kerryn

Gidday Lin

if Adam ‘called’ the one from his bone and flesh ‘wo-man’ (out of man) in Gen 2:24 as a naming / authority thing, then what exactly was he doing in Gen 3:20 when we are told,
“?… Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.” (NIV) ???

Interestingly, the first ‘action’ Adam takes after the consequences/curses of the Fall are listed in Gen 3:14-19 is that he DOES name his wife… and arguably in this case demonstrate a kind of authority over her. Note …scripture doesn’t say he REnames her. But just that he names her… cos he hadn’t ‘done’ that yet!

When we read Adam’s exclamation to his newly created God-given parter in Gen 2:24 it rings of absolute spontaneous joy and excitement at what he sees – not a ‘naming’ ceremony! Can we even begin to imagine what this ‘solo’ man must have felt having finally ‘found’ what he could NOT find among the rest of creation. His statement in Gen 2:24 is one of incredible unity and ‘likeness’ – not differences or a raising up of him over her. God had already declared he needed help. I reckon after looking at all the animals and seeing no mate, he really understood that for himself (perhaps why God made him go through the ‘naming the animals process first?)

Any argument made that Adam showed ‘authority’ over the woman by what he exclaimed in 2:24 is pretty weak. The text certainly does not explicitly teach us that Adam had any inate ‘creation order’ authority over this woman created from his side. Any so called ‘implicit’ meaning in the text is shown to be unreliable as an interpretation in the light of his formal ‘naming’ in Gen 3:20 – which is POST Fall…when sadly Gen 3:16 – “he shall rule over you”..immediately comes into play!

i think a word study on the word ‘called’ in Gen 2:24 and ‘named’ in Gen 3:20 would be useful, but i haven’t had time to do that one yet! Anyone else got some helpful info on the Hebrew i’d love to hear what you have to say…

Any thoughts anyone? i welcome comments!

Regards
Kerryn