apply to fertile, married couples. While Jesus’s examples and Paul’s writings were new, childlessness due to infertility or singleness was not.
Abraham and Sarah’s lives show that infertility can excuse childlessness. When Abram and Sarai were infertile and childless, they lived under Noah’s covenant. But God did not punish them for violating the covenant via childlessness; instead, God credited Abraham’s faith to him as righteousness and formed a new covenant with Abraham. In so doing, God did not command Abram and Sarai to “be fruitful and multiply” but instead promised fruitful multiplication.20 This account shows that infertility was not sinful in Genesis and was a valid excuse for childlessness even then.
Likewise, sex outside of marriage has been wrong forever and punishable by law at least since Moses’s time.21 Under the law, unmarried Israelites could not morally have children, just as unmarried Christians can’t morally reproduce outside of marriage.22 While Jesus and Paul’s examples give Christians stronger grounds to not get married than Israel had,23 the reproductive implications of “be fruitful and multiply” did not bind most24 unmarried Israelites any more than they bind unmarried Christians today. Jesus and Paul’s lives show singleness is permissible, but because neither married, they aren’t prescriptive for married couples.
Must all fertile, married Christians have children, then?
Probably. Abraham’s covenant of faith and Noah’s rainbow-sealed covenant remain in effect today. While the new covenant certainly modifies the scope of “be fruitful and multiply”, I see no scriptural support for mooting the command’s reproductive implications. Thus, having children is commanded or at least highly encouraged for all fertile, married couples (subject to nuances about health and frequency).
Although there are 8.27 billion humans now—far more than in Genesis—producing more image bearers of God remains a definitive good. When fertile, married couples choose not to have children, they arguably deprive the world of another image bearer whose unique attributes further God’s design. And because fertile, married couples are the only ones who can morally fill the earth with children, choosing not to reproduce is choosing to abdicate a vital role within Christ’s body.
Because I’m a lawyer and like my caveats, this conclusion is subject to nuances about maternal health and the frequency of reproduction. “Be fruitful and multiply” does not necessarily mean that Christians must make as many children as possible without regard for practical wisdom. Still, because children are good and because only married couples can multiply morally, the question of reproduction ought to be a monthly conversation between the married couple and God regarding God’s will for them.
In conclusion, the Great Commission is our primary job, but “fill[ing] the earth” with children remains part of our purpose.25 Like all other blessings, fertility must be stewarded well in humble obedience to God. I am not God, and I can’t authoritatively say what commands still bind us today. But if you are married and fertile, I hope this post encourages you to prayerfully discern God’s will for you regarding children.
1
Genesis 1:28; 9:1-7; 13:6, 15:5-6; 17:19-21; 26:2-5; 35:9-12 (all linked together as one link).
2
Matthew 7:15-20; Galatians 5:22-26; John 15:5, 8; Psalm 1:3. See also https://davidschrock.com/2017/12/27/be-fruitful-and-multiply-a-canonical-reading/.
3
Genesis 1:28; 9:1-7; 13:6, 15:5-6; 17:19-21; 26:2-5; 35:9-12.
4
Genesis 9:2-7.
5
Genesis 9:8-13.
6
Genesis 17:4-7.
7
Genesis 13:6.
8
Genesis 15:5-6.
9
Genesis 17:19-21 (italics added); Genesis 16:10 (Ishmael).
10
Genesis 26:2-5.
11
Genesis 35; Genesis 48.
12
Exodus 3, 4, 19.
13
2 Samuel 7:16.
14
15
Romans 4:16-18 (quoting Genesis 15:5 & Genesis 17:5).
16
Romans 4:22-24; see also Galatians 3:15-29.
17
Galatians 3:16-18 (italics added).
18
Genesis 9:1-7 (Noah); Romans 4 (Abraham); Galatians 3:15-29 (Abraham); Romans 11:17-24 (grafting).
19
Matthew 28:18-20.
20
Genesis 13:6; Genesis 15:5-6; Genesis 17:4-7; Genesis 17:20-21.
21
Deuteronomy 22:13-30; Leviticus 20:10-22.
22
E.g., 1 Corinthians 7.
23
Cf. Jeremiah 29:6.
24
Deuteronomy 25:5-6.
25
Matthew 28:19-20; Genesis 1:28. See also the “Canonical Reading” article. I found this piece during final edits while checking to see what the Catholics thought about “be fruitful and multiply.” To my pleasant surprise, this article handled scripture faithfully and thoroughly. Frankly, it runs circles around what I wrote here.
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