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EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

Genesis 2:20

‘Adam’ is a *Hebrew word that means ‘a man’. It is also the name of the first man.

None of the animals was a suitable helper because they are not like man. God made man as an image of himself. Man is similar to God. Man has a spirit but animals do not have spirits. (See Genesis 1:26 and the comment.) Man rules over the animals and he looks after them. (See Genesis 1:28 and the comment.) And when man works with animals, they are his servants. So they are not the helpers that man needs.

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See also Genesis 2:20 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Genesis 2:20. _AND ADAM GAVE NAMES TO ALL CATTLE_] Two things God appears to have had in view by causing man to name all the cattle, c. 1. To show him with what comprehensive powers of mind his...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    We find, however, there was another end served by this review of the animals. “There was not found a helpmeet for the man” - an equal, a companion, a sharer of his thoughts, his observations, his joys...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    II. THE GENERATIONS OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH Man in Innocency before the Fall Genesis 2:4-45 _ 1. The earth his abode (Genesis 2:4)_ 2. The creation of man (Genesis 2:7) 3. The garden of Eden...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    J'S STORY OF CREATION AND PARADISE LOST. This story does not belong to P, for it is free from its characteristics in style, vocabulary, and point of view. It is distinguished from P's creation story b...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    J'S STORY OF CREATION AND PARADISE LOST. This story does not belong to P, for it is free from its characteristics in style, vocabulary, and point of view. It is distinguished from P's creation story b...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _the man gave names_ We have here the exercise of man's powers of discrimination and classification. This is the birth of science. Man's first use of speech is in the naming of animals. The names desc...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    The Creation of Animals and of Woman 18. _It is not good_, &c. Man is created a social animal. His full powers cannot be developed by physical and mental work alone; nor his moral being by self-discip...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    PART NINE: THE BEGINNING OF SOCIETY (Genesis 2:8-25) And Jehovah God planted a garden eastward, in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow ev...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    _AND ADAM GAVE NAMES TO ALL CATTLE, AND TO THE FOWL OF THE AIR, AND TO EVERY BEAST OF THE FIELD; BUT FOR ADAM THERE WAS NOT FOUND AN HELP MEET FOR HIM._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

  • Darby's translation notes (1890)

    2:20 like. (h-31) Or 'counterpart.'...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    LET THE WATERS] render, 'let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures,' animalculæ, insects, fish, etc. FOWL THAT MAY FLY] RV 'let fowl fly.'...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    PARADISE AND THE FALL In this famous passage we possess a wealth of moral and spiritual teaching regarding God and man. The intention of the writer is evidently to give an answer to the question: How...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    EXCURSUS C: ON THE DURATION OF THE PARADISIACAL STATE OF INNOCENCE. The _Bereshit Rabba_ argues that Adam and Eve remained in their original state of innocence for six hours only. Others have supposed...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    AND ADAM GAVE NAMES. — Throughout this chapter Adam is but once mentioned as a proper name; and the regular phrase in the Hebrew is _the adam,_ that is, the man, except in the last clause of this vers...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    וַ יִּקְרָ֨א הָֽ אָדָ֜ם שֵׁמֹ֗ות לְ כָל

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    THE CREATION Genesis 1:1; Genesis 2:1 IF anyone is in search of accurate information regarding the age of this earth, or its relation to the sun, moon, and stars, or regarding the order in which plan...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    MAN AND WOMAN, TEMPTATION Genesis 2:18; Genesis 3:1 Human love is God's best gift to man. Without it even Eden would not be Paradise. That Adam was able to name the animals, affixing a title suggeste...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    This chapter gives us a fuller account of man. Three distinct movements are chronicled in the brief but comprehensive account. First, "Jehovah God formed man of the dust." The Hebrew word "formed" su...

  • Gary Hampton Commentaries

    A HELP SUITED TO MAN Everything had been good until man was created. Then God observed, "It is not good that man should be alone" (2:18). God planned to make a helper (aid) "corresponding to him" or...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    _Names, probably in the Hebrew language, in which the names of things, frequently designate their nature and quality. See Bochart. --- (Calmet)_...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 1 Timothy 2:13; Ephesians 5:31. As the apostle speaks of this as a figure, and we know that Adam was...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    In chapter 2 we have man's relationship with God, and his own portion as such. Hence the LORD [1] God is introduced: not merely God as a creator, but God in relationship with those He has created. Hen...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    AND ADAM GAVE NAMES TO ALL CATTLE, AND TO THE FOWLS OF THE AIR, AND TO EVERY BEAST OF THE FIELD,.... As they came before him, and passed by him, paying as it were their homage to him, their lord and o...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. Ver. 20. _Adam gave names._] A sign of his sover...

  • KJV Original Language Details

    1 The first Sabbath. 4 The maner of the creation. 8 The planting of the garden of Eden, 10 and the riuer thereof. 17 The tree of knowledge onely forbidden. 19-20 The naming of the creatures. 21 T...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    And Adam gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. This is a parenthetical remark, preparing for the n...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    The Lack of Companionship for Man...

  • Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures

    SECOND SECTION _Man—Paradise—the Paradisaical Pair and the Paradisaical Institutions,—Theocratic—Jehovistic._ GENESIS 2:4-25. A. The Earth waiting for Man. 4These are the generations [genealogies]...

  • Leslie M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible

    THE SEVENTH DAY The first three verses here are directly connected with chapter 1. "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished." The work of the first creation occupied s...

  • Marginal Notes in the King James Version (1611)

    GAVE: _ Heb._ called...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    18-25 Power over the creatures was given to man, and as a proof of this he named them all. It also shows his insight into the works of God. But though he was lord of the creatures, yet nothing in thi...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    But though, in giving them names, he considered their several natures and perfections, it was evident to himself, as well as to the Lord, that none of them was an help meet for him....

  • Notes on the Pentateuch by Charles Henry Mackintosh

    The chapter introduces to our notice two prominent subjects, namely, "the seventh day" and "the river." The first of these demands special attention. There are few subjects on which so much misunderst...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Genesis 2:20 Adam H120 gave H7121 (H8799) names H8034 cattle H929 birds H5775 air H8064 beast H2416 field...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    ‘And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper who is suitable for him (literally ‘as in front of him')”. And out of the ground the Lord God formed (or had...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    THE TREE-COVERED PLAIN IN EDEN (GENESIS 2:4). ‘In the day that the Lord God made earth and heavens, when no plant (siach) of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb (‘eseb) of the field had yet sp...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    MAN'S ESTABLISHMENT AND FALL (GENESIS 2:4 TO GENESIS 3:24) TABLET II. Genesis 2 and Genesis 3 form a unit distinguished by the fact that God is called Yahweh Elohim (Lor

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: God's Sabbath rest. The creative act of Genesis 1:27 explained. The Edenic covenant. CHARACTERS: God, Adam, Eve. CONCLUSION: Man is a threefold being, body, soul and spirit. The real man i...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Genesis 2:1. By _host_ is meant, not the angels, as some have thought, but the starry heavens. Psalms 33:6. Genesis 2:2. _On the seventh day God ended his work._ The Samaritan Pentateuch reads, the si...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _I will make him an help meet for him_ THE CREATION OF WOMAN I. WOMAN WAS BROUGHT TO MAN IN ORDER THAT SHE MIGHT RELIEVE HIS SOLITUDE BY INTELLIGENT COMPANIONSHIP. II. WOMAN WAS BROUGHT TO MAN THAT...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    GENESIS—NOTE ON GENESIS 2:4 Earth’s First People. Centered initially on the garden of Eden, the episodes in this part of Genesis 1:1 recount how God’s ordered creation is thrown

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    GENESIS—NOTE ON GENESIS 2:20 THE MAN GAVE NAMES. By naming the animals, the man demonstrates his authority over all the other creatures. ADAM. See note on 5:1–2....

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    CRITICAL NOTES.— Genesis 2:18. Help meet] Prob. “according to his front” (Dav.) or “corresponding to him” (Ges., Fürst, Dav.). GENESIS 2:19. TO SEE WHAT HE WOULD CALL THEM] Or: “that he [Adam] might...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION GENESIS 2:18 In anticipation of the ensuing narrative of the temptation and the fall, the historian, having depicted man's settlement in Eden, advances to complete his _dramatis personae _...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had mad...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    gave names to. Heb. called. but. Genesis 2:18...

  • Wells of Living Water Commentary

    THE FIRST WOMAN Genesis 2:20; Genesis 3:1 INTRODUCTORY WORDS When we enter into the Bible story of creation there is something that makes it all seem so real, so definite, and so certain. Evolution...

  • Wells of Living Water Commentary

    ADAM AND EVE Genesis 2:19 INTRODUCTORY WORDS Genesis is the Book of beginnings. The only thing, so far as man is concerned, before Genesis, is God. Revelation is the Book of the beginning again. We...

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