Just had to say...They were still in the garden at this point, as I recall anyway.
On your question, why did he cover them to begin with? Because they could see each other?
Why do you think?
Great avatar.
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Just had to say...They were still in the garden at this point, as I recall anyway.
On your question, why did he cover them to begin with? Because they could see each other?
Why do you think?
But why is it wrong for everyone to be naked now?
Because it is for our better. Because God made women with glory like angels and men are very attracted to them. This attraction was instituted at creation as a way to "encourage" following the first command from God, "be fruitful and multiply". The problem is that with sinful man this godly attraction was changed to lustful desire. Because God does not tempt, he had to institute a way to mitigate this natural attraction for obvious beauty in God's creation. The way God fixed this in not by introducing shame but modesty. Modesty is the moral code that says there are only certain times that you can be naked. Some spouses are so modest, they don't like to be seen naked even by their spouses. So it was for our benefit, to help reduce lustful desires, that Adam and Eve became modest after sinning.
God's provision of animal hides had replaced our parents futile attempts to hide their guilt from God. In Genesis 3:14-15, God gives them the promise of the Gospel, then He provides animal hides. The animals that were killed were a picture of that Gospel as a fore-shadow of Jesus' sacrifice (Hebrews 10:5-7; Genesis 4:4)If the purpose of clothing was to prevent sexual arousal, why did God cover Adam and Eve before there was anyone else around to see them?
Just had to say...
Great avatar.
As a symbolic myth, this story recounts not just the Fall, but the birth of conscience.
I might think that to. But the authors are able to describe conditions that are remote to our current experience. But with an understanding of conditions before the fall, and meditation on what these conditions imply to human experience, the truth of it can be drawn out. What is it to be immortal? How would that change perception of reality, or time? How would that change the meaning of reproduction? Meditation on these aspects of the story are necessary to understanding. One finds that preconceived notions aren't coloring the story.That’s a hard one. Not like writers of The Bible would have added their own socially preconceived notions of proper sexual conduct of their time when they wrote it?
In his provocative book "People of the Lie," psychiatrist Scott Peck identifies 4 characteristics of malignant narcissism typical of individual evil, group evil, and authentic cases of demonic possession. Peck should have mentioned that 3 of these 4 traits are illustrated by the symbolism of the Adam and Eve myth:
I believe that it was one outwardly apparent of their gaining the knowledge of good and evil... Not that it was evil for them to be naked but they were "made aware" of their nakedness. It was a problem now.I've noticed some troubling Christian theological positions on nudity (such as this one), so I wanted to investigate the most cited passage when this topic comes up.
We read in Genesis 2:25 after Eve is created and becomes "one flesh" with Adam:
And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Later, in Genesis 3:7 and immediately after the couple sins, we read:
Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
After they made coverings out of the fig leaves, we read:
And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself."
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My thoughts:
1. Adam and Eve were never ashamed to see themselves naked. Shame here comes from God discovering them naked.
2. Even though Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves, they still hid from God when they heard Him coming. They claimed they did not want God to find them naked. It appears they thought their makeshift fig leaf coverings were inadequate. The fig leaves did not fully satiate their need.
Note: Shame in the OT world was connected to public reputation. Shame is the public exposure of guilt. In Genesis, Adam and Eve were attempting to prevent God from shaming them by fulfilling their own needs themselves. They were guilty, not of being naked openly (no one was there to see them besides God!), but of violating God's command and fracturing themselves from his gracious provisions.
3. Nakedness is seen throughout Scripture as neediness and/or weakness. This new awareness of their nakedness on the part of Adam and Eve suggests their boarder awareness of their total dependence on God - who had provided for them in the garden for all their needs.
4. In this sense, nudity is being communicated as nonmoral. It is soley being used to communicate what they were lacking. As Job states eloquently, "Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return."
5. For clarity, I'm not suggesting we should walk around naked. I believing clothing has an important purpose; however, I am suggesting that we shouldn't be so concerned with nakedness as to make exposure (accidental or not) an inherent immoral act. Context and intentions matter. We live under the New Covenant of Grace.
Your thoughts?
Apex,I don't claim to understand the issue of why Adam and Eve were naked, and we are not. I do know that they were without sin at the time. I assume that had something to do with it. But before we all start ripping our clothes off (which I have no desire to do), I’d like to remind you of these verses:
[6] "None of you shall approach any one near of kin to him to uncover nakedness. I am the LORD.
[7] You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness.
[8] You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife; it is your father's nakedness.
[9] You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father or the daughter of your mother, whether born at home or born abroad.
[10] You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son's daughter or of your daughter's daughter, for their nakedness is your own nakedness.
[11] You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife's daughter, begotten by your father, since she is your sister.
[12] You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's sister; she is your father's near kinswoman.
[13] You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister, for she is your mother's near kinswoman.
[14] You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's brother, that is, you shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt.
[15] You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law; she is your son's wife, you shall not uncover her nakedness.
[16] You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife; she is your brother's nakedness.
[17] You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and of her daughter, and you shall not take her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter to uncover her nakedness; they are your near kinswomen; it is wickedness. Lev 18:6-17 RSV
She conceived with the devil and she conceived with Adam. Two different bags of water. Cain & Abel were Twins. Same mother with different fathers
This is where the “parable of the Fig Tree “ begins. This is the parable that Christ commands us to learn in Mathew 24:32. This understanding also clears up the “Parable of the Tares” found in Matthew 13:24-40. “:38 spells it out but due to false teaching many of our Christian brothers and sisters do not understand it. 1 John 3:12 defines this as well.
I'm not going to venture an opinion but in Genesis chapter 9 there is also the story of Noah's sons looking (and avoiding looking.. depending which son) at his nakedness.
The Rabbinic writings and Christian commentators have a spectrum of suggestions ranging from some sort of sexual impropriety to genital castration. I don't buy many of these suggestions, but a few have some reasonable elements to them. As such, I don't think this passage is clear enough to point us in any one direction on nudity.