The Nakedness Motif and the Fall

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew they were naked; and the sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. Gen 3:7

The concept of nakedness is too deep for the human mind to unravel. What it was before the fall can only be guessed at. What it is now, both dark side and bright side, and how it relates to our human psyche and person-hood, is unfathomable; the more one contemplates it the more layers of theological reflection is exposed. At the bottom of it all is the imago dei. As we said previously in our post “The Jewel of the Seventh Day; The Imago Dei,” the imago dei must extend to our physical form as well as the spiritual in spite of the fact that God is not corporal. There is something about our bodies that is compatible, or analogous, to the divine, in both its male and female expressions, and this explains why human nakedness is ever so mysterious, as well as its power. The powerful attraction to the human form is more than just chemical. In nakedness we gaze into God ─ the power of it can, and often does, drive us mad!

The temptation narrative is framed with the idea of nakedness (Genesis 2:25-3:7). Those familiar with the Hebrew understand that the text turns on a pun. Adam and Eve were “naked” (Heb.`arûmmim, 2:25), meaning transparent and innocent, in contrast to the serpent, who was “crafty” (Heb. `arûm), meaning opaque, sinister. By the end of the narrative in verse 7, Adam and Eve are no longer “naked” in their original way, but in a way that resembles the serpent. The demonophany (satanic possession of this creature) succeeded in remaking the imago dei into its own image, but only to an extent. The body lost its original glory but still reflects the imago dei, albeit in a corrupted form. The dark side of nakedness now becomes the playground of evil.

What has happened to humanity in the fall is best expressed though the imagery of nakedness. Before Adam and Eve were innocent and transparent; now they are opaque and untrustworthy. Before they were not ashamed, “shame” being a spiritual category necessarily related to the confusion brought about by a fall from original glory. Now they knew shame. Before they had no need to cover themselves ─ either from one another or from God. Now they had to protect themselves not only from their own stares, but also from divine eyes that cannot tolerate sin and its consequences on the mortal frame. Before they were protected in a Garden, but now they are exposed to the elements and all the discomforts of a fallen environment. Before nakedness was a gift, now it takes center stage in a self-centered power game. Tight boundaries must now be maintained, or human society will come unglued.  The soul, taking “perverse delight in its own liberty … was now deprived of its mastery over the body” (Augustine, City of God, 13.13). 

So much more can be said here; there is no end to the nakedness motif! All that we need to establish here is that sin and its consequences are portrayed in a very vivid image and not in abstract theological or philosophical terms. To be a sinful person is to be naked and vulnerable both physically and spiritually, in need of clothing. We might even say that death is nakedness. God warned Adam that in the day that he eats from the tree that he would die (2:17). In the Bible, death is not understood as a cessation of existence but diminished existence. This explains why Adam and Eve did not cease to exist, but rather “knew” that their condition changed from glory to a nakedness that is best described as a death, a death that is finally complete when the body falls away from the spirit and returns to its dust. To St. Paul, this situation is absurd! A disembodied spirit is a naked spirit desperately in need of clothes (i.e. a resurrected body, II Cor. 5:1-5). The fact that Jesus hung completely naked on the “tree” completes this association between nakedness, sin, and death.

Satan shows the bate but hides the hook.  Expecting to gaze into the mysteries of all things with enlightened eyes, their eyes now gape open in horror at their fall from glory, and took in all at once the magnitude of their folly.  Sewing of fig leaves displays their utter helplessness to fix their situation; so inadequate, so temporal.  They also suggest consciousness of concupiscence and the alienation from the source of love and life.  However, the shame is not located in the body, but in the concupiscence itself. Sex, originally a path to communion now becomes an obstacle.  (TOB, p. 238,9). The body, having lost its original glory, is not evil.  It is concupiscence that is evil, to which the body is attached, and it is insatiable.  It is easy for our consciousness to blame the visible body rather than the invisible concupiscence (TOB 254). 

Hearing the “sound of God” approaching, which before was a sound of delight, now becomes a theophanic terror and a thundering threat to their new condition of nakedness. They can no longer stand in the presence of a holy God.  In His mercy, God provides a more adequate clothing of animal skins, with the implication that God killed to cover them, a hint of sacrifices to come. 

Takeaway: The motif of “nakedness” best describes our condition as fallen creatures. 

Questions:

• Does this text and post open your eyes in any way to your condition as a human being? If so, explain.
• How does this narrative shed light on our culture’s obsession with nakedness and the human body?

Resources Used:

Genesis 1-11 in ACCS

St. JP II Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body.  Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 2006.