Clothing and Nudity on a Biblical Scale

Clothing is a subtle yet powerful theme in the Bible.  So is nudity.

For instance, Adam and Eve's nudity is explicitly referenced in Genesis.  It is also their nudity that they realise and try to cover up.  And finally, in this short story alone, the pair is given hide clothing by God as they leave the garden.  (As a farewell gift or a mark of their shame?)

Noah too, only a few chapters later, has an episode involving nudity.  He got drunk one day and passed out naked in his tent.  His son Ham then stumbled in upon him and was cursed for it.  Not only Ham but his entire progeny.  (Why such a harsh penalty?!)  Ham's brothers had to walk in backwards after Ham to cover Noah with a blanket...

From here the theme of nudity and clothing persists in the Bible, right up to the book of Revelation where those who remain in the end are not naked but dressed in white robes.  Here the chosen people are not covered by (shameful?) hides and blankets but clothes that remind us of the original light of creation.  Or better yet,of  Joseph's magnificent coat given to him as a gift from his father to bespeak Joseph's glory.

Clothing and nudity is a subtle yet powerful theme from beginning to end.

And that's just it, or what I believe is one of the most fundamental patterns of the Bible: the peculiar movement that constantly emerges there from being naked in the beginning to being clothed in glory through grace at the end.

"Naked I came from the womb," declared Job, "and naked I will remain!"  But in faith and truth Job is not naked in the end.  Rather, like those who remain at the end in Revelation, he is clothed in glory through the grace of God.  He is not naked but decked in richer and more beautiful clothes than ever before...

It is the same pattern in the book of Job that holds on the broader Biblical scale.  From Adam and Eve to those who are dressed in the white robes in the end times.  Again and again the movement from being naked to being clothed in glory through grace emerges in the Bible.

Even the hides given to Adam and Eve and the blanket placed upon Noah fit this holy pattern.  Despite their shameful connotations.

Thanks be to Job.

The Serpent's Truth and God's Lie

We need to be careful with the serpent.  We need to remove any preconception that the serpent is evil. 

The serpent is not evil.  In fact it is the wisest of wild creatures in the beginning.

What we have to understand is that the serpent is not out to get Eve but to help her.  The serpent doesn't lie to Eve but tells her the truth.  It tells her a good thing, that eating from the tree of knowledge doesn't lead to death but to life.  That the fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil should be eaten.

There's nothing false about what the serpent says.  If it is trying to tempt Eve it is because it tells her about a good thing, something that she is appropriately tempted by.  Something that the serpent wants to share because it is good.  If the serpent is blameworthy it is because it is not wise enough.  It doesn't understand why God would lie, and keep Adam and Eve from the knowledge of good and evil...

So why would God lie?  Why would God tell Adam that in eating from the tree he would die?

Like the serpent God knows that knowing good and evil can produce life-giving fruit.  But God also knows that it can be hard to swallow.  A certain maturity is required before we should have such knowledge.  Having knowledge of good and evil is an important stage in moral development...

It is important that as children we don't realize our nudity.  We might be ashamed if we did...

Thanks be to Job.