Let us begin here in the Scripture in Genesis 2. We are talking about a subject that is often good to see the first mention of a thing. But the idea of names and naming occurs immediately in the Garden of Eden. God shows first of all His example of naming and then he shows Adam being given the authority to name. Let us just take the first one.
This is the first mention of names and naming. Now, since they were the names of Eden's rivers, we can assume that God named them. This had to do with the place that He had chosen to put mankind to begin all humanity. And so He put them in the Garden and it was these rivers that ended up flowing out from God's place Eden or the Garden of Eden.
Now, He named them, these four rivers, descriptively. The Pishon means full flowing. The Gihon means bursting forth. Tigris or Hiddekel means darting, swift. And Euphrates means sweet. Now, as I explained so many years ago in my Imagining the Garden of Eden series, these can be understood, when you put certain verses together, as descriptions of the Holy Spirit. It is the water that comes out from God's presence. So He described right away how His Spirit flows from Him. It is full flowing, it bursts forth, it is darting and swift. We do not have to wait for His Spirit to start working. And it is sweet, it tastes good. It gives us the things that we need. And so we have here God naming things what they are and what they are to represent.
