I think it was Mark Horne who pointed out in his commentary on the Gospel of Mark that when Jesus calls the twelve disciples he takes privileges that normally only fathers take: he names and renames the twelve. Simon, He calls Peter, James and John are the Sons of Thunder, etc. And several of them are literally leaving their fathers to follow Jesus. Jesus is replacing their fathers. Jesus assumes the role of a father for them, and this means that the twelve are His children.
Naming is a parental prerogative.
For God to name creation is for God to father creation. But this is literal in the original creation week. God brings forth light by speaking and names this new creation: His first child He names “Day”, and the darkness he adopts as his child as well, naming it “Night.” Likewise, He names his next three children “Heaven,” “Earth,” and “Seas.”
God was the original hippie dad.
This naming doesn’t continue in the creation week explicitly, though it is perhaps implied.
The next explicit naming is when God creates the animals and brings them to Adam to see what he will name them. God has fathered creation, and now He is teaching Adam, the son made in His own image, how to be a father-creator like Him.
Then Adam names his wife “Woman” as a sort of co-creator/father of Eve. He did provide the rib afterall.
To name is to father, but this also means that to be named is to be fathered. To be named is to be a child.
Yo says
lol god :’)