Genesis 3:7: Nakedness of Soul

What is not often realized is that Genesis 2 and 3 utilize two different Hebrew words for “naked.” ^{16Attention in the commentaries usually focuses upon the similarity of sound and spelling between ‘arummim “naked” in Genesis 2:25 (referring to Adam and Eve) and ‘arum “subtle” in the next verse, Genesis 3:1 (referring to the snake). It is usually suggested that the word for “naked” in 2:25 is used for the sake of a literary play on words. A paronomasia may indeed be involved, but this is not all that is involved! Elaine Phillips notices that in contrast to the word for “naked” in Genesis 2:25, “the word is now [Gen. 3:6] slightly different in form” and suggests that “the knowledge they acquired seems somehow to have affected their perception of their nakedness” (Elaine A. Phillips, “Serpent Intertexts: Tantalizing Twists in the Tales,” Bulletin for Biblical Research 10 [2000]: 237). But she does not get to the heart of the matter! The change to a different word for “naked” in Genesis 3 has more specific theological significance, as I argue below.} As we have seen above, the word for “naked” in Genesis 2:25 means “not clothed in the normal manner,” and implies (in light of the imago Dei and Psalm 104:1, 2) that they were clothed with light and glory like God. By contrast, in Genesis 3:7, 10, and 11 the Hebrew word for “naked” is ‘erom, which elsewhere in Scripture always appears in a context of total (and usually shameful) exposure, describing someone “utterly naked” or “bare.” ^{17See Eze. 16:7, 22, 39; 18:7, 16; 23:29; Deut. 28:48. Cf. Gesenius, 625; The New Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (hereafter BDB; Christian Copyrights, 1983), 735, 736.} As a result of sin, the human pair finds themselves “utterly naked,” bereft of the garments of light and glory, seeking to clothe themselves with fig leaves.GOP 159.1

The nakedness of Adam and Eve described in Genesis is clearly more than physical nudity, for Adam depicts himself as still naked when God comes walking in the cool of the day, even though he was already covered with fig leaves (Gen. 3:10). The nakedness of Genesis 3 involved not only the loss of the robes of light and glory, but included a sense of “being unmasked,” ^{18Claus Westermann, Creation (London: SPCK, 1974), 95.} a consciousness of guilt, a nakedness of soul. And this is exactly how Ellen White describes the guilty pair’s nakedness:GOP 159.2

After his transgression Adam at first imagined himself entering upon a higher state of existence. But soon the thought of his sin filled him with terror. The air, which had hitherto been of a mild and uniform temperature, seemed to chill the guilty pair. The love and peace which had been theirs was gone, and in its place they felt a sense of sin, a dread of the future, a nakedness of soul. The robe of light which had enshrouded them now disappeared, and to supply its place they endeavored to fashion for themselves a covering; for they could not, while unclothed, meet the eye of God and holy angels. ^{19White, Patriarchs and Prophets, 57. (Italics supplied.)} GOP 159.3

Once again, Ellen White’s insights are in harmony with the biblical data, when viewed in light of the original Hebrew. ^{20For further discussion, see Richard M. Davidson, Flame of Yahweh: Sexuality in the Old Testament (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2007), 55-58; and Gary A. Anderson, “The Punishment of Adam and Eve in the Life of Adam and Eve,” in Literature on Adam and Eve: Collected Essays, ed. Gary Anderson et al. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2000), 57-81.}GOP 160.1