The ability Adam has to name the animals in the world around him is symbolic of his ability to name and understand the different movements of the life within him. Man’s inner animals – his passions, emotions, feelings, sensations, etc. – must be named and understood in order for him to gain dominion over them. St. Augustine says that although it is easy for a man to realize that he is better equipped than the other animals because of his reason, it is hard for him to distinguish clearly between his reason and his inner animals.
When Jesus talks about the hardness of heart that led to Moses permitting divorce, it is a difficult saying that his disciples continue to question Him about in private. Once the disciples feel they have understood, they return to public ministry and become harsh with children – as though children ought to remain far from Jesus because they cannot understand His difficult teachings. Jesus’ indignation at His disciples shows us that a difficult teaching should not cause us to become harsh, but rather to become like children. Being harsh simply traps reason in one of our inner animals: the passion of anger. To liberate reason from passion, we have to liberate it from all that is earthly, we have to become like children in a spiritual sense, we have to turn away completely from this world and adore the Father. We must let go of our judgments and love God simply from an open heart. In this way, He can accomplish His law in us – bestowing mercy – by a tender embrace.
AUGUSTINE:
Although he is himself unmoved in time, the angels who minister to him understand in his Word what things are to be done at appointed times. And hence, without any temporal motion in God, the angels are moved in time to accomplish his will in the creatures that are subject to them.1
Although he is himself unmoved in time, the angels who minister to him understand in his Word what things are to be done at appointed times. And hence, without any temporal motion in God, the angels are moved in time to accomplish his will in the creatures that are subject to them.2
ISAAC OF NINEVEH:
The humble man approaches ravenous beasts, and when their gaze rests upon him, their wildness is tamed. They come up to him as to their Master, wag their heads and tails and lick his hands and feet, for they smell coming from him that same scent that exhaled from Adam before the fall, when they were gathered together before him and he gave them names in paradise.3
AMBROSE:
The beasts of the field and the birds of the air which were brought to Adam are our irrational senses, because beasts and animals represent the diverse passions of the body, whether of the more violent kind or even of the more temperate.… God granted to you the power of being able to discern by the application of sober logic the species of each and every object in order that you may be induced to form a judgment on all of them. God called them all to your attention so that you might realize that your mind is superior to all of them.4
APHRAHAT:
This is the meaning of the words: man in his original condition loved and worshiped God, his father, and the Holy Spirit, his mother. He did not have any other love. In order to take a wife, man leaves his mother and father, those whom I mentioned above. His mind is thereby diverted by this world. His soul and mind are driven away from God and drawn into this world that he adores and loves “as a man loves the wife of his youth.” The love for this wife is different from the love for the father and the mother. Scripture adds, “They will become one flesh.” It is true that as some men make one flesh and soul with their wife, and their mind and thoughts are driven away from their father and mother, so those who never take a wife and stay alone may have a single spirit and mind with their father.5
ORIGEN:
Of those who came to Jesus and interrogated him, some put questions to him simply to trick him. If our glorious Savior was tested in this way, should any of his disciples called to teach be annoyed when questioned by some who probe, not from the desire to know, but from the intent to trip up?6
TERTULLIAN:
Where are we to find language adequately to express the happiness of that marriage which the church cements, the oblation confirms, the benediction signs and seals, the angels celebrate, and the Father holds as approved? For all around the earth young people do not rightly and lawfully wed without their parents’ consent. What kind of yoke is that of two believers who share one hope, one desire, one discipline, one service? They enjoy kinship in spirit and in flesh. They are mutual servants with no discrepancy of interests. Truly they are “two in one flesh.” Where the flesh is one, the spirit is one as well. Together they pray, together bow down, together perform their fasts, mutually teaching, mutually entreating, mutually upholding. In the church of God they hold an equal place. They stand equally at the banquet of God, equally in crises, equally facing persecutions, and equally in refreshments. Neither hides anything from the other. Neither neglects the other. Neither is troublesome to the other.7
Footnotes
- ON THE LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS 9.14.24. Louth, A., & Conti, M. (Eds.). (2001). Genesis 1–11 (p. 65). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
- ON THE LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS 9.14.24. Louth, A., & Conti, M. (Eds.). (2001). Genesis 1–11 (p. 65). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
- ASCETICAL HOMILIES 77. Louth, A., & Conti, M. (Eds.). (2001). Genesis 1–11 (p. 65). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
- PARADISE 11:51–52. Louth, A., & Conti, M. (Eds.). (2001). Genesis 1–11 (p. 66). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
- DEMONSTRATIONS 18.10–11. Louth, A., & Conti, M. (Eds.). (2001). Genesis 1–11 (pp. 71–72). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
- COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 14.16. Oden, T. C., & Hall, C. A. (Eds.). (1998). Mark (Revised) (p. 127). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
- TO HIS WIFE 2.8. Oden, T. C., & Hall, C. A. (Eds.). (1998). Mark (Revised) (p. 128). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.