Resignation or Praise

And he said, “Naked I came out from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there.  The LORD has given and the LORD has taken away.  May the LORD’s name be blessed.”  Job 1:21 Robert Alter Naked – “You can’t take it with you.”  We all know that is absolutely true.  We came into…

Original Sex (The End of the Empire 2)

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Genesis 2:25  ESV Naked – While Jewish thought pays fairly little attention to the claim that the original couple were naked, Christian thinking has used this innocent passage to create an entire sexually-oriented prohibitive theology that, as I will attempt to show,…

First and Last

And the man and his wife were both naked, but they were not ashamed.  Genesis 2:25  NASB Naked – Camile Paglia made this observation about the Bible: There are no sexual personae in the Bible, except among harlots.  Biblical character is unitary and homogenous.  Psychic splits are of the ‘whited sepulcher’ kind, where the self…

Rule Number 1

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord.”  Job 1:21  NASB Naked – Job was right.  We come into this world with nothing.  We leave with nothing.  What happens in between birth and death is the interaction of the…

Gardening (Rewind)

“For your guilt teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.”  Job 15:5  NASB Crafty– “Naked I came into the world” is another way to say that when I arrived I didn’t have a hidden agenda.  That’s what we learn from the phonetically similar Hebrew word ʿārôm in Genesis 2:25. Adam and Havvah were…

The Discovery of Disobedience

He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” Genesis 3:10  NASB Was naked–The Genesis narrative tells us why we are filled with fears, regrets, anxieties and hope.  It is ancient psychological diagnosis, complete with the appropriate prescription.  But we will miss…

Grace Arrives

Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:9 NASB Where – As you know, Hebrew has two words for “where.” The first is a question about geographical location. ‘ephoh, that is, “Where is such and such place, person, thing?” If I’m lost in Jerusalem, I might use this…

A Trauma Story

And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” Genesis 3:11 NASB Naked – What a strange question? Why would God ask who told Adam he was naked? Does this mean God didn’t know? Hardly! The question must be directed…

Ruth Exposed

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Genesis 2:25 NASB Naked – The Hebrew word of “naked” is ‘arom. While it often describes nudity, in the Genesis account it has a much deeper meaning. The word itself is derived from the verb, ‘ur, “to be exposed.” In this verse,…

Different

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Genesis 2:25 NASB Naked – It’s possible that we’ve overlooked the obvious in this verse. We are so intent on applying the unity of the previous verse (“one flesh” – basar ‘ehad – one in proclamation) that we might have ignored the…