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Before I even start this article, I must, must, must give a shout out to the person who really inspired it. That person is known as Torahrevival on Youtube, and to me he is known as Ely. I had never looked at scripture as deeply as he had. He spotted this principle which is hinted at in scripture. This is one of the cases I referred to before in a previous chapter about what the Lord loves, does, hates and requires. But this guy, before he even read that chapter, on his own initiative, found this principle. I thank him for his contribution to my learning, and I pray the Most High blesses him on his journey.
When our first parents, Adam and "Eve" (properly called Hawwah [strong h like how the scottish say "loch ness"] but the english tradition of distorting and messing up biblical names continues from the beginning until now) made that fatal mistake of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, their eyes were "open" in a certain way. The way they view the world and themselves differently can be seen in the following progression:
BEFORE EATING THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT:
And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:25)
AFTER EATING THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT:
(6) And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to give wisdom, so she took its fruit, and did eat; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat. (7) And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made for themselves loin-coverings. (8) And they heard the voice of YHWH Deity moving about in the garden toward the cool of the day; and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of YHWH Deity amongst the trees of the garden. (9) And YHWH Deity called to the man, and said unto him: 'Where are you?' (10) And he said: 'I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.' (Genesis 3:6-10)
I believe you can see the vast difference between how the first man and his wife viewed themselves before the sin, and how they viewed themselves after. Their minds were altered in such a stark way that the man even had to hide himself from the Creator!!! This changed how humans viewed their nakedness from that time onwards until now and for the forseeable future (whatever that means, since we can't even see the next second clearly). I don't even know if it will change back when the Supreme Being restores this world!!!
But note how our caring, loving Father treats the man after this mistake.
And YHWH Deity made for Adam and for his wife coats of skins, and clothed them. (Genesis 3:21)
How loving must one be to see their child make a mistake, and yet still protect and clothe them after that mistake?
But was there something more to the Almighty clothing them? Was he saying something about nakedness by making clothes for them and dressing them? The world had changed! The mind of mankind had changed! And as you will see as I continue, the Lord may have been setting a precedent that may be something akin to a law or an authoritative principle. So what are we waiting for? Let's continue!
We step over a thousand and six hundred years into the future of Adam and Eve, into the days of Noah. Poor Noah! A man devastated to see the world destroyed and the universe overturned. He had once gazed on a world thriving with people. And then, after the catastrophe that he and his family survived, all he sees are seven other people alive, plant life struggling to renew its place on earth, and only the remnant of animal life. So he does what many do when their lives have been overturned: he gets drunk! In fact, in the episode recorded in Genesis, he gets drunk and strips himself naked in his tent and falls asleep. Here's the whole episode.
(18) And the sons of Noah, that went forth from the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth; and Ham is the father of Canaan. (19) These three were the sons of Noah, and of these was the whole earth overspread. (20) And Noah the farmer [Heb. a man of the soil] began, and planted a vineyard. (21) And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. (22) And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. (23) And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. (24) And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done unto him. (25) And he said: Cursed be Canaan [Ham's son]; a servant of servants shall he be for his brothers. (26) And he said: Blessed be YHWH, the Deity of Shem; and let Canaan be their servant. (27) May Deity enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be their servant. (Genesis 9:18-27)
So his youngest son, Ham, enters the tent and sees his father's nakedness. [The rabbis say that Ham did something more to his father, but that's not in the scope of this article right now. Let's just deal with the plain meaning and what should be the plain interpretation.] And he does nothing but go and report this to his brothers, which is bad in itself because it becomes like gossip: you see a person in a vunerable position, and rather than help them, you just go and tell others. That's just wrong. But look at the actions of Shem and Jepheth. They don't even want to glimpse their father's nakedness. They do all they can to cover him up.
Once Noah regains his senses, what is his reaction? To curse Ham through his son Canaan, and to bless Shem and Jepheth! For now, let's not get bogged down figuring out why Noah cursed Canaan, since the context shows us that his intention was for Ham to feel the negative consequences of his actions. For now, we need to focus on the relevant points of what's just happened. Shem and Jepheth are commended for what? Not looking at their father's nakedness and making sure it is covered up. Ham is condemned for what? Gazing at his father's nakedness and doing nothing to remedy it. The very way I said that ("remedy") shows you where I'm going with this. You only need a remedy if something bad is happening. What was the bad situation here? Noah's nakedness!
Shem's and Jepheth's actions again show us the way nakedness was still viewed in the ancient days. It seems to support the notion that whatever happened in the garden of Eden with Adam and "Eve", whatever the Lord did in covering them up, set a precedent about how nakedness should be treated in the future, i.e., that nakedness must be covered up. As Ely/Torahrevival said in his Youtube video "Clothing and the Scriptures".
From the actions of everyone in this incident, we see that public exposure of nakedness was something abnormal and unacceptable.
I could say I've made the point already just there. We can already see the origin and the continuance of a certain way of acting with regards to one's nakedness. But I think we should still go further. Did the Lord himself say anything more about nakedness and how it should be viewed? Does the scripture give any hints to what "nakedness" is?
Now concerning the latter question, we already had a clue in the story of Adam and "Eve" and what they made for themselves in order to cover themselves up (Genesis 3:7). Although other translations use words such as "aprons" and "girdles" (ambiguous and easily misunderstood terms), my translation above was "loin-coverings". And if you don't know where the loin is on your body, it means your waist or hip area. The Hebrew word speaks of something that goes around the waist/hips, covering that area. It does seem to point to a covering of the genital and anal regions (where a human's sexual equipment is, and also the place where the "going to the toilet" equipment is).
But we have further evidence of this in the law of the Lord.
Neither shall you [the priest in particular] go up by steps up to mine altar, that your nakedness not be exposed on it. (Exodus 20:26)
What is this talking about? Now in those days, people didn't wear trousers like we do today. Everyone wore what today would look like skirts. And thus as a person would widen their stride to go upstairs, their private regions would become exposed.
So here, we see the Lord himself warning against the exposure of nakedness. And where is this nakedness? In the same genital, "going to the toilet", region.
Again, we see the following:
And you shall make for them linen underwear to cover the flesh of their nakedness; they shall be from the loins even to the thighs. (Exodus 28:42)
Do you remember where the loin is? That's right: at the waist or hips! So we can see that "nakedness" is somewhere between the waist/hips and the thigh. That place needed to be covered up! This shows the negativity attached to exposing or viewing that area. This again can be reinforced by the following:
(4) So Hanun took David's servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away. (5) When they told it unto David, he sent to meet them; for the men were greatly ashamed... (2 Samuel 10:4-5a - a piece of Keil and Delitzsch's commentary says the following concerning this: "The insult was still further increased by cutting off the long dress which covered the body; so that as the ancient Israelites wore no trousers, the lower half of the body was quite exposed.")
So shall the king of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt, and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. (Isaiah 20:4)
(22) And when you say in your heart: 'Why are these things befallen me?' - your skirts are uncovered for the abundance of your iniquity, and your heels suffer violence. (25) This is your lot, the portion measured for you from Me, declares YHWH; because you have forgotten Me, and trusted in falsehood. (26) Therefore will I also uncover your skirts upon your face, and your shame shall appear. (Jeremiah 13:22,25-26)
Your nakedness shall be uncovered, even your shame shall be seen; I will take vengeance, and will let no man intercede. (Isaiah 47:3)
These verses just show the negativity attached to the exposure of nakedness, even by the Almighty himself. This surely must be a lesson for us. We need to be careful with our clothing, to dress decently and modestly by covering the private parts.
In fact, there are modern incidents that show that this prohibition (of exposing nakedness) is still applicable today. As Ely/Torahrevival said, there are still tribes in Africa that go around naked. But what about our western culture, our decadent western culture? Well, pornography is still rampant which has men and women not only exposing their nakedness, but doing the sexual act for all (who can pay for it) to see. And we have those on the fringe of our society, or even hidden in our midst that have these nudist camps, or groups of people who feel "free" and "natural" to "express themselves" by going around naked (normally in their own camps)! There may even be nudist beaches still in existence. So the principles derived here would apply to them.
Now some angry soul may say to me: "Hey, you legalist! I can see you trying to create all these laws out of thin air! But what about babies and toddlers, huh? Are you gonna force your law on them?" A more thoughtful person may ask: "How does this apply to our children?" I think that is a good question. I think we can look on a few things with regards to that. Firstly, the statements having to do with nakedness all relate to adults, those who have left the ages of childhood. So the restriction should definitely be on them, whilst leaving children, at the very least, in question.
Secondly, note the similarity between Adam and "Eve", and children! When Adam and "Eve" was in an "innocent" state, they didn't really have any indecent notions about nakedness. And it is the same with children who have no clue about what is what on themselves, much less other people. But it is as their knowledge increases that the need for clothes seems to manifest itself, much the same as when Adam and "Eve" lost that innocence. Thus, it seems to follow from that that nakedness is more or less ok with really young children/toddlers, although that leads to my final point. But just to continue in this point, whilst they are at that age of learning, they can be taught the right way to go, just as with any other law or principle. When they are young, they are the responsibility of the parent, who must teach them the proper ways to go. They are going to make mistakes and not even know about it when they are at that age, so they have to be under the guardianship of their parent or whoever is raising them. Thus while they are at that age, and not at the age of total self-responsibility, it wouldn't be good to look at the child if they haven't properly learnt a principle, but to the person rearing them.
We have already a good tradition amongst most cultures: from a young age, we have to wrap up the child in something. And from a very young age, they have to be clothed, and then learn to clothe themselves. This tradition isn't seen as legalistic or harsh, but just the natural way of raising and training the child. So this subject isn't so much about legalism, but just the normal codes of decency. But this natural code is being put in its proper place, as being a universal principle that should be guarded and respected by all humanity because of its biblical basis.
So, thanks again to Ely/Torahrevival. I hope this at least causes people to think and to try to find that right and proper way of living on this earth, and exercising this gift of life and body that was not owed to us, but freely given.
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