Adam was told to name the animals in Genesis 2:20. Why?
We don't know at what taxonomic level naming occurred. So the time it would take is a moot point. A day may have been plenty of time. It is certainly foolish to imagine it was every modern species. At higher levels we have cranes, water fowl, raptors and parrots...etc. Perhaps a dozen or so kinds.
Aside from anything else, this process of 'naming' was perhaps the first move of Adam's governing of the creation and so has significance in his reflecting the image of God in ' taking responsibility'. It also drives the point of the location of the event in real time and space, in history, that is, and showing that the animals were not creatures to be worshipped, but to be subject to mankind.
Aside from anything else, this process of 'naming' was perhaps the first move of Adam's governing of the creation and so has significance in his reflecting the image of God in ' taking responsibility'. It also drives the point of the location of the event in real time and space, in history, that is, and showing that the animals were not creatures to be worshipped, but to be subject to mankind.
The other aspect of naming is the commencement of the intellectual component of stewardship. Here Adam is told to make the first move in creating knowledge! The intelligibility of the creation shown in Adam's intelligent analysis of it.
Now we must be careful in talking about man's dominion here. Today anti-theists, read back into this man's current foolish and selfish domination of the creation. Adam's role as being in God's image would entail loving and caring for the creation as God's gift and reveling in the joy of doing so.
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