Theory: Humans & animals communicated

This is probably the most random post I’ll write in a while. (photos at the end of article)

Let’s start with pseudepigrapha. Aside from the 66 books in the Bible, there are also a bunch of other books that take place in between the two testaments known as Apocrypha or deutero-canonical books. Some Catholic bibles include these books, and the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) includes the Apocrypha as well. Most would agree that these extra books are not inspired by God in the same way as the 66 books or that these books do not carry the same salvific importance. BUT THEN there’s the pseudepigrapha, which has even less importance and credibility.

Why am I bringing this up?

A few years ago, I was invested in a pseudepigrapha named “Life of Adam and Eve” or “Apocalypse of Moses”. Some scholars believe this book was written between the 4th and 2nd century BC.

Nonetheless, this book attempts to “fill in the gaps” in the creation story. And among the interesting stuff that this book mentions, one of them was that humans (Adam and Eve) could communicate with animals—that God’s creation intent involves communication between humans and animals. While I don’t consider the apocalypse of Moses as historical, I think the view that God created animals with communicable attributes with humanity makes sense. To a certain extent, it seems that this view aligns with some Jewish literature as well. (To be fair, this was probably my favorite Pseudepigrapha because there was nothing blatantly unbiblical.)

God created humans to dialogue with animals (?)

While this is all theoretical and we may never know for sure, I tend to believe that God created humans to be able to dialogue with animals. And I think this view actually helps fill in some unknowns in the creation account (Gen 1-3). Here are a few points that reinforce my theory:

Adam named the animals by telling them their name.
Genesis 2:19-20, “God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.”

The view that humans could communicate with animals would explain how this worked. Since Adam could communicate with the animals, when God brought the horse up to Adam to be named, the horse said the Adam, “what am I?” And Adam said to the horse “you are a horse.” And the horse was like,' “I am a horse! Let me tell my horse friends that they are also a horse!” And the same happened with every other name.
“Dominion over the animals” (Gen 1:26-31) as communicable rulership over creation
We don’t see hostility between humans and animals in the first few chapters of Genesis. Thus, it is a presupposition to claim that God’s command for us to '“have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth,” (Gen 1:27) as a means of food agriculture. This verse connotes rulership, that we are called to have dominion, but that does not involve the killing of animals. How did this rulership and dominion over animals take place? Well, through communication, in the way a master would have dominion over one’s servants.

Also, in Genesis 2:20, Scripture writes, “But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him” from the animals. I know this passage elevates Eve and the importance of her as his helper, but if you think about it, the animals were pretty good to be considered a potential helper for Adam.
The serpent spoke (Gen 3).
Yes, we find out that Satan is the “ancient serpent” (Rev 20:2), but at the same time, we mustn't deny the animal-ness of the serpent in Genesis 3. Without theological presuppositions, the text informs us that the serpent was crafty (3:1) and that he spoke. So, was the serpent the only animal that could speak because it was possessed by Satan, or were all animals capable of speaking? I lean towards the latter.
The animals getting into Noah’s ark (Gen 6-8).
How did the animals get into Noah’s ark? Yes, God could have orchestrated that, but the text indicates that God told Noah to “take with [him]” animals into the ark. Well, how did Noah get the animals on board (literally)—perhaps through communication! By exerting dominion over the animals and commanding them to “get inside the ark!”
The curse that separates humans from communicating with animals
So you might wonder, “well, if humans could have communicated with animals, why can’t we communicate with them now?” Well, that’s because of the curse in Genesis 9:2-3, where God said, “The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.”

This verse is quite important as it showed that prior to the ark, animals did not fear humans. Rather, animals lived among humans! They were likely friends! Yet, from this point onwards, animals fear humans as we begin eating them as a result of sin.
Towel of Babel as the cease of communication
Scripture writes, “Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.” (Gen 11:1) IF humans were able to communicate with animals, this would signify that the “one language and same words” applied to the animals as well. But since humans could not communicate with one another after the tower of Babel incident, this may signify that communication with the animals also ceased then (even after the animals were really really scared of us).
The Donkey (Num 22)
You could probably anticipate me talking about this. In the Balaam/Balak incident, Scripture writes, “the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said…” (22:28) What this verse does not mean is that the donkey could not literally open its mouth prior (the donkey ate and drank). Rather, what this verse implies is that the donkey’s mouth was opened for communication—that Balaam was able to understand and communicate.

So, did God divinely give the donkey speech, or did God temporarily restore the lost communication between humans and animals at that moment to display His glory? Again, I would lean towards the latter.

Conclusion:

At the end of the day, does this really matter? No, not really.

But as a pet owner (you’ll see beautiful photos of our cats really soon), my wife and I have come to realize that our cats (and certainly, other mammals such as dogs, horses etc.) can understand us to a certain extent. In a certain and limited way, humans and animals can somewhat communicate and perhaps this reflects another effect of sin—that it even corrupts our communication with animals but not completely!

Let me end with this, Proverbs 12:10 writes, ”Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast”. Some has offered that a better translation is, “the righteous man knows the desires of his beast”, which again, reflects that humans and animals did not share such a massive divide.

Now, here are some photos of our beautiful cats (there’s also a bias on which cat we like more).