And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him.
20. the man gave names ] We have here the exercise of man’s powers of discrimination and classification. This is the birth of science. Man’s first use of speech is in the naming of animals. The names describe their character or appearance. From the instance given in Gen 2:23 of a name thus applied, it is clear that primaeval man was supposed to speak in the Hebrew language.
but for man ] From this clause it appears, as indeed is shewn by Gen 2:18-19, that the animals on being formed were brought to the man, in order that, if it were possible, some amongst them might be the help that his nature needed. The passage implies that the nature of the animals had a kinship with that of man; but, while full of sympathy with the animal world, it implies that companionship, in the truest sense, was not to be found by man in creatures destitute of the higher prerogatives of human nature. “An help meet for man” must be on a level with him in feeling, in intellect, and reason.
for man ] Not, as R.V. marg., for Adam. We should undoubtedly here read “for the man” ( l’dm) in accordance with the general usage in this section. The LXX introduces the proper name at Gen 2:16, Lat. Vulg. at Gen 2:19: both ignore the definite article here and in Gen 2:21-23.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
We find, however, there was another end served by this review of the animals. There was not found a helpmeet for the man – an equal, a companion, a sharer of his thoughts, his observations, his joys, his purposes, his enterprises. It was now evident, from actual survey, that none of these animals, not even the serpent, was possessed of reason, of moral and intellectual ideas, of the faculties of abstracting and naming, of the capacities of rational fellowship or worship. They might be ministers to his purposes, but not helpers meet for him. On the other hand, God was the source of his being and the object of his reverence, but not on a par with himself in needs and resources. It was therefore apparent that man in respect of an equal was alone, and yet needed an associate. Thus, in this passage the existence of the desire is made out and asserted; in keeping with the mode of composition uniformly pursued by the sacred writer Gen 1:2; Gen 2:5.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 20. And Adam gave names to all cattle] Two things God appears to have had in view by causing man to name all the cattle, c. 1. To show him with what comprehensive powers of mind his Maker had endued him and 2. To show him that no creature yet formed could make him a suitable companion. And that this twofold purpose was answered we shall shortly see; for,
1. Adam gave names; but how? From an intimate knowledge of the nature and properties of each creature. Here we see the perfection of his knowledge; for it is well known that the names affixed to the different animals in Scripture always express some prominent feature and essential characteristic of the creatures to which they are applied. Had he not possessed an intuitive knowledge of the grand and distinguishing properties of those animals, he never could have given them such names. This one circumstance is a strong proof of the original perfection and excellence of man, while in a state of innocence; nor need we wonder at the account. Adam was the work of an infinitely wise and perfect Being, and the effect must resemble the cause that produced it.
2. Adam was convinced that none of these creatures could be a suitable companion for him, and that therefore he must continue in the state that was not good, or be a farther debtor to the bounty of his Maker; for among all the animals which he had named there was not found a help meet for him. Hence we read,
…. v.21
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
But though, in giving them names, he considered their several natures and perfections, it was evident to himself, as well as to the Lord, that none of them was an help meet for him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20. but for Adam there was not foundan help meet for himThe design of this singular scene was toshow him that none of the living creatures he saw were on an equalfooting with himself, and that while each class came with its mate ofthe same nature, form, and habits, he alone had no companion.Besides, in giving names to them he was led to exercise his powers ofspeech and to prepare for social intercourse with his partner, acreature yet to be formed.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowls of the air, and to every beast of the field,…. As they came before him, and passed by him, paying as it were their homage to him, their lord and owner:
but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him; and perhaps this might be one reason of their being brought unto him, that he might become sensible that there was none among all the creatures of his nature, and that was fit to be a companion of his; and to him must this be referred, and not to God; not as if God looked out an help meet for him among the creatures, and could find none; but, as Aben Ezra observes, man could not find one for himself; and this made it the more grateful and acceptable to him, when God had formed the woman of him, and presented her before him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(20) And Adam gave names.Throughout this chapter Adam is but once mentioned as a proper name; and the regular phrase in the Hebrew is the adam, that is, the man, except in the last clause of this verse. In Gen. 2:23 there is a different word for man, namely, ish. We must not confine this giving of names to the domestic animals, nor are we to suppose a long procession of beasts and birds passing before the man, and receiving each its title. Rather, it sets him before us as a keen observer of nature; and as he pursues his occupations in the garden, new animals and birds from time to time come under his notice, and these he studies, and observes their ways and habits, and so at length gives them appellations. Most of these titles would be imitations of their cries, or would be taken from some marked feature in their form or plumage, or mode of locomotion. Adam is thus found possessed of powers of observation and reflection upon the natural objects round him; though we may justly doubt his being capable of the metaphysical discourses put into his mouth by Milton in the Paradise Lost.
But for Adam.In this one place there is no article, and our version may be right in regarding it as a proper name. Among the animals Adam found many ready to be his friends and domestic servants; and his habits of observation had probably this practical end, of taming such as might be useful. Hence the omission of all notice of reptiles and fish. But while thus he could tame many, and make them share his dwelling, he found among them no counterpart of himself, capable of answering his thoughts and of holding with him rational discourse.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
20. Adam gave names to all cattle Adam was the first great scientist . For what is all natural science but a discovery of the objects of nature, observing, discriminating, and giving them names? Adam, by a lofty intuition, and a judgment and inspiration unrivaled by any of his sons, first gave facile expression in names to the qualities of the creatures he observed . “Still we are not to suppose that Adam’s insight into the character of the animals was a perfect comprehension of the secrets of nature; it is rather to be regarded as the pure, simple, lively view of an innocent child full of undeveloped depth of mind . ” Gerlach . And yet we may suppose that he uttered the names by means of a divine impulse acting vigorously on his human powers, and giving them a normal development. “The man sees the animals, and thinks of what they are and how they look; and these thoughts, in themselves already inward words, take the form involuntarily of audible names, which he utters to the beasts.” Delitzsch. And to this we may add the words of Keil: “The thoughts of Adam with regard to the animals, we are not to regard as the mere results of reflection; but as a deep and direct mental insight into the nature of the animals.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gen 2:20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
Ver. 20. Adam gave names. ] A sign of his sovereignty; Num 32:38 ; Num 32:41 an argument also of his wisdom, in giving them names according to their natures, as Hebricians well know.
But for Adam there was not found, &c.
a Ut ei commendatius esset Dei donum. – Pet. Martyr .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
gave names to: Heb. called
but: Gen 2:18
Reciprocal: Gen 1:25 – General Gen 3:12 – General Gen 3:20 – Adam Psa 8:7 – General Mal 2:15 – did Mar 10:6 – God 1Co 11:9 – the man
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
The First Woman
Gen 2:20-25; Gen 3:1-16
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
When we enter into the Bible story of creation there is something that makes it all seem so real, so definite, and so certain. Evolution has nothing of certainty in it; the story of creation has everything. For instance, the whole earth was prepared for God’s creation of man. Everything that man needed for sustenance, for clothing, for pleasure, was to be found in the physical creation. Thus, as we enter the Garden of Eden, we enter a realm beautiful beyond description.
There was just one lack in it all, and that is expressed in the Scriptures in the words of Gen 2:20, “but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.” In the above Scripture is the account of the creation of that “help meet.” We are to speak of the first woman, who was the mother of us all.
May we here bring before you a line of thought which is often overlooked in the study of the creation. The usual conception of Gen 1:2-3 is that in it we have the beginnings of things historical so far as the physical earth and its first inhabitants are concerned. The part overlooked is that in the historicity of the first chapters of Genesis we have an unveiling of prophecy such as is not found elsewhere in the Word of God. We mean that God, when He created the heavens and the earth, the cattle, and every living thing, and also man, was unveiling the far-flung vision of His purposes and plans which He had formed before the world was.
Let us give you a few Scriptures bearing upon this:
1. Eph 1:4-5, Eph 1:7-9. “According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.” Our mind’s go back in this verse before Adam and Eve were created. It was then that we were chosen in Christ. It was then that we were predestinated unto the adoption of children.
Not only, however, do Eph 1:4 and Eph 1:5 lead us into God’s eternal purpose, but Eph 1:8 and Eph 1:9 tell us that the riches of His grace abounded toward us “in all wisdom and prudence; having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself.” We take it, therefore, that God not only planned His creation, but that He revealed unto us His plan.
2. Our second Scripture is 2Ti 1:9; “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, * * according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.”
With these two Scriptures before us we need not marvel that in every historical event God was making known unto men His foredetermined purposes. Let us suggest one of these.
When we read in Gen 1:1 that “In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth,” we think of nothing but a good and perfected creation. The 2nd verse tells us, however, how the earth became waste and void. Gen 1:3 follows with the statement, “And God said, Let there be light.” In this is the story of man.
First of all, God created man and he was perfect. Then came the fall by Adam’s sin; next, God said, “Let there be light,” and the light shown in the darkened heart, and man was brought, by the Blood of Christ, into the new life. The creation of Gen 1:1-31, thus, anticipates the creation of the new man.
Thus we might go on, from passage to passage, through the whole Book of Genesis showing how history became prophecy, because God so ordered; His acts, that they prophesy His eternal purposes in redemption.
I. EVE CREATED (Gen 2:21-22)
1. Adam’s lack. “There was not found an help meet for him.” It was for this cause that God made the woman, and presented her unto the man. In this we recognize that, in all of the creation of God, including angels, archangels, cherubim, and seraphim, there was found no helpmeet for Christ.
2. The manner of Eve’s creation. Gen 2:21 says, “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.” Many mock at this, and call it the “rib story”; however, in it lies hidden the marvelous message that on the Cross the side of Jesus Christ was opened, that from that side His Bride might be formed.
3. The consummation. Gen 2:22 tells us how God brought the woman, whom He had made, unto the man. We would not detain you by discussing the joy that Adam felt as, awaking from sleep, he beheld the woman. We would rather ask you to put your mind upon another scene which will come to pass when the Church shall be presented unto Christ in the air, a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle of any kind. It will be a blessed hour when the Lamb is married. Even now it seems that the nuptial hour is hastening on. It will not be long until God will send out His invitations for the Bridal Feast. We read, “Blessed are they which are called unto the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.”
II. ADAM’S STATEMENT CONCERNING THE WOMAN (Gen 2:23-24)
As Adam beheld the woman standing before him in all her glory and beauty, he said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh,”
Therefore, the woman, Eve, received by the man Adam, as a “help meet,” stands before us as the. basis of God’s dealing’s in the Christian home. In Ephesians these very words just quoted are used by the Spirit with this additional statement: “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.” The first woman, therefore, stands before us as a Divinely-given type of the Church which is Christ’s body, and, also, His Bride, Even now, we can hear the call of our God to leave all-father, mother, brothers, sisters, houses, and lands, and to cleave unto Christ. As the husband and wife are reckoned as one flesh, so does Christ reckon Himself with us as one flesh. The Epistles tell us that Christ is our life. We do not have two lives: He, one, and we, the other. The life which we now have is Christ in us the hope of glory.
Adam made a wonderful statement about the woman, a statement that reached down through the years in all family relationships, but which, also, prophesied those keener, closer, spiritual relationships which must ever exist between Christ and His Church.
III. EVE DECEIVED BY SATAN (Gen 3:1-6)
We enter now into a sad story. God had created the man and the woman with a nature that was holy and pure, but not impeccable. It was possible for Adam and Eve to sin. Thus it was that Satan, covering his personality in the form of a serpent, approached the woman, and, with a slur, said, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.”
In this the woman overstated God’s command. God did not say, “neither shall ye touch it.” Satan replied, “Ye shall not surely die; For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Immediately, the enemy impuned, not only the Truth of God, but that God had uttered an untruth in order to get the sacred pair into subjection to His will. Mark now the three things which overcame the woman.
1. She saw that the tree was good for food. There was the lust of the flesh.
2. She saw that it was pleasant to the eyes. There was the lust of the eyes.
3. She saw it as a tree desired to make one wise. There was the pride of life. There are the three things which belong to the world. It is in 1Jn 2:16 that these words are written, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” The temptation of Christ in the wilderness, when Satan met Him, was patterned after this same vain conception.
IV. THE IMMEDIATE RESULTS OF EVE’S SIN (Gen 3:7, l.c., 8)
1. There was a sense of their shame. They saw that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together for aprons. In this, we have written ahead of time the present-day effort of men and women to cover their sins with a covering that is altogether objectionable to God.
You remember that God, when He saw their fig leaves, went into the garden and brought the skins of beasts with which they were to be clothed. It is the same story over and over again. That which we cover, God will uncover; that which God covers, will never be uncovered.
2. There was a sense of their fear. Our verse tells us that they hid themselves in the trees of the Garden. This is exactly what sin does today. It makes men afraid of God. The sinner loves darkness rather than light because his deeds are evil. He cannot hide himself from God, and yet he is forever trying to do it. Has not God said that He fills the whole heavens and the whole earth? The Psalmist truly said, “Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into Heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there.”
There is no place that we can go where God does not see us for His eyes run to and fro through the whole earth, and all things are naked and open unto Him with whom we have to do. If there is anyone desiring to clothe his shame, let him be clothed with the robe of the slain Lamb of Calvary.
If there is anyone wanting to hide from God, let him the rather come and cast himself upon the mercy of the God who says, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
V. GOD’S QUESTIONINGS (Gen 3:9-10)
1. God came walking in the Garden of Eden. He first asked Adam a question, and afterward He asked the woman a question. To Adam God said, “Where art thou?” This question should be considered by every unsaved man and woman: Where are you, and whither do you travel?
“Oh, to have no Christ, no Savior,
How dark the world must be!
Like a steamer, lost and driven
On a wild and shoreless sea.”
In answer Adam said, “I heard Thy voice in the Garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
Oh, sinner, if thine own heart condemns thee, God is greater than thy heart. Are you afraid to stand in His sacred presence? Does His holiness cause thee to cower? Does His justice cause thee to cringe?
2. Then He asked Eve a question. He said, “What is this that thou hast done?” If we could only sin to ourselves! If our wrongdoing’s could only end in their dire effects upon us alone, it would be different. God, however, has plainly told us that no man lives unto himself. Every life is indissolubly linked to every other life. The ties that bind become more apparent to those who are in our immediate environment. The sins of the parent are passed on to the children unto the third and fourth generation.
Could Adam and Eve have only looked down through the centuries and seen the havoc which was wrought by their first sin, we wonder if they would not have done differently!
If we could only look down the years and see how far-reaching is every evil act of ours, we are sure that we would live more carefully.
VI. THE CURSE UPON THE WOMAN (Gen 3:15-16)
In our scripture we read, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.” Then addressing the woman God said, “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.”
In these two statements which we have partly given, we find:
1. A continual conflict between Satan and the woman: a conflict which was to head up in a final battle between Satan and the Seed of the woman, which is Christ. We have learned in history that the enmity between Satan and the woman never ceased. The devil goes about still as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He, and the powers which are under his control, are ever working against the good of the race.
There was a man who was driven of the devil into the wilderness. There was a woman whom Satan had bound. There were two saints into whose hearts Satan entered, causing them to He to the Holy Ghost. Satan asked that he might have Peter to sift him as wheat.
Where is he who has not felt the enmity between Satan and the Seed of the woman? The climax is in one particular sin.
2. A great sorrow as a result of sin. When God said to the woman, “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow,” He spoke particularly of her womanhood and motherhood. Our minds pass from the Garden down through the centuries until we stand amazed at the Cross, and behold Jesus Christ, the Man of Sorrows, hanging between two thieves. It is the hour of His travail, but from His sorrow and His travail children are born. Thus it is that Heaven itself shall be filled with sons born out of the travail of the Son of God.
VII. THE AFTERMATH (Gen 3:23-24)
Out from the Garden went Adam and Eve. They went with heads bowed and their hearts heavy. Behind them they left the tree of life and its wonderful fruit. Behind them they left Eden, and all of its glories. They left the sweetness of fellowship they had with God. They went into a world whose ground was cursed, to soil which brought forth thorns and thistles. They left the rest, comfort, and peace of the Garden of Eden. They went to a place where they should eat bread in the sweat of their brows. They went from life into the realm of death under the words, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
The aftermath of the Garden of Eden is plainly written all around us. It is still seen transmitted from one to another, for we read, “In sin did my mother conceive me.”
There is not a place where we turn our faces that sin does not reign unto death. Everything that is born is bora to die. It all fades as fades the summer day. The summer turns to fall, and we see the trees made bare, and the ground soon covered with snow. We seem to behold everything that man touches in decay. The light of the eyes daily dims; the step becomes more and more feeble until man goes to his home, The darkest picture, however, in sin’s aftermath is not physical death, but it is eternal death. It is not separation from the Garden of Eden, but it is separation from that City whose Builder and Maker is God. It is that separation which means that the wicked shall be cast into hell, and all nations shall reject God.
AN ILLUSTRATION
The literature of all ages has paid tribute to mother, the chronicles of all nations acknowledge their debt to her. And the sacred Word is full of the highest homage to mothers. “The Lord could not be everywhere, so He made mothers,” said a Jewish rabbi. “Mother in Israel” has become a term of the highest regard. The Fifth Commandment, and the first with promise, says, “Honor thy * * mother.”
Eve, the mother of the human race, as her name signified, is shown in her motherhood naming her children as gifts from God.
Sarah was promised to be the “mother of nations,” and manifested her motherhood in her solicitude for Isaac.
Rachel, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, is held forth as the most lovable character and appearance, and her name used frequently in later history.
In the mother of Moses, recorded only as “A daughter of Levi,” is a most beautiful presentation of unselfish motherhood. She crushed her own feelings, hid her wealth of love for her beautiful baby that his life might be spared. And what wonderful reward was hers when she saw in her boy God’s deliverer for Israel.
In Naomi, made more famous by her daughter-in-law Ruth, is pictured a faithful mother.
There is no more beautiful mother in history than Hannah, the mother of Samuel. Consecrating her child before birth to God’s work, she bravely fulfilled her vow. In quiet and faith she prepares him for the future. When the time came she took him to the temple and left him for God’s service.
But it is in the New Testament that we find the culmination of the exaltation of motherhood in the life of Mary, the mother of Christ. From the time that the angel announced to her, “Blessed art thou among women,” until the day that Jesus said from the Cross to his beloved disciple, “Behold thy mother,” she was ever the highest type of motherhood.-R. E. Stewart.