Adam Gave Names to All the Animals

Genesis 2:19
“And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.”

It surely wasn’t possible, I am often told, for Adam to have given names to all the millions of species of animals that exist on earth in the space of one day. Obviously, they tell me, this means that the Bible is wrong.

In fact, the activity was nowhere near as arduous as this accusation suggests. The number of animals would be far less than the estimated 2 million species.

Adam did not have to go looking for these animals. God brought them to him. God brought three classes of animals to Adam – livestock, birds of the heavens, and beasts of the field. All of these are vertebrates, whereas 98% of all species are invertebrates. Of the remaining 2% – or 40,000 species – many have developed from others (note: developed, not evolved) by the process of speciation. It is likely that the creatures were all descended from just a couple of thousand baramins, or created kinds.

It would not be that difficult for Adam to assign a name to each of the animals that paraded before him, especially as he was created perfect, and unlikely to get tired. Suppose he took five seconds to name an animal. He could have named 2,000 animals in 2¾ hours. You might think such a task would be boring, but it was not onerous and would easily fit with all the other activities occurring on that sixth day of God’s creation, including God making the land animals and making Eve from Adam.

Prayer: Your word, Lord, is always true in every aspect. Thank You, Lord, for giving us Your word. Amen.

Author: Paul F. Taylor

Ref: Kulikovsky, A.S., How could Adam have named all the animals in a single day?, Creation 27(3):27, June 2005. Image: Shutterstock image, licensed to author.