Isaiah 42:8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. The name of a thing, provided it is a true and adequate one, denotes the essential nature of that thing. When a chemist has discovered a new substance, he is, of course, compelled to invent a new name for it; and he seeks a term that will indicate its distinctive properties. When, for instance, that gas which illuminates our streets and dwellings was first discovered, it was supposed to be the constituent matter of heat, and the name "phlogiston" was given to it — a name that signifies inflammability. But when Cavendish afterwards more carefully analysed its nature and properties, and discovered that it enters very largely into the production of water, it received the name of hydrogen. In each of these instances the term was intended to denote the intrinsic nature and properties of the thing. That nomenclature which Adam originated at the express command of God, and which the pen of inspiration has recorded as a fact, though it has not specified it in detail, must have been pertinent and exhaustive. The names were the things, the natures, themselves. (G. T. Shedd, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. |
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