Mark

Pinklight,

Here lies the problem with your view. You are looking at it from a readers perspective. We do know alot of other details from verses other that verse 23. However how would Eve of known her identity had Adam not said it. If her identity was solely in God’s mind and was never declared by Adam, she would never have known would she? She would not have known how or why she was made. Adam’s declaration, i agree is about the intimacy of the relationship and joy at seeing God’s new creation for him, yet her identity is portrayed from the will and mind of God, to them both through Adam’s words. He names her because he now realises what God has done, created a woman from the man-his bone and flesh literally. Put simply God has given Adam the role of naming the other animals, and has now given him the role of naming the woman aswell. The context of the narrative is clearly linked to the earlier accounts where he names all the other animals. To be honest i’m quite amazed at the roundabout conversations on such a simple topic. The man named the woman. The bible says it so lets accept it and see what it means rather than trying to pull exegetical loopholes around it.

Kay

You said “It’s that we see a completely different thing than “naming means to have authority over something.”
And thats the point. You are ignoring the historical setting of Hebrew naming. Why should you do such a thing and still be considered evangelical? It is completely against how one should interpret the bible. You can’t just pick and choose which pieces of history you like. If you want to see that naming someone means something other than an ‘authorative’ pattern it won’t work, because it is simple fact.

Regarding 3:16, no i don’t see it as a continuation of the way things were. I deal with this more in my next post with Cheryl, but quickly, essentially the context is punishment, therefore verse 16 is not a positive thing. The womans desire for her husband is not a good thing, nor is the husbands rule- this is a puinishment. Basically it is a corruption of the original perfect relationship. But i expand more on that in another post soon.