Making (and Naming) the Animals (Gen 2:19)
Into and Out of the Garden
19 YHWH God molded from the ground every field animal and every sky bird
וַיִּצֶר֩ יְ׳הוָ֨ה אֱלֹהִ֜ים מִן־הָֽאֲדָמָ֗ה כָּל־חַיַּ֤ת הַשָּׂדֶה֙ וְאֵת֙ כָּל־ע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם
We’ve discussed that word molded earlier in this series. Remember that it is the verb you use to make pottery. Here with the animals, as discussed at the link, the verb has only one י, midrashically implying that animals have a single יצר or impulse while we earthlings have two. That is not the straightforward sense, since biblical spelling just is not regular.
Nonetheless before we get to the rest of the verse there are a couple of interesting things to point out here:
These creatures are only now being made, after the earthling himself has been molded. In Genesis 1, the birds were made on Day Five. The other living creatures were made on Day Six, before the earthlings.
The sea creatures, also made on Day Five, are not mentioned here at all.
The “field animals” apparently stand for all three different kinds of living things mentioned in 1:24 — “animals, creeping things, and beasts of every species.” The “beasts” of that phrase are more literally “land animals,” matching the “field animals” of our verse. These are חיות, using the word חי ḥai ‘living’. I’ll remind you that only animals, not plants, are considered to be “alive” in Biblical Hebrew. The “creeping things” and behemah (perhaps indicating domestic animals?) are included here in the larger category.
“Field” is a Version 2 word, as we saw in discussing v. 5.
The earthling was molded of earth (adam from adamah) in v. 7 — yet the animals too, and even the birds, are made of adamah here in v. 19. This certainly matches what we understand about biology. But it also puts a different spin on the name adam used specifically for humanity. It is an animal name in this chapter. In Version 1, the “earth” (eretz) was to bring forth animal life (1:24), though as you remember God himself ended up making the animals (1:25). We’re not told specifically how.
In Version 1, creation was built up taxonomically from water (à la Thales of Miletus), culminating in the apparent ultimate purpose of creation, the earthlings. Here, the earthling was made more or less first, and the animals are created as part of the story of ha-adam, as we see in the rest of this verse.
He brought them to the earthling to see what he would call them.
וַיָּבֵא֙ אֶל־הָ֣אָדָ֔ם לִרְא֖וֹת מַה־יִּקְרָא־ל֑וֹ
You remember that God named Day, Night, Sky, Earth, and Seas in Version 1 of creation. He is perfectly capable of naming things if he wants to.
Here in Version 2 — the version of creation that will see humanity reaching for the status of gods and not quite attaining it — YHWH God brings his own creations to the earthling to see what names the earthling will give to them. The implication is that, despite our nature as creatures of adamah, YHWH does intend for the earthlings, or at any rate the single earthing who currently exists, to be at least semi-divine.
We saw in discussing Version 1 (see, e.g., here and here) that the story told in Genesis 1 shows God progressively turning more and more of the work of creation over to the creations themselves. Here, in a different voice, that same thing is happening. In this case, it is the naming of things that is taken over by the earthling.
Before we go on to see that happening, let me focus on two more aspects of the phrase we’re looking at here. First, that YHWH God “brought them to the earthling.” Remember that the earthling was fashioned outside the garden and then placed there (v. 8). Our phrase suggests that the animals, too, were molded outside the garden — perhaps in the same place the earthling was? — and then brought into it. That leaves open the following possibilities:
The nature of creation and even its original location is still hidden from humanity.
The Genesis 1 creation can (now) be understood to be taking place outside the Garden of Eden, where this special episode is happening.
A second thing I’d like to shine a spotlight on here is this: YHWH is curious. God in Genesis 1 is definitely wearing a white coat and following experimental protocols; YHWH God in Genesis 2 is a character in the story, interested to see what his own creation will do. I emphasize the words “to see” [לִרְא֖וֹת lir’ot] because seeing, like saying, is a Biblical Hebrew metaphor for thought. What you “see” can mean what you understand; what you think is right is “what is right in your eyes.”
It used to be said that “seeing” was Greek and “hearing” was Hebrew. I discussed this in a chapter in my book Theologies of the Mind in Biblical Israel and dismissed it as a kind of “us vs. them” dichotomy that said more about those who make this argument than it does about the ancient Greeks or Hebrews. It is natural, therefore, that the God in whose image we are made (according to Genesis 1) would, like us, want to see what someone would say (rather than “hearing” it). This is another wonderful example of how biblical language reflects the way we humans talk. As the Jewish sages like to say, “The Torah speaks in human language.”
Whatever the earthling would call any living thing would be its name.
וְכֹל֩ אֲשֶׁ֨ר יִקְרָא־ל֧וֹ הָֽאָדָ֛ם נֶ֥פֶשׁ חַיָּ֖ה ה֥וּא שְׁמֽוֹ׃
We might have thought that YHWH wanted to see what the earthling would call them in order to find out how intelligent the earthling was, or to check the earthling’s work. Would ha-adam get the names of all the animals correct?
That’s not it, though. Instead, the responsibility of naming the animals is given over to the earthling — another job that God himself will not have to do. There are some assumptions being made here that are worth pointing out explicitly:
Language already exists (since we are being told this story in Hebrew).
The earthling already has language (since he has been spoken to, in v. 16, and will now speak to name the animals).
The earthling is knowledgeable and intelligent enough to come up with names for “all” the animals and birds (since it sounds as if they all will be brought before him to be named).
All this implies that the earthling has powers similar if not necessarily identical to those of YHWH, with whom he is being asked to collaborate. We’ll want to keep this in mind when we read Genesis 3.