[14] Helpers of this sort the prophet has now dealt with; the other sort he defers, that of sense-perception, I mean, until the Creator takes in hand to fashion woman. Having deferred that subject, he goes on to a systematic treatment of the giving of names. Here his literal statement and his symbolic interpretation alike claim our admiration. What we admire in the Lawgiver’s literal statement is his ascription to the first man of the fixing of names.
[15] Indeed Greek philosophers said that those who first assigned names to things were wise men. Moses did better than they, first of all in ascribing it not to some of the men of old but to the first man created. His purpose was that, as Adam was formed to be the beginning from which all others drew their birth, so too no other than he should be regarded as the beginning of the use of speech: for even language would not have existed, if there had not been names. Again, had many persons bestowed names on things, they would inevitably have been incongruous and ill-matched, different persons imposing them on different principles, whereas the naming by one man was bound to bring about harmony between name and thing, and the name given was sure to be a symbol, the same for all men, of any object to which the name was attached or of the meaning attaching to the name.