By Fred Gilley
Retired Minister
Text #1 -“…they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” Genesis 2:25, King James Version, (KJV)
Text #2 -“…I was afraid, because I was naked and I hid myself.” Genesis 3:10, (KJV)
What happened between the first and second text to make Adam so fearful?
He says, “I was afraid,” but the first text informs us neither Adam nor Eve (the wife) were ashamed to appear before God or each other without clothes to cover their nakedness. Something must have happened during the indefinite interval to send Adam on such a guilt trip.
Awareness of nakedness is a possibility, for the “serpent” predicted eye opening after eating forbidden fruit. (3:5)
God, in Genesis, is anthropomorphic, with such human-like behavior as “walking in the garden in the cool of the day,” calling to Adam, “Where art thou?” Adam answered with the words of the second text, and God responded immediately with “Who told thee that thou art naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee thou shouldest not eat?” (KJV, 3:8-11)
(If I may digress briefly, I realize some of the difficulty modern readers face with the somewhat antiquated King James Version, but I also like the bold clarity of the bible and Shakespeare, and KJV is available to more readers than other versions. Therefore, I tend to use KJV more.)
Adam sort of responded only to God’s second question, and he tried to assign God some responsibility for his own disobedience: “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat,” he said in 3:12.
According to the creation stories, Adam and Eve were the first humans. Who could be Adam’s reminder of nakedness? Viewing Adam and Eve as symbolic or representative of first humans has been helpful to and for me.
That view also answers incest and other unanswerable questions that can be expected to follow.
The literal meaning of Adam is man or mankind (humankind). Adam appears more than 500 times in The Old Testament, but seldom as a proper name. Both meanings appear in Genesis 1-5. The New Testament has two uses of Adam as a proper name, in Luke 3:38 (genealogy of Jesus) and Jude 14 (“Enoch seventh from Adam”). Letters by Paul and others contrast Adam with Jesus, especially sin and salvation, respectively.
Adam, as symbolic or representative man, brings death instead of life. He and Eve stitched fig leaf aprons, but they continued to be naked before God.
Layers of clothing do not restore innocence or keep us warm. Clothing serves the dual purpose of keeping cold away and body heat near, while protecting sensitive skin. The Lord God in (3:21) clothed them with “Coats of skins,” but the Almighty probably was interested in their nudity only slightly, if at all.
For all the variations, human male and female bodies are works of art and specimens of masterful engineering. Let us not become too upset over a nude drawing, photograph, painting, or sculpture. Appreciate artistic nudity, which is a separate world from sensual and pornographic nakedness.
Someone has said the difference between saying nudity and naked is like the differences between violins and trombones. My musical knowledge is too limited for saying either yes or no, but the suggestion sounds good.
Michelangelo’s young David sculpture is one of the better known male nudes, which came from a block of marble that had been lying on the Florence, Italy, cathedral grounds for 25 years. The sculptor was only 26 when he began in 1501. By working near continuously, through bad weather and good, he finished in 1504.
Town officials decided the nude sculpture should be displayed more prominently than the cathedral’s height. Forty men devoted days to moving the stature to the new site.
A downsized reproduction was displayed from a clergy friend’s mantle, when Jean and I visited several years ago. “Well, Reverend, when did you convert to pornography?” I asked. He explained how he had become the owner, but I no longer remember story details. I’m inclined to think the statue was a Florence visit souvenir.
The Family Circus cartoon appeared recently enough for me to remember more details. Mom and children are looking at Rodin’s “Thinker,” another male nude creation that elicited no giggles or embarrassment.
At least one child suggested “He’s probably trying to remember where he left his clothes.”
