Cheryl Schatz

gengwall,
You said:

I think PL is onto something here. Why were the animals brought to Adam in the first place? Was it so he could exercise dominion over them in some way? In what way is authority manifest simply by identifying something?

I think that you and Pinklight are right to challenge the thought that Adam showed his dominance over the animals by naming them. Identifying the character of something is acknowledging what something is, not taking a “role” of being the boss over them.

Was it not instead related specifically to his aloneness? Maybe the identification of the animals (really the first taxonomical exercise) was an object lesson to Adam to illustrate to him just how “fish out of water” his situation was.

I think the naming was two-fold. To identify the character of the animals and the key reason was to identify his own aloneness. No animal had the character that suited the special nature of Adam. That is why his wife would be called “woman” as she was part of his own kind and one who came face-to-face with him in humanity.

If Adam had been in authority over them, why wouldn’t Adam have commanded that they come to him?

Excellent question!