It was a great privilege for Adam to be allowed by God to name all the animals. To name something or someone, or even to know the name of something or someone, was an ancient device for revealing a special relationship between the namer and the named. Adam gave names to all the animals as God had bid him.
This relationship resulted in the charming notion of the peaceable kingdom in which mankind lived unharmed with lions and tigers, apes and monkeys, asps and vipers. Yet, while this idyllic milieu was pleasant, it was not the fulfillment for which Adam longed and for which God had intended him. And so God created the first woman, not out of clay as the rest of creation but out of Adam’s body, certainly a sign of the uniqueness that God intended for the relationship between Adam and Eve. Adam wisely and affectionately recognized the distinctiveness of Eve. He relished her specialness as “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” Significantly God granted Adam the privilege of naming this woman “Eve.” Thus the exceptional relationship between Adam and Eve, man and woman, is hallowed and confirmed by Adam’s tender choice of name for this new creature.
The naming or renaming of select persons by God would continue in the Scriptures to be a sign of special election and singular destiny. Abram’s name was changed to Abraham when he accepted God’s almost impossible challenge to be the father of many nations. Jacob had his name altered to Israel when he wrestled at night with the angel but persevered in his mission nonetheless. Both Sts. Matthew and Luke record that the infant Son of God had been given the name “Jesus” by God himself, and St. Luke indicates that the same was true of the deliberate naming of St. John the Baptist. Jesus famously renamed Simon the fisherman on the occasion of that apostle’s profession of faith: “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.” And somewhere along the line, the name of the zealous Saul was changed to Paul, possibly a reflection of his new relationship with God through his fresh Christian faith.
Yet clearly the most important and most impressive biblical exchange of a name was that which took place between God and Moses near the burning bush at Mount Horeb. God challenged Moses to forego his self-imposed exile as a shepherd and return to Egypt to plead for the Jewish people in whose plight God had become keenly interested. Moses is open to God’s summons but he asks the reasonable question, “What is your name? Whom shall I say sent me?” Remember that the Jews had been slaves in Egypt for almost 400 years. Perhaps the Jewish appreciation of the ancient God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had grown dull during these centuries of servitude. Accordingly, Moses had to explain clearly the source of the fantastic mission with which he was being entrusted. God detailed, “This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you.”
So God reveals to Moses that the divine name is “I AM,” and elsewhere, “I AM WHO AM.” Some eager Catholic theologians with a philosophical bent have understood God to be revealing himself as existence itself. God is existence, they argue. Human beings and the rest of creation only have existence. God, on the other hand, is existence. Human existence and created existence comes and goes. There was a time when man and man’s world did not exist. There never was a time when God did not exist. He is existence itself, the very core of reality, the very ground of our being. This is certainly not a bad argument. But it owes more to St. Thomas Aquinas than it does to biblical exegesis.
Some Scripture scholars understand God’s name “I AM” refers not solely to God’s existence but also to God’s providence. Some Scriptural studies indicate that God was not simply stating “I AM” but saying moreover “I AM FOR YOU.” God’s name reveals the special loving relationship that he wanted to foster with the Jews and subsequently with all peoples. God would be there for man; God would be supportive of man; God would be affirmative of man. The divine name “I AM” reveals that God is not only absolutely necessary as the foundation of all being but moreover God is personally devoted to his creation and especially to his ancient people and their spiritual heirs.
