What’s in a name? - 10 June 2009 |
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Adam gives names to created things (Gen 2:19, 23; 3:20) in obedience to God’s command to rule the world (1:26-28). So Wenham, Genesis 1-15:
To give a name to something is to assert authority over it. (p. 68)
Man names woman … [indicating] that she is expected to be subordinate to him. (p. 70)
A couple of other points:
1. It’s interesting that Adam names his wife twice – 2:23 (Woman) and 3:20 (Eve). This highlights another aspect of naming – it can be vocationally descriptive. The name of something can tell us what it’s for, or something else important about it.
Thus the narrative comments following Adam’s two namings of Eve are noteworthy. The similarity between ‘man’ (Ish) and ‘woman’ (Ishshah) in 2:23 highlights the woman’s origin – ’she was taken out of man’ (2:23). And ‘Eve’ is derived from the Hebrew for ‘life’ (indeed, it’s translated Zoe, meaning ‘life’, in the LXX) – a clue to Eve’s role as ‘the mother of all the living’ (3:20).
2. Although naming is one aspect of exercising dominion, it’s only a very basic and elementary aspect. Naming something in the creation is the necessary prerequisite to doing anything else with it, but it’s hardly the end of the road. Thus Adam’s naming of the animals should be seen both as a symbol of the authority God had given him, and also as the first step along a long road towards filling and subduing the earth (1:28) – a journey that Adam’s redeemed descendants still travel.
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Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Bible, Minister's Blog