A new adventure is now available from ReNude Life Publishing!
Treasure at Camp Osihapi
Can you discover Camp Osihapi’s secret?
Following the heroic rescue that made Camp Osihapi a national sensation, the camp is ready for another summer. New campers arrive. Old friends reunite… but something isn’t right.
Why are there “researchers” wandering around the camp? And why are some of them so interested in the camp’s backcountry?
When clues and cryptic pieces of local lore begin pointing toward a legendary secret, Luke, Jesiah, Andy, and Jarod find themselves pulled into a mystery that reaches far beyond ordinary summer-camp adventures.
With new campers Caleb and Terry joining the crew, the boys face suspicious strangers, an increasingly dangerous search for the treasure, and a fierce rivalry with the neighboring Church of God camp.
And while Sheriff Moore tries to keep the peace, the Anchor crew realizes they may be the only ones standing between the hidden fortune and the people determined to claim it.
Friendships will be tested. Trust will matter. And the woods aren’t as safe as they seem.
Treasure at Camp Osihapi combines wilderness adventure, mystery, humor, rivalry, and the unmistakable bond of young men learning to lead and look out for one another.
For readers who enjoyed the first Camp Osihapi adventure, the stakes are higher, the mystery is deeper, and the summer is about to get a whole lot more interesting.
Written by R. B. Mears, Treasure at Camp Osihapi is the second and latest adventure in the Camp Osihapi series, bringing readers into a world of outdoor adventure, discovery, and unforgettable experiences.
The camp is waiting. The treasure is hidden. The adventure is ready.
And Treasure at Camp Osihapiis now available for purchase from ReNude Life Publishing. Get yours today:
What if you could finally shed your fig leaves—and discover you were already fully dressed in Christ?
ReNude Life is excited to announce the publication of Eva Gardiner’s new book:
Clothed with the Son: How I Shed My Fig Leaves and Found I’m Fully Dressed in Christ Alone
Christian naturism? Isn’t that an oxymoron?
And how could a physically flawed woman bare her body without shame?
Eva Gardiner wrestled with those questions herself.
After marital betrayal and divorce, Eva turned to purity culture and the “modesty” message, believing that covering more skin was the key to preventing sexual temptation. Then, when she finally dared to date again, she met a man who seemed to share her values—until he revealed that he was a naturist.
What followed was a yearlong journey of questions, laughter, Scripture, fear, discovery, and transformation.
With refreshing honesty and humor, Eva shares how she moved from legalism and fear to freedom and confidence, confronting both biblical questions and deeply rooted body shame along the way.
Her perspective as a Christian woman offers an inside look at what naturism really is—and what it isn’t.
And at the heart of it all is a powerful realization:
Modesty is a matter of the heart, not the hemline.
If you’ve ever wondered whether Christian faith and naturism can coexist—or if you’ve struggled with shame about your own body—Eva’s story is an invitation to consider what it truly means to be clothed in Christ.
📖 Clothed with the Sonby Eva Gardiner Now published by ReNude Life. Get yours on Kindle or Paperback!
In a remote wilderness retreat, a group of young boys must shed their insecurities and worldly inhibitions to master survival skills and discover the true meaning of humility.
Mystery at Camp Osihapi (by R.B. Mears, published by ReNude Life Publishing) is a coming-of-age wilderness novel following 12-year-old Luke Westin and his friends at Camp Osihapi-a historic camp named after the Lakota Sioux word for humility.
When Camp Osihapi reopens as an experimental project to study how primitive conditions affect modern youth, we follow along on the adventure to find:
Godly Brotherhood: Overcoming fears through trust and teamwork.
Body Acceptance & Modesty: Understanding nudity non-sexually as a state of humility and shedding body shame.
Wilderness Growth: Developing hands-on survival skills and spiritual maturity.
Inside, you’ll find:
Luke Westin: A thoughtful, anxious 12-year-old who plays music and fears not fitting in.
Jesiah: An easygoing, brave camper who becomes Luke’s close friend.
Andy: A tall Native American camper who steps up as a leader while facing a fear of getting messy.
Kyle: An energetic boy self-conscious about a chest scar from childhood heart surgery.
Jarod: A quiet, observant boy eager to learn outdoor skills.
“The Wild Boy”: A mysterious Native American youth living in the woods who guides the boys in humility and courage.
Silas Greenwood: The wise, elderly camp cook who lives off the land.
Mr. Casey Swank: A survival instructor and combat veteran seeking healing from past trauma.
A New Edition Coming Soon from ReNude Life Publishing
ReNude Life Publishing is proud to announce a new edition of Mystery at Camp Oshihapi by R.B. Mears, featuring updated text and a host of brand-new illustrations.
Luke Westin volunteered for a unique scientific study: to see if modern boys can survive a rustic, 1960s-style summer camp. With no AC, screened cabins, and open, communal showers, Luke is immediately pushed past his comfort zone. He is terrified of snakes, bullies, and the sheer vulnerability of camp life, but the challenges of Camp Osihapi quickly turn dangerous.
When a series of mysteries unfold, Luke and his cabin mates are forced to rely on one another. Through these trials, Luke finds his truest friends and learns that genuine Godly humility builds an unbreakable bond of trust. When a local boy goes missing and drug traffickers threaten their safety, their tight-knit camaraderie is put to the ultimate test to save a life.
Stay tuned for more information for where you can purchase your copy!
The third installment of the Boundless Light Series, Between Sight and Soul, has officially launched and is available on Amazon right now!
Eighteen-year-old Evan James has spent his life blending into the background, quietly wrestling with his own insecurities and a paralyzing fear of rejection. To protect himself, he hid his true self behind a false bravado, keeping his deepest questions buried from his community—and from his confident next-door neighbor, Becs.
But an unexpected spiritual awakening challenges everything he knows about faith, shame, and the human body. Driven by a profound, liberating truth, Evan steps out of the shadows and voices his perspective online through an anonymous blog called Unashamed Journey.
What Happens When You Stop Hiding?
Evan thinks he’s just shouting into the digital void. He has no idea that his words are about to spark an unexpected revolution, challenge a world governed by strict appearances, and put him directly at odds with rigid traditions.
When unexpected trials threaten to upend his world, Evan is forced to choose between the comfort of staying hidden or the immense cost of standing in his truth.
Take the Journey Today
Between Sight and Soul is a powerful, character-driven story of shattered expectations, healing support, and the ultimate courage it takes to step forward into perfect innocence. It’s a bitter, beautiful risk—and it’s ready for you to dive into today.
Thank you to our incredible ReNude Life community for walking with us through this series. Grab your copy, find a comfortable reading spot, and join Evan as he learns what it truly means to be fully known and fully loved.
Welcome to ReNude Art Studio, a unique creative space where classic American draftsmanship meets a pure, uncomplicated view of the human form.
ReNude Art Studio is a collection of transformative fan-art that goes far beyond simply removing clothing. It is about using existing art as a foundation to discover an entirely new message. Through careful, dedicated digital alteration, these pieces dismantle the artificial barriers of conventional attire in everyday spaces.
If clothing is unnecessary for protection at beaches, homes, backyards, and natural swimming spots, why draw it? There are so many places where we’ve been conditioned to think that clothing is necessary, when it simply… isn’t.
By recontextualizing these familiar scenes, we strip away centuries of arbitrary social codes and fashion anxieties. The result isn’t just a visual shift, but a narrative transformation that grounds these everyday settings in authenticity, pure comfort, and a closer connection to our environment. Stripped of pretense, the human body is normalized exactly as it is: a natural form existing gracefully in everyday life.
They’re also funny.
The Heart Behind the Art
This project is born out of a deep respect for the medium of newspaper comics. The goal is never parody or satire. We love these artists’ work and add our own wholesome, creative tribute to their beautiful linework and storytelling. Our modifications demonstrate that life works beautifully—and often with a greater sense of authentic connection—exactly as we came into the world.
A Note on Project Transparency and Fan-Art Integrity
Because we deeply respect the intellectual property and legacy of working cartoonists, ReNude Art Studio operates under strict principles of transparency:
Independent Transformations: All works displayed here are independent, non-commercial, transformative works of fan-art created for artistic advocacy and personal expression.
Clear Attribution: Every piece explicitly details the original creative team. A footnote notes the original creator alongside our own custom modifications. Attribution marks, however, are no longer present, so as not to suggest that the new artwork was produced by the original artist.
Join us as we journey into the past and present with an unadorned look at modern life, ReNude style.
In our modern English Bibles, “naked” is just a flat, singular word. It conjures a specific image—usually one of vulnerability or perhaps something that needs to be covered up. But in the original Hebrew, the concept isn’t flat at all. It has depth. It has intensity. There are three shades of nakedness in Genesis 1-3.
Think of it like a grayscale. We often talk about white, gray, and black as “colors,” but they aren’t. They are shades. They represent the intensity of light or the lack thereof. In the Garden of Eden, we see the word “naked” shift through three distinct shades, and if we don’t pay attention to the Hebrew vowels, we miss the entire story of the human soul.
White: Arowm (עָרֹם) – The Shade of Wholeness
The story begins in the light.
“And the man and his wife were both arowm, (naked without lack) and they were not ashamed.”
Genesis 2:25
This is the White of the grayscale. It is the shade of innocence, but more than that, it is the shade of wholeness. To be arowm is to be existing exactly as you were created—unburdened, complete, and lacking nothing. In this state, there is no need for a “protector” because there is no threat. There is no need for “provision” because everything is provided. White is the presence of all light; arowm is the presence of all God’s intent.
Gray: Aruwm (עָרוּם) – The Shade of Strategy
But then, the intensity shifts. Just a few breaths later, we meet the serpent.
“Now the serpent was more aruwm(naked shrewd) than any beast of the field…”
Genesis 3:1
Here is our Gray. Most translators cunningly stop using the word “naked” here and switch to “shrewd,” “prudent,” or “crafty.” But in the Hebrew mind, this is just a different shade of the same root.
Think of gray matter—the brain. This is the nakedness of the mind, a kind of strategic wisdom. It isn’t necessarily “evil” (Proverbs uses this same word to describe the prudent man), but it is a departure from the pure white of simple being. It is the sharp, calculating edge of intelligence. The Serpent wasn’t just “naked” like the humans; he was “nakedly strategic.” He was the gray area between innocence and the dark.
Black: Eyrom (עֵירֹם) – The Shade of Lack
Finally, the light is blocked out. After the fruit is eaten, the humans look at themselves and a new word enters the vocabulary:
“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were eyrom (naked lack)…”
Genesis 3:7
This is the Black of the scale. This isn’t the “shame-less” nakedness of the beginning. Eyrom is the shade of lack. It is the feeling of being stripped, exposed, and unprotected. It is the heavy realization that you are no longer “whole.”
When Adam hides in the trees and tells God, “I was afraid because I was eyrom,” he is declaring his own bankruptcy. He is saying, “I am in the dark. I have nothing left.”
Who Told You That You Were Lacking?
One of the most profound moments in this linguistic journey happens when God responds to Adam’s fear. God doesn’t say, “Oh, I see you’ve lost your clothes.” He asks a piercing question:
“Who told you that you were eyrom (lacking)?”
God is effectively saying: “I never called you that. I spoke a different shade over you. I called you arowm—whole, complete, and radiant. Where did you get the idea that you were unprotected? That proclamation did not come from Me.”
Even in their rebellion, God still saw them through the lens of His original intent. He saw the White, while they could only see the Black.
The Design of Grace
We, modern readers, tend to think of the Fall as a change in our physical bodies, but these Hebrew “shades” suggest it was a change in our perception. We moved from the bright wholeness of arowm into the gray calculations of aruwm, and finally plummeted into the black fear of eyrom.
When we understand that “naked” isn’t always “naked,” we start to see the invitation of the Creator. He isn’t looking for us to “cover up” our lack; He’s provided for us a way to come back into the light where we don’t need the strategy of the serpent or the fear of the fallen. He is calling us back to the White—to be arowm once again, lacking nothing in His presence.
Into the Wilderness
Humanity’s power grab in the Garden broke the seamless fellowship they enjoyed with the Creator. By choosing their own way, they separated themselves from the Source of Light. Consequently, though God never spoke eyrom (lack) over them, that was all humanity could see. They became trapped in the “Black” shade—blind to their original wholeness and fixated on their own vulnerability.
But the story doesn’t leave us in the dark.
The Last Adam
To fix a broken perception, we needed a new Prototype. We needed someone to step back into the grayscale and restore the Light.
“Thus it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living being’; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the physical and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.”
1 Corinthians 15:45-49 (NRSVUE)
Jesus, the Last Adam, didn’t just come to “cover” our lack; He came to kill the version of us that believed in lack. Through our union with Him, we undergo a total structural shift.
Death, Burial, and Resurrection—Now!
This isn’t a promise for a distant future or a reward in the afterlife. Our restoration to the “White” shade of arowm happens the moment we are joined to the Last Adam.
“What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
Romans 6:1-5 (NRSVUE)
Through this death and resurrection, the lens is wiped clean. We no longer have to view ourselves through the “Black” of eyrom—the state of being ashamed, unprotected, or “not enough.”
Friend, are you in Christ? If yes, look at yourself! We can see ourselves and the rest of humanity through the lens of arowm right now, on this earth. We are whole. We are provided for. We are innocent. The “shading” of our lives has been reset by the Man from Heaven. We are arowm in Christ today.
This is Good News! Maybe you should share it with someone?
Earlier this year we released Between Sand and Salvation, a story that carried Ashley Harper through the deserted island of her past and into a new season of healing and purpose.
That book has already sparked so many conversations about grace and restoration! The unexpected ways God reaches into our lives, especially when we least expect it, has really resonated with readers. And truly, your messages and reflections have meant the world!
Now it is time to return to the Boundless Chronicles with Book 3: Between Sight and Soul, the long-awaited dive into Evan James and the quiet battles he has carried for years. For new readers, Evan was the “boy next door” who played a pivotal, if controversial, role in Becs’ story in Between Sun and Skin.
So What’s Happened with Evan?
Curious readers have asked again and again for more of Evan’s story, and this book finally opens that door!
Evan’s journey is different from Ashley’s, but just as honest.
His struggle is not so much about body shame, but about the weight of expectation and the unseen pressures that shaped him long before he met Becs.
This book explores what happens when a man finally stops living by what everyone else sees and begins listening to what God is speaking to his soul.
Jason Stern
Expect moments of raw honesty, beauty in unexpected places, and scenes where the simplicity of bare humanity becomes a space for clarity instead of fear.
If Between Sand and Salvation was about Ashley learning to stand whole, Between Sight and Soul is about Evan learning to see himself as someone God never abandoned.
This book is personal. It is vulnerable. It is full of those quiet heart-level transformations that leave a reader thinking long after the final page. And yes, it threads deeply into the themes of grace that tie all of the Boundless Light Chronicles together.
Our goal is to have Between Sight and Soul in your hands by Christmas. Over the next few weeks I will be sharing glimpses, scene snippets, and updates as I move toward the finish line.
Thank you for walking this journey with these characters and with me. They are growing. The story is expanding. And I cannot wait to share this next chapter with you.
We are thrilled to announce the newest addition to the Simple Truths series: Billy Bear’s Big Visit to Bearopolis! This charming picture book takes readers on a delightful journey to a city where clothes are king, and one little bear dares to be different.
Welcome to Bearopolis!
Imagine a “clip-clop, beep-beep” city where life is governed by fashion. In Bearopolis, every single bear wears clothes—from bowler hats and button-up vests to bright, billowy dresses. Everything is tidy, proper, and, above all, covered.
But when Billy, a sweet, bare bear from the country, steps off the bus, he causes a city-wide sensation. Billy doesn’t have a hat, a vest, or a bow tie; he arrived with his own “wonderful, warm, all-weather coat” of fur. The city bears stop everything to stare.
The Simple Truth: Uncomplicate Your Life
The heart of this story lies in the contrast between Billy’s easy life and the complicated routine of the city bears.
The most important bear in the city, Bartholomew, spends his Monday grumbling at a mountain of laundry — all the socks, trousers, and shirts with tricky buttons. Meanwhile, Billy is free to splash into the city pond with a happy “YIPPEE!” because his fur is the only swimming costume he needs.
Billy’s joy and simple way of life are contagious. By the end of his visit, Bartholomew and the other city residents begin to question their own fussy routines. They realize that washing, folding, and buying clothes is a heavy burden.
Themes for Your Young Reader:
Self-Acceptance: Billy teaches readers that the way they are naturally is “simply perfect”.
Minimalism for Kids: The book playfully demonstrates the freedom that comes from choosing simplicity over complication.
Questioning Norms: Billy encourages children to think for themselves, rather than just doing what everyone else is doing.
Join Billy and the bears of Bearopolis as they discover that sometimes, the simple truth is that being a bare bear is simply perfect!
[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.*
ârôwm
ʻârôwm – nakedness as a state of being (Genesis 2:25)
ârûwm
ʻârûwm – nakedness as a state of strategy (Genesis 3:1)
êyrôm
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 ârôwmwhen 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 nakedof 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 ârôwmand 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
ervah
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, ârôwmwould 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 êyrômand 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!
*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. -Source
