And Man gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the heavens, and to every beast of the field; but as for Adam, he found no helpmate, his like.
God brings every creature He has formed to the man, and the man names each one. Two things happen at once: he shows his authority over the animals, and he finds that none of them matches him.
God Himself brings the animals to Adam, and whatever he calls them stands. Writers point to naming as Scripture's mark of who rules whom.
Giving names is a ruler's right. Scripture recognises this everywhere — not only in Genesis but right through the Bible, even when Gentile nations held the upper hand. It belongs to man by nature, and he still uses it today over everything and everyone under him. But the weightiest and most striking use of this right was in man before he sinned, fresh from his Creator's hand. The Creator, Himself Sovereign Ruler, took pleasure in the rule of His representative on earth.
The same sign appears later with people, not animals.
Giving names is a mark of lordship, or ownership. So Adam at the beginning gave names to the animals. Pharaoh gave a name to Joseph, and Nebuchadnezzar gave one to Daniel (Gen. 2:20; Gen. 41:45; Dan. 1:7).
The names were not random sounds. What Adam called each creature showed what he knew.
He gives them each a name. These are not made-up names. In Scripture a name states the mark that sets a thing apart. So in naming the animals we see that Adam knew them perfectly. But with all this knowledge he fails to find one "his like."
Adam's naming assumes he could already talk. Commentators see here a gift from God, not a slow human invention.
Jehovah-Elohim brings these creatures before Adam, and he gives names to them all. This shows not only his title as lord, but also his power of fitting speech, which God gave him from the first. Some say that speech grew piece by piece, out of smaller elements. That idea is a clever dream. It may exercise men's wits, but it has no foundation at all. On the very first day of his life, before God formed Eve, Adam gave the animals their names. And God Himself approved what their head said.
God did not hand Eve over at once. The parade of creatures came first.
God did not create man to be completely self-sufficient. He needed more than company. He needed a "helpmeet," or counterpart. The way God brought that counterpart into being shows His goodness as well as His wisdom. God's aim was Adam's own good. So He brought the whole range of beasts and birds before him, and let Adam see for himself that no such counterpart existed among the animals.
The creatures he named made his own loneliness plain.
Every creature under Adam's rule had its mate to share the joy of its new life. The eagle in mid air, the singing birds in the trees, the roaring lion, the lamb feeding in peace beside him, down to the silent creatures of the waters — each had its own. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. Man was alone in the middle of a paradise, and therefore it was no paradise to him. There was a void in his heart, with all the abundance of that beautiful garden around him.
Adam names the creation before the woman exists. Writers see a picture here of Christ and the church.
The beautiful picture is kept intact: creation belongs to Christ. It does not belong to the church in the first place at all; her place is one of grace alone. The Heir of all things is the Second man, not the bride. If she has everything along with Him, that is because she is joined to Him, not because it is hers in herself.
What Adam could not find, God supplied. Where the ESV reads "a helper fit for him," older translations read "a helpmate, his like."
When God created man, no other creature of God's hand was found to be "a helpmate, his like" (Gen. 2:20) — none that could enter into the thoughts and feelings of man, or respond to his love. Ephesians 5 teaches us that Christ went into death, as Adam went into his deep sleep, so that one could be produced who would be "His like."
- Authority. Naming is Scripture's sign of lordship. Adam names the animals because God set him over them.
- Intelligence. A name states what a thing is. Adam's naming shows he knew each creature, and could speak from his first day.
- Exposure. The same parade that showed his rule showed his lack. God let him find for himself that nothing there matched him.
- Absence. Every creature had its mate. The man had none, so a perfect garden was no paradise to him.
- Supply. He named the creatures before the woman existed, so headship stayed his alone. In this he pictures Christ, Heir of creation, who went into death so that a companion "His like" could come out of it.
And Jehovah Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall upon Man; and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up flesh in its stead.
Nothing God had made so far matched the man. So God does not form a second creature from the ground. He puts the man to sleep and takes something out of his side. Commentators find in that method both the pattern for marriage and a picture of the cross.
The Hebrew word here is not the word for ordinary rest. One writer, tracing the same term through Scripture, notes how narrow its use is:
A deep sleep — in Hebrew, tardemah. The word is never used of natural sleep. It is used of sleep that is either supernatural, sent for a special purpose, or spiritual, sent as part of God's dealings in governing man.
Why sleep at all, and why a rib? One writer finds kindness in the method, and an answer about rank in the place the rib came from:
God would give man the gift of companionship, the joy of fellowship, the exchange of affection. The end was good, and so was the way. He put the man into a trance, as the Greek version of the Old Testament renders it. So the man felt no pain, yet knew fully what God was giving him. She was not taken from his head, and not from his feet. She was not an absolute equal, and not an utter inferior. She came from his side: the object of nearest love and sustaining care, one who shared all joy and sorrow while depending on him.
God was not limited to this method. One writer notes the care in it, right down to the closed wound:
Of course God could have created a wife for Adam in a different way, if that had been His will. But He chose to do it in a way that man would never have imagined, showing a wisdom far higher than man's. He caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and removed one of his ribs, closing up the wound (without stitches!).
How God made the woman carries moral weight. One writer presses it on the reader's conscience:
If God had created the woman separately from the man, it would have been a bare fact with nothing to teach us. Instead, God keeps this striking detail for the account of moral relationship. And may I put it to the conscience of every soul: is this event not placed exactly where it should be? We all know how ready man is to forget the truth, and how often might takes advantage of right. God, for His part, was pleased to form the woman, and to reveal how He formed her. He did it in a way that ought to shame any man who admits she is his own flesh and bone, and yet slights or misuses a relationship so close.
Adam's sleep also points forward. One writer sees in it a picture of the death of Christ, whom he calls the "last Adam":
It takes little to see in that deep sleep God sent on Adam a figure of the deeper and more mysterious sleep of the "last Adam." The woman came out of the sleeping man, as the Church came out of Christ's death. And the creative Spirit builds the Church up as His body, "of His flesh and of His bones."
The parallel runs down to the wounded side itself. One writer sets the two scenes side by side:
The Risen One breathed the spirit of resurrection life on those for whom He had died. He had made the first Adam a living soul. He was the same One who took the rib out of sleeping Adam's side and made Adam's helper out of it. One day a soldier's spear would pierce His own side and draw out the blood and the water. That was to fit the bride the Father had given Him to live with Him in glory.
Eve did not exist before Adam's sleep. One writer applies that to Christ, and it settles when the church began:
Adam fell into a deep sleep, and God built from a rib out of his side a woman, whom He presented to Adam as a helper suited to him. In the same way, the helper suited to Christ came into being after His death. The church did not spring out of the living body. There was no union with Christ when He became man. Through His death this new body came into being.
- Sleep — the word is never used of ordinary sleep. God sent it for a purpose of His own.
- Side — not from the head, not from the feet, but from the side: nearest love, sustaining care, shared joy and sorrow.
- Cost — God took something out of the man before He gave anything to him. The pattern points on to a pierced side, blood and water.
- Timing — the helper did not exist before the sleep. Commentators read this to mean the church came out of Christ's death, not before it.
- Conscience — a man who calls the woman his own bone and flesh, then slights her, denies the way God made her.