After the Flood, God declared, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed” (Gen. 9:6). The Lutheran Leupold comments: “As Luther already very clearly saw, by this word government is instituted, this basic institution for the welfare of man….Government, then, being grounded on this word, is not by human contract, or by surrender of certain powers, or by encroachment of priestcraft. It is a divine institution” (Genesis, vol. 1, p. 333).

John Calvin, commenting on the same verse, writes differently. They are “deceived” who think that this decree is basically about “a political law, for the punishment of homicides.” The statement is more comprehensive, namely that God will not permit murder to go unpunished. As it says elsewhere, “Men of blood and treachery shall not live out half their days” (Ps. 55:23). Calvin makes no reference to government being founded by this verse, but rather that in this decree God “even arms the magistrate with the sword for the avenging of slaughter, in order that the blood of men may not be shed with impunity” (Calvin, Genesis, p. 295).

Calvin’s view—that in Genesis 9:6 government receives new authority rather than its beginning—gains support from the context, which is one of renewing and extending the covenant with Adam, not of establishing a new covenant. After the Flood, God renewed His original covenant by repeating the blessing to be fruitful and multiply (1:28, 9:1). He extended the provision of food to include animals as well as plants (1:29, 9:3). And He limited His own imposition of the penalty of death by promising not to send again a flood, giving the sign of the rainbow to remind Him of His promise (2:17, 9:16). Thus God “established” his covenant with Noah, his descendants, and through them with every living creature (9:9-11).

In Genesis 9, Moses does not use the technical term “cut,” used consistently for making a covenant (Gen. 15:18; 26:28; 31:44; Ex. 23:32; 34:10), but rather the term “establish,” used for continuing an existing covenant relation with a new generation (Gen. 17:21; Ex. 6:4; Lev. 26:9). Genesis 9 thus settles the question of whether God’s dealing with Adam amounted to a covenant. It did.

The passage also indicates that in God’s “establishing” of that original covenant with Noah and his descendants, He modified it in certain ways. One was that He empowered men to impose death on those who committed murder, for a time through a family member, the “avenger of blood,” and more generally through civil government (Num. 35, Rom. 13:4).

Calvin is correct. Luther is wrong. Government is not established by Genesis 9:6, but its powers are enhanced to include the violent punishment of wrongdoers, especially murderers.