ReNude Life Publishing

Objection 9:

We are commanded to buy clothes to cover our nakedness.

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. I counsel you to buy gold from me refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

Jesus, speaking to the Church at Laodicea in Revelation 3:17-18

The Book of Revelation (also known as The Apocalypse) is full to the brim of figurative and symbolic language. We must draw away the veil to understand what is actually being said and must examine the meaning, rather than take the words at face value. 

From the first verse of the Book, the author tells us to expect visual words – word pictures. He will show us, and we are to use our imaginations. We will see familiar metaphors from Israel’s past.

The Apocalypse draws heavily from the Old Testament Prophets, so readers would know to expect a wild ride of multi-headed beasts, impossible swords and cities floating from the sky. Over-the-top visuals capture our thoughts. They reveal to us deeper spiritual principles.

In our key verse, the judgment is that the worldly treasure of those being condemned has left them devoid of spiritual treasure. This may be the source that became the familiar fable from Hans Christian Andersen: the “Emperor’s New Clothes.”

The interpretation of this scriptural passage is that the people here are naked, but believe themselves to be dressed in royal robes. They are blind, but they believe their eyes are perfect. 

A little background…

Laodicea was renowned for three main industries:

• A banking center for the province of Asia Minor, including a gold exchange
• The textile center where glossy, black wool was woven into garments called trimata, prized in the Roman world
• The location of a major medical school known worldwide and
• where an eye salve called Phrygian powder was made from a local stone¹

Neither blindness, nor nakedness, are being condemned here as some kind of moral evil.

The church is being told to buy: gold, white robes, and eye salve as the antidote to their predicament. As they already see themselves as possessing these very things, this sets up the impact.

Jesus is telling them that what is required is a spiritual and virtuous transformation of their lives – a metamorphosis.

Later in chapter 19 we are told that “white clothes” symbolize righteous deeds.

The Laodiceans were spiritually blind and naked. Going to the bank, the tailors, and the local eye doctor for these already materially wealthy people would not change their spiritual poverty. 

Nakedness here represents the church’s shameful spiritual destitution. In no way do these verses bring shame to our physical bodies.

If we apply Jesus’ salve for our spiritual eyes, our spiritual shame shall become spiritual freedom.

MIND RENUDE:

This metaphor represents the church’s spiritual destitution, not her actual nudity.

Objection 10:

Seeing naked family members is a sin.

Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him… Noah pronounced his judgment: ‘Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.’

Genesis 9:22, 25

The response to the nakedness of Noah in Genesis 9 has long befuddled interpreters. One of Noah’s sons, Ham, commits some heinous crime against his father.

Oddly, though, Ham is not the one cursed by his father. Instead, Ham’s son Canaan bears the wrath of Noah. 

In more modern times, Europeans and Americans have historically (and wrongly) used this verse to justify racism and slavery.  In the 1870s, Charles Darwin’s second book, “The Descent of Man” hawked the view that Europeans were more evolved and more human, while Africans were more like apes.  

Ideas Have Consequences

European Christians bought into this tainted idea and read it into the Bible – accepting the notion that Africans were somehow cursed through Ham! 

Further, genteel society suggested that naked Africans were more primitive like animals, unlike their view of “cultured,” clothes-wearing humans who also happened to have lighter skin tones.

This verse, however, has nothing to do with skin color, ethnicity or common nudity. It comes down to Hebrew euphemisms. 

In the Journal of Biblical Literature, Hebrew scholars John Bergsma and Scott Hahn postulated that the terrible crime Ham committed was not about simple nudity at all. 

Ham was after the rulership of the family. He wanted to take over the family dynasty. 

While his father was drunk, Ham sneaked into the tent and assaulted his mother.

Ultimately, their relations resulted in a child whose name was Canaan.* Noah’s curse was on the illegitimate heir to his throne.

According to multiple verses, including Leviticus 18:7 and 8, to “see the nakedness” of your father means to have sexual relations with your mother or another of your father’s wives.

It was common in the ancient world for an incoming king or one who wanted to usurp a ruling king to demonstrate his virility and dominance by having sex with the current or former king’s wives. This is documented in multiple instances in the Biblical texts including the Books of Genesis and First and Second Samuel.

Mixups of this nature are why good biblical interpretation is so very important.

Rather than come to the text with our own fallen plans and ideas, we should always let Scripture interpret Scripture. With something unusual like the nakedness of Noah, we should allow even hard words to shape us, instead of the other way around.

Simple nudity is just that: simple, not criminal.

MIND RENUDE:

To “see” or “uncover the nakedness of” is a euphemism for a sexual encounter.

*According to Genesis 9:6, Canaan was the youngest son of Ham, so that means some time elapsed in the above passage. It’s not quite as linear as we usually think in a western mindset. The descendants of Ham were Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan.

Objection 11:

We are Commanded to Clothe the Naked People.

Jesus prophecies that in the Final Judgment, praise will be given to His followers who care for others. He says,

I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick, and you visited me, I was in prison, and you came to me.” Likewise, He curses the wicked, saying, “I was a stranger, and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.

Matthew 25:36

It seems at first glance here that for a person to be naked is a really awful predicament! The only thing to do to remedy this problem is to put clothes on those naked bodies, right?

Yet, Jesus also remarks:

“Consider how the wildflowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

Matthew 6:28-29

In another place, he instructs:

“From one who sues you and takes away your cloak, do not withhold your underwear either!

Matthew 5:40

Our bodies do not need to be clothed to be beautiful or functional. They are splendid simply as they were created, without further adornment.

What are Clothes for?

So why does God clothe Adam and Eve, as he banishes them from Eden? And why do we have this verse condemning those who take away a person’s clothing?

Jewish sages view the clothing of Adam and Eve as an act of God’s kindness as they enter the harsh climate beyond the bounds of Eden.

God clothes his children to protect them from the thorns and thistles; he equips them to survive the rigors of their new environment, and not because their naked bodies are not fit to see the light of day.

This is indeed a gracious act of loving kindness towards his children. 

A little history lesson

Prior to the creation of the sewing machine, garments had to be woven by hand—a lengthy and expensive process involving treating, dying, spinning, and weaving.

In Bible times, most people could only afford a single garment, usually a simple shirt-like outfit.

And many instances of Scripture focus on this common situation, where a person would use his garment as collateral for a loan. Here is an example:

If you lend money to any of My people who are poor among you…you shall not charge him interest. If you ever take your neighbor’s garment as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down. For that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin. What will he sleep in? And it will be that when he cries to Me, I will hear, for I am gracious.

Exodus 22:26-27

Naked Used to be Normal

Throughout Scripture we observe lots of instances of purposeful public nudity not associated with shame.

There are prophets and kings walking about nude for years, people fishing naked, gardeners, fieldworkers and vinedressers working naked, and of course, people sleeping naked. 

Basically, if someone’s only garment was lost or stolen, that person went around naked!

Such loss could bring the shame of poverty, but not of simple exposure.

People were not ashamed to be naked; they were ashamed to be poor and destitute.

When we understand the correlation of nakedness to “garment-lessness,” it opens our understanding. Listen to these condemnations of causing the shame of poverty upon others:

For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing and stripped the naked of their clothing. They lie all night naked, without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.… They go about naked, without clothing; hungry, they carry [other’s food, but do not eat]; they tread the winepress, but suffer thirst.

Job 22:6-7, 24:10-11

If a man… does what is just and right— if he… gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment [and] does not… withhold his hand from injustice… he is righteous….

Ezekiel 18:5-9

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

Isaiah 58:7

When Jesus instructs us to “clothe the naked,” it is not about making sure their bodies aren’t seen. Rather, it is an example of His Second Law: Love your neighbor as yourself.

MIND RENUDE:

“Clothe the Naked” is a metaphor. Poverty is a condition that Christians can help remedy by providing for the needs of the poor.

Objection 12:

“Unpresentable” Body Parts Should be Hidden.

The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater care, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

1 Corinthians 12:22-25

Like many passages in the New Testament, this one is a metaphor for unity in the church and for how each person plays a unique part in the makeup of the body of Christ.

However, as these verses have been wrongly used to shame our physical bodies, let us dig into the idea that some parts of our bodies are “unpresentable.”

A Few Different Perspectives

What do we think these parts are? Our 21st century western perspective would jump to the conclusion that the passage must be speaking of breasts and genitals. 

If we lived in another place or time, however, we might think our ankles or our ears, or even our eyes were “unpresentable,” while having no concern with exposing the entirety of the remainder of our bodies!

The Greek Testament Critical Exegetical Commentary informs us that the phrase “less presentable members” refers to “those limbs which we conceal from sight in accordance with custom, but in the exposure of which there would be no indecency.” 

Heinrich Meyer’s Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament explains that Paul was referring primarily to the inner organs, (the intestines, the brain, the heart) but allows for a reference to the delicate external organs (ears, eyes, genitals) as well. 

Modern pietists might “strain a gnat,” or “hunt for a needle” in this haystack to proof-text the idea that some body parts are worse than others, but in this search, they’ll only find acres of hay.

Our true focus should be that God has called the entire body: good [see Genesis 1:31]. 

What, then, does “unpresentable” mean?

If one is going out in a sandstorm, it is smart to cover one’s face.

It is “unpresentable” to the environmental conditions at the time. If you are going into a very cold environment, you will want to cover all of your exposed flesh. In that situation, it is “less presentable.”

Our brains, our hearts, our lungs— to each of these, God has given more honor by enclosing them within our bodies. They are “unpresentable,” but “more honorable.” 

It is only our culture, feeding on customs and the passage of time, that has wrongly concluded that our genitalia or areolae are dishonorable, unpresentable parts and that they exist in a state of continuous shame.

Questions.

If we continue to pass down faulty information and myths to our children, these meaningless traditions will continue… until someone asks a simple question: Why? 

Before we say, “because God said so,” or “because the Bible said so,” we should ask another simple question: Really?

The issue is not that our reproductive organs are inherently bad. Sometimes, they just get in the way!

When not being exposed to harsh elements or strapped down because of exercise or work, our vulnerable external body parts are just as beautiful and “presentable” as anything else.

The Christian walk provides life and freedom. Next time you have the opportunity to bare your skin to the sunshine, let it beam! God is smiling on all of your created parts.

MIND RENUDE:

God made you naked. He has called
your entire body “Good.”

MIND RENUDE:

Circumcision was a visible sign,
easily seen in everyday life.

People are often shocked at the thought of seeing naked males in public — as though the very idea is repulsive!

Not so for Israel. 

God decided to use a reproductive organ as a visible symbol to the rest of the world — to demonstrate a covenant promise.

How? Through the sign of circumcision.

To put it directly, a penis is a functional tool designed for planting seed. In Genesis, we learn that God hand-shaped every part of the human anatomy. He made a point to instruct Adam that an essential purpose for humanity is to “be fruitful and fill the earth.” 

In fact, many of our familiar words originate from that purpose, like our words for “husband” and “wife.” They mean “farmer” and “vineyard.” However, it wasn’t just vegetables and fruit that God wanted when he told the naked Adam and Eve to reproduce a multitude. 

It’s Ok to Talk About It

Sexuality doesn’t have to be odd or squeamish. When we strip bare and accept our naked bodies as normal, it helps us understand this function as a part – but not the whole – reason for our nudity.

And in His wisdom, God crafted the penis with a covering. The removal of that covering, or foreskin, makes the penis even more visible and prominent in its purpose. 

In Genesis 17, God informed Abraham:

This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.

God’s plan was to present his covenantal promise to the world by thrusting the circumcised penis out into the light of day.

What is the sign of circumcision?

Circumcision is the permanent removal of the hood-like flap of skin from the head of a male’s penis. In order to participate in important Jewish legal and religious activities, Israel’s men had to be circumcised. 

It doesn’t really cross our minds today, but how would others know that Jewish men were circumcised, unless they saw the visible difference?

You see, circumcision was a major part of Jewish identity! The nation had a holy contract with God Almighty – cut into their very reproductive organs! 

Some biblical scholars believe this was how Joseph confirmed to his brothers that He was a Hebrew when he was prefect of uncircumcised Egypt.  

Then Joseph cried out, ‘Make everyone go out from me.’ So, no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers.

Genesis 45

Gymnasium = Naked Place

Hundreds of years later, the Greek King Antiochus ruled over occupied Israel and ordered the people to exercise naked in the gymnasiums with their non-Jewish counterparts.

The Greeks, however, were offended when they saw the Jewish boys’ circumcised penises. 

The young Jewish athletes tried to disguise their circumcisions, but this caused much cultural anger.

Because it was part of their contract with God, Rabbis developed a more thorough form of circumcision and made it almost impossible for de-circumcision. 

After this, the Greek government cracked down hard, ordering Jewish women not to allow their baby boys to be circumcised. Disobedience resulted in a torturous death.

Nonetheless, the Jewish community resisted and continued their practice. 

It Was a Matter of Identity

Even though God made this covenant in the flesh with Abraham, He had another idea in mind.  The outward cutting is a representation of the inward. God is looking for a people whose hearts are turned to Him.

In Deuteronomy 10:16, He instructs the people, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.”

Physical nakedness helps us remember this covenant.

When you see a circumcised penis, instead of shrinking back, think of the beauty of its purpose and of God’s promise. 

MIND RENUDE:

Hiding our bodies prompts temptation. Revealing them shines the light.

Even though God had made a covenant in the flesh with Abraham through circumcision, He had a better idea in mind.  The outward cutting was designed to be a representation of inward healing, a circumcision of the heart.

God was looking for a people whose hearts were turned to Him! Moses told us:

The LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Deuteronomy 30:6

And the Apostle Paul writes in the Letter to the Romans that when Abraham

…received the sign of circumcision, it was a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe – without being circumcised – so that righteousness would be counted to them as well.

Romans 4:11

Cultural Expectations

As humans, we often get addicted to cultural expectations, and early believers were not immune. First century Christians hotly debated as to whether new converts must be outwardly circumcised in order to be truly saved.

Sometimes the debates got personal: Paul, in an apparent sarcastic remark, told those Judaizing legalists that if they were that concerned about circumcision, they should simply go all the way and castrate themselves! 

Some Things Change,
Some Things Stay the Same

We might understand his frustration. 

Legalists, then and now, preoccupy themselves with trying to bring perfection through performance. They fail to go into the deeper imperative of having a circumcised, broken heart before God: depending upon Him alone for our holiness. 

An expert author on fashion, past and present, James Laver, determined that:

The primary reason for wearing clothes is not modesty, but its opposite, self-aggrandizement.”

Surprisingly, he went on to say that:

“If complete nudity were common, we should probably become seasonal in our impulses [to wear it].

Laver concluded that our worldwide “permanent eroticism is kept alive by clothes.” ¹

Jesus Takes Us Back to the Garden

Christian naturists defy that permanent eroticism by living out a life of whole spirit / whole body unity.

We are grateful to God for how He created us, and do not hide ourselves before Him.

We know that the unregenerate heart is evil, and that no legalistic prohibition, such as a taboo on nudism, is going to keep people from fully wallowing in sin. 

Ultimately, in the early church it was decided that Jesus Himself fulfilled the requirement of circumcision.  Paul concluded to the Church at Colossae:

In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh. By the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith…. Having forgiven us all our trespasses, Christ has canceled the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

Colossians 2:11

Lest we forget, God is not ashamed of our nakedness. Hebrews 4:13 reminds us that:

“Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.”

MIND RENUDE:

Nakedness is a neutral state of being.

The word naked is usually used as a descriptive adjective. 

One might think of a naked mole rat, which describes a pink, nearly hairless rodent, or the “naked” truth, which is a way of saying that the information shared is unvarnished or without ornamentation. Simply put, we usually think of naked as meaning “without a covering.”

What does the term “nakedness” mean in the Bible?

Most of the passages that speak to nakedness are found in the Old Testament. As such, it is from within the Old Testament pages that most Bible teachers today draw their conclusions about what God thinks about nakedness.

If we really want to know what God’s perspective is towards nudity, it stands to reason that we must correctly understand the words from the Bible and their meanings.

There are three individual words for nakedness in the Old Testament: arowm, eyrom and ervah.

In Genesis 2:25, we are first introduced to arowm, which means “simple and innocent nakedness.” 

The man and his wife were arowm, but they were not ashamed.

Gen. 2:25

Later, in Genesis 3:7, after the Fall, the word eyrom for “vulnerable nakedness, with a sense of being exposed to harm” is used. 

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were eyrom; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

Gen. 3:7

And finally, after the global flood, in Genesis 9:22 we are exposed to a new word for “active sexual nakedness,” ervah. 

And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the ervah of his father…

Gen. 9:22

All three of these variants have their basis in the same root Hebrew word, but their biblical usage indicates different shades of meaning.

Sadly, in our common language translations, we generally just get one word, “naked,” which, understandably, has led many to develop wrong thoughts on what nakedness is all about!

God never calls arowm
or eyrom shameful.

There is no Scripture in the Bible that says, “Thou shalt not be naked” or “Nakedness is sinful.”

In fact, He used naked circumcision as a visible sign of His Covenant with Abraham and his descendants.

Ervah, on the other hand, is where we see sin joined with nakedness and shame. If what a person was doing in a situation was sinful, or could be the cause of sin, it was ervah. 

Gym is Naked

In the New Testament, words are written in Greek, rather than Hebrew. The word for naked is gymnos. It means “bare, without clothing,” and is the root of the word, “gymnasium.”

The gym was a place to exercise in a state of nudity. 

Hebrews 4:13 reminds us that in God’s eyes, “No creature is hidden, but all are gymnos…”

Many “grown-up” translations try to “cover up” simple nudity in the Bible, such as when the Apostle Peter was naked and fishing. But interestingly, the International Children’s Bible gets it right!

…he wrapped his coat around himself. (Peter had taken his clothes off.) Then he jumped into the water.

See John 21:3-7 ICB

What word was used in the Greek for his lack of clothing? Gymnos, of course!

Context is Key

Like ervah above, there are two instances in the New Testament where shame added to nudity produces a negative situation.

The Greek word aschēmosýnē is used for specific situations when nudity is inappropriately sexual or used to shame. 

In Romans 1:27, this word is used to describe unnatural sexual activity, and in Revelation 16:15, it is used to implicate the consequences of laziness. 

Ultimately, we look to the teaching of our Rabbi, Y’Shua. He teaches us that sin starts in the heart and grows into action. 

Most people throughout history have known that simple nudity is not sinful. Nakedness, like other subjects in the Bible, is actually a neutral state.

Yet, if we hold faulty definitions, our thoughts, our actions, and our discipleship journey with other believers in the Body of Christ will be affected. 

Isn’t it wonderful that, as New Covenant believers, we have the ability to focus our hearts on Jesus and experience the innocent, pure nakedness of the Garden?

Imagine the wrongs that might be righted if the church
rediscovered this truth!