Genesis 2:19 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And out of the ground God formed, &c.— Had formed beast and fowl; see remarks on Genesis 2:20; Genesis 2:1 : It seems probable that this account of the review of the creatures taken by Adam, was appointed by God, among many other reasons, for the end of shewing him, that there was among them none which could be a proper mate or co-relative to himself, and consequently that he must owe the production of such a being to the still increasing beneficence of that Creator from whom he received every thing: the clause at the end of the 20th verse, corresponding to that at the end of the 18th, seems to confirm this opinion. Other wise and good ends, no doubt, were designed by this review, which acquainted Adam at once with the nature of the several creatures, and his dominion over them; a knowledge highly necessary, and which doth not seem easy to have been attained by any other method than this which the Creator took, of causing the several species of animals to pass before Adam. In which there appears neither difficulty nor absurdity: for certainly it could be no difficulty for him who created them, to cause every species of animals to pass along in any order he should choose: nor is it at all absurd to suppose, that he would present these works of his hand to the view of that superior creature, to whom he had given the dominion over them. If two of each species only were at first created, those two only might pass before Adam; or if more were at first created, even in that case two of each species were quite sufficient for the end designed. And if by any means the Lord made Adam acquainted with the nature of the several creatures, he would doubtless give them names agreeable thereto in that language which was the primaeval one, and with the power of speaking, which we must necessarily suppose him endued with at the beginning. For, as created in a state of perfection, he must have been capable of conversing and communicating his ideas: and there appears no more difficulty in believing this, than in believing what we see every day, that the brute animals are born with their several distinct voices, and modes of expressing their ideas, how few or many soever they have. Man, therefore, may easily be imagined, as endued with superior faculties, to have been formed capable of expressing his ideas in regular language: a power wherewith God can endue his creatures, as was abundantly proved on the day of Pentecost, when the disciples of our Lord received the gift of tongues, and were enabled to speak in languages to which before they were utter strangers.