[Job] said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Job 1:21
Did you know that in the original writings, naked didn’t just mean “naked?” There are fascinating shades of meaning to the word “naked” in Hebrew.
The nakedness we read about in the Book of Job is the very same nakedness that we see described by God in the beginning:
“And the man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.”
Genesis 2:25
The actual word here is ʻârôwm. Curiously, ârôwm is used only once in the Book of Genesis.
That can’t be right, you might be thinking.
Aren’t there are other “nakeds” in Genesis? Didn’t Adam and Eve declare to God that they were “naked?”
Indeed they did! However, what the first humans described was a different kind of nakedness: ʻêyrôm.
It’s a distinctly different version of the word, and it is used three times in Genesis Chapter 3:
“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were êyrôm; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves waist coverings.”
“[Adam] said, ‘I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was êyrôm; so I hid myself.'”
“And [God] said, ‘Who told you that you were êyrôm? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?'”
Genesis 3:7, 10, 11
And, get ready for more fun! There’s another hidden “naked” in Genesis 3, as well!
It’s in the first verse:
“Now the serpent was more ʻârûwm than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made.”
Genesis 3:1a
Why doesn’t the modern text say the serpent was “naked?” More curious, isn’t it? Yet here they are, all together.
Remember that in Hebrew, there are no vowels, so these are transliterated for us.*
ʻârôwm – nakedness as a state of being (Genesis 2:25)
ʻârûwm – nakedness as a state of strategy (Genesis 3:1)
ʻêyrôm – nakedness as a state of lack (Genesis 3:7, 10, 11)
In fact, Genesis is not the only place these unique variations are used.
Nakedness as a
State of Being
While there is only once instance of ârôwm in Genesis, Job speaks to his ârôwm when he was born, as we all are. In addition to another six verses in Job, the Teacher in Ecclesiastes also writes of the simple nakedness of children.
“As he came ârôwm from his mother’s womb, so he will return as he came.”
Ecclesiastes 5:15a
First Samuel discusses ârôwm prophets, and within the prophetic books of Isaiah, Hosea and Micah, simple nakedness finds a voice.
For Isaiah, his nakedness was in response to God’s command:
“At that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go and loosen the sackcloth from your hips and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, going ârôwm and barefoot.”
Isaiah 20:2
Micah chose nakedness as his garment as he prophesied to Israel:
On account of this I will lament and wail. I will go about barefoot and ârôwm.
Micah 1:8a
Amos prophesied judgment on Israel, but said that a remnant of the people would be left with the dignity of ârôwm:
“Those who are stout of heart among the mighty shall flee away ârôwm in that day, says the Lord.”
Amos 2:16
Nakedness as a
State of Lack
The original audience understood the different between nakedness as a state of being and nakedness as a state of lack. It was a comfort to think of ârôwm compared to the êyrôm after the Fall. If you were êyrôm, it meant you had no benefactor, no possessions, no prospects. You were no Lord, you were just another animal.
Nakedness, in this sense, is familiar as a metaphorical (or actual) description of poverty, shame, vulnerability or lack.
This form, êyrôm, is what Adam claimed was his state after he and his wife ate from the Tree of Judgment. Many times people focus on God’s question of “Who told you that you were naked?” and wonder about the identity of the “who.”
Perhaps we should focus more on the latter part of the question. God never called Man and Woman êyrôm, so we might also look at His question as asking, “Where did you get that idea? It wasn’t from Me! I said you are ârôwm!”
[Image Attribute]
Image: “The Rebuke of Adam and Eve” by Charles Joseph Natoire, created in 1740
The Creator had demonstrated His Love in making mankind naked (ârôwm) without needing anything or anyone else. All they truly needed was relationship with Him. He was their provision, their source, their benefactor, their guide, and their future!
Yet, fallen mankind chose êyrôm instead. When they ate of the fruit, they looked at themselves and saw fear and vulnerability. They no longer felt the protective presence of the Creator.
This word, êyrôm, in addition to Genesis 3, is found in Ezekiel (six instances) and once in Deuteronomy. It always means want, need, and lack:
“You will serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, thirst, êyrôm, and devoid of all, and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.”
Deuteronomy 28:48
“I will hand you over to them, and they will level your mounds and tear down your elevated places. They will strip off your clothes, take your beautiful jewelry, and leave you bare and êyrôm.”
Ezekiel 16:39
In Ezekiel 18, God reminds us that He expects kindness and charity to the oppressed. If you provide bread to the hungry and a garment for the êyrôm, your deeds are are called righteous.
Nakedness as a
State of Strategy
Do you know who else was naked in the Garden of Eden? The Serpent.
Of course he was naked, you might say. Everybody was naked!
True. But God called the serpent the most naked of all the animals God had made! At least that’s what it should say, if translators were following the same rules they used to translate ârôwm and êyrôm.
In the Hebrew, the consonants are the same for all three words. Yet, this version of naked, ârûwm, is translated as “prudent, “cunning,” “crafty,” “shrewd,” or “sensible!”
When you think of those words, you might think of a banker, or a watchmaker, or perhaps a homemaker managing her duties, but I doubt you thought of the word “naked.” Yet, that’s the original idea in Genesis. Depending on the environment, naked can mean a state of being, a state of lack, or a shrewd use of intelligence.
Here is the same word used to describe the serpent, but now it is in Proverbs:
“Every ârûwm (sensibly naked) man acts with knowledge, But a fool spreads out folly.”
Proverbs 13:16
“The wisdom of the ârûwm (prudently naked) is to understand his way, But the folly of fools is deceit.”
Proverbs 14:8
If you’ve ever gone swimming without a swimsuit, you probably realized how sensible and prudent your nakedness was! God made our bodies just right.
Another Form of Nakedness
Maybe you’re wondering how we got this far without talking about sexual nakedness? That’s certainly the way we modern readers have been taught to think, isn’t it?
Yes, there is another type of nakedness mentioned in Scripture. Sexual nakedness is a completely different word. It is ervah. So far, we have only discussed nakedness apart from sexuality, but now let’s expose this new type of nakedness.
Ervah gets a lot of traffic in the Scriptures (56 verses). It describes nudity involved in explicitly sexual and sinful ways, such as rape. In older translations, ervah is usually called “uncovered nakedness,” a euphemism for either sexual intercourse, or readiness for sex. But, it is first used in Genesis 9.
“And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s ervah and told his two brothers outside.”
Genesis 9:22
English Bibles translate ervah in this verse as “naked,” but that hides the true meaning of the passage. It was not Noah’s simple state of nudity that Ham “saw.” Had that been the case, ârôwm would have been used.
In short, while Noah was inebriated in his private tent, Ham engaged in an improper sexual manner with his father (or mother, or both). Noah ultimately curses Canaan, the son of Ham.
His brothers refused to applaud this action.
“Then Shem and Japheth took a garment and placed it across their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their father’s ervah. Their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father’s ervah.”
Genesis 9:23
Mixed Messages
Later, in the Law of Moses, we see such reprehensible conduct made specifically illegal:
“The ervah of your father and the ervah of your mother you do not uncover, she [is] your mother; you do not uncover her ervah.”
Leviticus 18:7
Thankfully, many modern translations have updated the Levitical passages so that they no longer use “uncover nakedness,” but now use “sexual intercourse.” Oddly, though, they have not updated the passage in Genesis 9.
Sometimes, to emphasize a point, non-sexual nudity and sexual nudity are brought together in one place. For instance, we see a combination of naked words used in Ezekiel 23:
“They will deal with you in hatred, take all your property, and leave you êyrôm and ervah. And the ervah of your prostitution will be exposed, both your outrageous sin and your obscene practices.”
Ezekiel 23:29
In this case, we see sexual nakedness combined with lack, as êyrôm is associated with poverty, exposure, or a lack of provisions. A person who is unprotected is also vulnerable to sexual abuse.
Nakedness in Baptism
A person who is simply naked as a state of being is ârôwm. An ârôwm person is shame-less, innocent. Simple nakedness, ârôwm, means existing the way you were born, in your own skin.
It is the shared state of Adam and Eve in the Garden, Isaiah walking ârôwm for three years in Israel, and of the prophets prophesying in First Samuel.
Jesus was ârôwm at his baptism and so was every person who was baptized into the family of God in the early Church.
Baptism takes us back to birth. Jesus said “You must be born anew” and the early church understood this connection to being born ârôwm. It is a passage through water and spirit.
“And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.”
Matthew 3:16
“So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.”
Acts 2:41
Nakedness in Resurrection
It is the state of Jesus after His Resurrection.
Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.
John 20:6-7
After raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus told his sisters to get him out of the grave clothes:
[Jesus] cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
John 11:43-44
Lazarus must have felt such freedom to be unbound!
Words Matter
Why all the concern about word usage? Well, words matter. Using the right word for the right idea changes how a person understands a scenario.
The King James Version translators turned Jesus into a “carpenter,” and so popular culture now thinks of Him that way, despite the fact that on earth he was a tekton, a master artisan who builds out of stone.
To use a carpenter’s analogy, if the only tool in your tool belt is a hammer, then everything becomes a nail.
If the above words are all translated ‘naked,’ when it suits the translators and something else when it doesn’t (like prudent), then most modern readers will add shades of negativity and sexuality to all of the instances of nakedness in the Scriptures and miss how beautiful simple, wholesome nakedness is.
All of us were born naked. That is how God intended His creation to enter the world. If God’s intention had changed at the Fall, we would expect to see evidence in the Scriptures. It just isn’t there.
The fact that God made garments for humans does not establish a requirement. It does not mean that we must always wear clothing. It is simply the loving act of a loving Father who provided “going away presents” for His wayward, rebellious children and their new life of hardship.
Action Steps
Do we have to stay naked, the way we were all created? No, we have a choice. When it is cold, we have the privilege of adding garments to block the cold. When it is harsh, we have the privilege to create barriers between the harsh conditions and our skin.
Yet, when conditions are pleasant, we may also choose to exist in a state of ârôwm and enjoy the intent of God. Why not? It seems prudent, even sensible.
Selah.
Interested in more answers to questions about nudity in the Bible? Check out the book, ReNude Life!
Want to read some great short stories about the challenges of nudity in modern life? Check out Stripped: Tales of Humanity’s Most Basic Elements.
*In Hebrew, the symbols that indicate vowel sounds are called niqqud (נִקּוּד), a system of dots and dashes added to the primary, all-consonant text. This system was developed in the Middle Ages by Jewish scribes known as the Masoretes to standardize pronunciation, particularly for biblical texts. In modern Israeli Hebrew, however, the niqqud are generally omitted in most published material and are primarily used in children's books, poetry, or language instruction.
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