The Pisher (Gen 2:11)

Into and Out of the Garden

¹¹ The name of the first is Pisher. שֵׁ֥ם הָֽאֶחָ֖ד פִּישׁ֑וֹן

A short, simple, easy to translate phrase — but each of its three words is nonetheless surprisingly full of interest. Let’s start with the first of them.

Name

This, believe it or not, is the first time we’ve seen the word שֵׁם shem ‘name’ in the Bible. God named things five times in Genesis 1 (if I am counting correctly), but he did that by “calling to” them (קרא ל־) rather than announcing their names. Genesis 1 is full of nouns, of course, and “noun” essentially means “name.” Still, we don’t think of apple as the name of the thing we call an apple; it is just the word we use to … uh … name it.

All right, you win. Even so, I think it’s important that we have moved into the realm of names. That word שֵׁם will appear twice more in our geography lesson, two more times in vv. 19–20, and again in 3:20 when the earthling names his wife Havah. So I think it’s reasonable to consider the concept of name significant for this version of the story.

Next question: Who named this river, and when?