Saturday, July 19, 2008

"Nakedness" of the Soul


Right after Adam and Eve sinned against God in the garden, Genesis 3:7 reports, “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.” My professor gives the following quote from John Dick (Lectures on Theology, Vol. 1, p. 453) that I thought was really interesting:
First, "their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked." The fact
that their bodies were without covering they knew before; and the opening of their eyes, and their knowing that they were naked, must mean something different. The result of eating the forbidden fruit was not the acquisition of supernatural wisdom, as they fondly hoped; but a discovery that they had reduced themselves to a wretched and unprotected condition, being divested of original righteousness and exposed to the wrath of their Maker. Hence they covered themselves with fig leaves, and hid themselves among the trees of the garden, that he might not find them out. That Moses does not mean bodily nakedness, may be inferred from the words of Adam, who says not, "I was ashamed," but "I was afraid, because I was naked." The nakedness which gave rise to fear, must have been the nakedness of the soul. Our first parents were conscious of guilt, and wished to avoid a meeting with their Judge.