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What is the Significance of Adams and Eves Nakedness?

Sunstone

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Is there any more or greater significance to Adams and Eves nakedness than that it represents their innocence?

For instance, in the Gilgamesh epic, one of the characters is introduced as a wild man who runs around naked. Later, his wildness is brought to an end by his having sex with a woman. So, it would seem that his nakedness might have had something to do with his sexual innocence. Or perhaps, it had more to do with his lack of being civilized. Different interpretations seem possible.

So, is there more than one interpretation for the nakedness of Adam and Eve? If so, what are the interpretations?
 
G

Glaurung

Denizen of Niflheim
One could possibly argue the realisation of nakedness is to be exposed to the realities of the human state and our eventual physical mortality.

Their makeshift clothing our attempts to hide from said nakedness.
 
Sunstone

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Tlaloc said:
One could possibly argue the realisation of nakedness is to be exposed to the realities of the human state and our eventual physical mortality.

Their makeshift clothing our attempts to hide from said nakedness.
Click to expand...

Thanks! That's a quite interesting take on it.
 
Buttercup

Buttercup

Veteran Member
What I find interesting about Adam and Eve's nakedness is that yes, it is a metaphor for their innocence. However, once they sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, they felt shame by their nakedness. How crappy is that? Not a great way for a "parent" to instill good feelings about one's body, is it?

"And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons." Genesis 3:7 KJV
 
Estro Felino

Estro Felino

Believer in free will
Premium Member
Meaningless mythology.
I think that nudity is not something to be ashamed of.
Humans have always used clothes because of the cold weather.
 
Sunstone

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Buttercup said:
What I find interesting about Adam and Eve's nakedness is that yes, it is a metaphor for their innocence. However, once they sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, they felt shame by their nakedness. How crappy is that? Not a great way for a "parent" to instill good feelings about one's body, is it?

"And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons." Genesis 3:7 KJV
Click to expand...

Looked at that way, it's not a very healthy message.
 
Thief

Thief

Rogue Theologian
The change is alleged to be dealt as they did partake from the tree of knowledge.

So what did they learn?...that they need clothing?....or....
They would die?

Doesn't seem to be all that simple an answer.

So maybe we could shift the perspective to a personal level.

I am told .....'no, do not partake'.
I do it anyway.

So then when the Creator comes about....I hide.
Fear of death?.....maybe.
I was told it could happen.

Unable to hide what I have done.....oh yeah....sure thing.
Naked?.....in a manner of speaking.

Not too sure about that fig leaf scenario.
And God Himself gave them animal skins....not sure about that either.

But we leave this world naked.
And we can't take our skins with us.
We will indeed be naked.
 
At The Left Hand ov God

At The Left Hand ov God

Lucy and Beer
With a more modern approach it could be seen as a metaphor for an evolving culture/civilization. Nakedness = savagery/tribal state, Eating the fruit = Gaining some form of self-advancing intelligence, clothed= the next step in culture/civilization.

Of course I could totally be looking at it the wrong way, just my thoughts.
 
Buttercup

Buttercup

Veteran Member
Thief said:
The change is alleged to be dealt as they did partake from the tree of knowledge.

So what did they learn?...that they need clothing?....or....
They would die?
Click to expand...
Seems to me they learned both. God had warned them this would happen.

''We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat of it, nor shall you touch it, lest ye die.'" Genesis 3:2, 3

Seems a rather harsh penalty for disobedience.
 
Amechania

Amechania

Daimona of the Helpless
The nudity may represent not simply innocence but complete openness to God. We often speak of naked desire. The nudity may imply complete desire for God. The clothed soul is in some sense concealed fromGod by what he does not countenance: willfull sin.
 
Thief

Thief

Rogue Theologian
Buttercup said:
Seems to me they learned both. God had warned them this would happen.

''We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat of it, nor shall you touch it, lest ye die.'" Genesis 3:2, 3

Seems a rather harsh penalty for disobedience.
Click to expand...

yeah but.....I lean to the notion it was a needed action.

The alteration of Man would include his spirit.
The only way to be sure he was not a well trained animal.....
give him a choice and see if he bites.

The choice included the alleged penalty of death.
(fact is Man was already a creature born to die)

Adam and Eve may or may not have been aware of death.
Isolated as they were....the idea may not have meant anything.

If they DID know....then they chose to know.....even as death id pending.
Why die and never know?

And we ARE that creature that seeks to know....even as death is pending.

Apparently the alteration DID take hold.
 
Sunstone

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Amechania said:
The nudity may represent not simply innocence but complete openness to God. We often speak of naked desire. The nudity may imply complete desire for God. The clothed soul is in some sense concealed fromGod by what he does not countenance: willfull sin.
Click to expand...

Fascinating!
 
Terrywoodenpic

Terrywoodenpic

Oldest Heretic
There is no reason to suppose that nakedness nor clothes had any thing to do with modesty,and certainly not anything to do with God.
Primitive tribal natives only seem to "Invent" clothing when there is a climatic need or as protection from hazards. Otherwise they remain naked.
Adam and Eve represent the starting point of our Journey through evolution as mankind.
It was inevitable that they started out naked.

It would have taken many layers of "Civilisation" to develop the concept of the guilt of nakedness.
 
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Thief

Thief

Rogue Theologian
Amechania said:
The nudity may represent not simply innocence but complete openness to God. We often speak of naked desire. The nudity may imply complete desire for God. The clothed soul is in some sense concealed fromGod by what he does not countenance: willfull sin.
Click to expand...

(you are not naked now....even as you dance in the moonlight)
 
Thief

Thief

Rogue Theologian
Terrywoodenpic said:
There is no reason to suppose that nakedness nor clothes have any thing to do with modesty.
Primitive tribal natives only seem to "Invent" clothing when there is a climatic need or as protection from hazards. Otherwise they remain naked.
Adam and Eve represent the starting point of our Journey through evolution as mankind.
It was inevitable that they started out naked.

It would have taken many layers of "Civilisation" to develop the concept of the guilt of nakedness.
Click to expand...

I think there was some notion of society.
Who was Cain afraid of?
 
Buttercup

Buttercup

Veteran Member
Terrywoodenpic said:
There is no reason to suppose that nakedness nor clothes had any thing to do with modesty,and certainly not anything to do with God.
Primitive tribal natives only seem to "Invent" clothing when there is a climatic need or as protection from hazards. Otherwise they remain naked.
Click to expand...
Does a loin cloth seriously help protect from cold weather? Although remote tribes may still wear loin cloths today, I don't think they help much with inclement weather. My guess is they're worn for other reasons.
Adam and Eve represent the starting point of our Journey through evolution as mankind.
It was inevitable that they started out naked.

It would have taken many layers of "Civilisation" to develop the concept of the guilt of nakedness.
Click to expand...
Maybe you could clarify your view on the book of Genesis a little for me. It's been a few years since I've posted with regularity and I'm afraid I don't remember your views on bible literacy. :)

If you acknowledge that Adam and Eve are humankind's starting point via the Old Testament scripture, wouldn't you also have to accept scripture that before the fruit eating they were not ashamed of their nakedness but after they were ashamed?
 
`mud

`mud

Just old
Premium Member
We seem to have forgotten the fact that the creation of Genisis was a figment of Moses' imagination.
There never was any occurrance of any reaction by Adam & Eve, nor there be any fig leaves.
Some here seem to believe the story as told, but.......
Moses seemed to have a hangup mentally against nudity meaning sin, ya think ?
Something to do with the golden calf and celebration, not to mention the pigs....
~
Back to the fruit and what was it, my guess is fig.
But I'm probably wrong, as always.
~
'mud
 
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