Works of Philo of Alexandria

Philo — Works Vol. I, Yonge — Section 70

LII. And with great beauty Moses has attributed the giving of names to the different animals to the first created man, for it is a work of wisdom and indicative of royal authority, and man was full of intuitive wisdom and self taught, having been created by the grace of God, and, moreover, was a king. And it is proper for a ruler to give names to each of his subjects. And, as was very natural, the power of domination was exces- sive in that first-created man, whom God formed with great care and thought worthy of the second rank in the creation, making him his own viceroy and the ruler of all other crea- tures. Since even those who have been born so many genera- tions afterwards, when the race is becoming weakened by reason of the long intervals of time that have elapsed since the be- ginning of the world, do still exert the same power over the irrational beasts, preserving as it were a spark of the dominion and power which has been handed down to them by succession from their first ancestor. Accordingly, Moses says, that " God brought all the animals to man, wishing to see what names he would give to each." Not because he was in doubt, for nothing is unknown to God, but because he knew that he had formed in mortal man a rational nature capable of moving of its own accord, in order that he might be free from all participation in vice. But he was now trying him as a master might try his pupil, stirring up the disposition which he had implanted in him ; and more- over exciting him to a contemplation of his own works, that he might extemporise them names which should not be inappro- priate nor unbecoming, but which should well and clearly dis- play the peculiar qualities of the different subjects. For as the rational nature was as yet uncorrupted in the soul, and as no weakness, or disease, or affliction had as yet come upon it, man having most pure and perfect perceptions of bodies and of things, devised names for them with great folicity and cor- rectness of judgment, forming very admirable opinions as to the qualities which they displayed, so that their natures were at I ON THE CREATION OF THE WORLD. 45