Elijah John wrote:
ttruscott wrote:
Do I have to prove that Adam and Eve's nakedness was really referring to their sinfulness before they ate the fruit or is it enough to show that this interpretation is within the words used in the story?
Good morning Ted.
OK, let's start there, then. The traditional understanding is that their nakedness symbolizes their innocence before the fall. ("fall" = eating the forbidden fruit).
How does that condition symbolize their
sinfulness?
I believe this fails in a few ways:
1. the root of the word naked,
arm, is used of unclothed nakedness and also is used for the cunning subtlety of the serpent. The only difference is in the vowels added 600 AD or so. In the original of Gen 2:25, these words were spelled exactly the same and it was tradition and context that was used to give them their interpretation. So without a created on earth bias, the possibility that A&E were sinners and the serpent naked exists in the words.
2. When they ate, their eyes were opened to their sin and they saw their nakedness, not their eating, and they were ashamed. Nothing about their nakedness changed but now it was shameful. IF their nakedness referred to their innocence, then after they ate they had no innocence and could not be naked anymore! They could be ashamed of being clothed with sin but being ashamed of innocence the way it is written, nakedness interpreted as innocence makes no sense at all.
3. Nowhere that I can find in the Bible is nakedness used as a metaphor for innocence except, it is suggested, here, but only of sin. Dirty ragged clothing is a main metaphor for being sinful.
Revelation 3:17 You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. ties being naked in sin firmly to being blinded to righteousness. It is interesting that Adam and Eve IF they were sinners before they are are ashamed then they were indeed
blind to their shame until their eyes were opened.
4. Starting with the uniquely Jewish and Christian pov that YHWH is benevolent, then how HE seems to have treated them, on the surface anyway, is pretty harsh. They are supposedly innocents and inexperienced yet GOD does nothing to keep the serpent from them or to warn them of the serpents intent! ?? Is this how our GOD operates?
Did HE bless them with the serpent?
Psalm 32:2 How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit! for if they were innocent they were indeed without iniquity and deceit.
Did HE not kill them by giving the serpent access to them with no support?
Exodus 23:7 "Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not acquit the guilty.
It does not make any sense at all that HE treated them this way ...BUT, if they were already sinners but refusing to accept that what they did was a sin (as most unrepentant sinners do) letting the serpent have access to them so they could be tested in their obedience and by failing in obedience prove to themselves they were indeed sinners so they could be ashamed and repent, it was indeed all very good!
5. Indeed the law is given to convict us of sin not to tempt us into sin:
Rom 7:7... I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. and
Romans 3:20 Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the Law. For the Law merely brings awareness of sin. with
James 1:13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.� For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed. This proves there is something hinky about commanding innocents to obey a law since the law is given to convict us of sin by our inability, unwillingness, to keep it.
That is how I find a thoughtful interpretation that agrees with the bulk of the rest of scripture to be preferable to a slap dash interpretation riding on a created on earth bias.
PCE Theology as I see it...
We had an existence with a free will in Sheol before the creation of the physical universe. Here we chose to be able to become holy or to be eternally evil in YHWH's sight. Then the physical universe was created and all sinners were sent to earth.
This theology debunks the need to base Christianity upon the blasphemy of creating us in Adam's sin.