Why Adam and Eve were created naked?

Question

What are the the common explanations in the Oriental Orthodoxy, the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and in the main-stream Protestantism (I mean those protestant believers who besides praying to the Father also pray directly to Jesus) on the reason why Adam and Eve were created naked by God? On one hand, we see throughout the whole Bible that angels are never naked. They are always dressed in bright and white robes. In the book of Revelation we see that in the eternal future all the saints will be wearing white robes. On the other hand, God said, after creating humans, that all the things that He had just created were "very good". So what is really "very good"? Is it to be naked or to be clothed in white robes? If robes, then why Adam and Eve were not originally created that way, that is, with white robes on?

Answer 1

They were not ashamed because they had not sinned against their Creator. They had nothing to be ashamed of. They found themselves just as they were, just as God had created them. There were no other humans around who wore clothes, whilst they did not, giving rise to any questions, or anxiety at being "different".

Ah, but Adam and Eve began to realise what shame was as soon as they had sinned against God, by disobeying him. They wanted to hide from God. They felt a need to put fig leaves together to cover themselves with. Yet, in kindness, God did not cast them out of Eden until he had used skin to clothe them with. No doubt there were chill winds outside of Eden, with thorns and thistles that would lacerate their skin, without protective clothes.

From then on, the Bible shows that sinners need to have their unrighteous sins "covered". White robes are symbolic of purity, righteousness and holiness. The martyred saints under heaven's altar are given white robes to wear while waiting for the full number of those to be beheaded (as they were) to be arrived at.

Adam and Eve needed no covering until they had sinned. They themselves immediately knew things were not right; their sin was shameful. But their efforts were futile (and pathetic) for God knew what they had done and that their sin meant they could no longer stay in his paradise. Only he could deal justly with their sin, by bringing upon them death. Yet, he also lovingly gave them protection for their fallen state, and a glorious promise for the future, through the seed of the woman. Here is a quote from a book explaining this:

"Humanity was created unclothed. Yet no attention was drawn to this state and no embarrassment was, originally, felt about this state. Without applying to the tree of knowledge of good and evil there was nothing to be embarrassed about. Nothing odd, nothing strange, nothing shameful. What was made was good, and God rested on the seventh day.

But once the serpentine spirit had made his presence known and once the woman had been deceived into partaking of the tree which was warned to be a fatal diet, and once the woman was able to persuade the man to transgress against his original instructions from the Creating Spirit, then humanity on earth became aware of a lack.

There is something missing. There is something that they do not have. There is something that has not been provided.

Or, rather, there is something that has not yet been provided.

What is yet to be provided is made clear by Deity once necessary judgment is made. A promise is made of a seed yet to come. That seed will be from woman not man... After the first instruction, regarding what not to 'eat' of, there were further instructions to be given. There was a promise to be expressed. Within the promise was the hope conveyed. The knowledge of good and evil could never bring promise or hope. 'This do and thou shalt live' is all it ever has to say. And a natural existence is all it can provide... if it is kept perfectly.

And beneath such a realm, man is discovered to be naked. Exposed. Vulnerable in flesh. And embarrassed about his condition. Man is incomplete, though his creation is good. For the purpose of God is far more than flesh and blood. The desire of Deity, before the foundation of the world, is vastly more than an earth with flesh and blood upon it...

Despite the conspiracy of serpent, woman and man, and the inevitable righteous result that death must follow sin, still there is a promise, still there is a hope, and faith may seize upon it, as Adam's words prove that he did, accepting his own failure, receiving his own judgment, yet believing what God had said regarding the woman and what would come from her womb...

But there is another generating, another generation, all that are of that generation shall live: and woman, named 'Eve' shall be the mother of every one of them. This is the woman seen in Revelation 12:1, ...This woman is clothed with the sun, adorned with a flaming, living light. Under her feet is the feeble, borrowed, reflected light of a past darkness. She is of the day: the night is far spent, beneath her feet...

This is a restoration. It is apokatallasso, the superlative restoration, under headship, in an everlasting testament, in a new creation, which restores all to God's true purpose...

This is the superlative (apo-) restoration to that which was always in the mind and purpose and will of the Almighty... Thus, after Adam's recognition of God's promise, God responds to his faith...

'Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them.' This is the provision that they lack. But in order to provide it, there must be a death, a sacrificial death. In order to provide a suitable clothing (not just fig leaves...)

In order to make proper provision, a death must occur. Then they are clothed properly.

Then they are clothed in the skin of another.

In a figure, they are clothed with another humanity. This is the 'clothing' that righteousness requires.

The spirit of a man needs new clothing, if he is to stand, in righteousness, before God. His old humanity must be crucified with Christ. And he must be born again. And he must rise, together with Christ, in resurrection to sit with him in the heavenly places, Ephesians 1:20 and 2:6." Jehovah Tsidkenu, Nigel Johnstone, pages 102-3 & 106-7 http://belmontpublications.co.uk [Bold emphasis mine]

Answer 2

The Eastern Orthodox perspective.

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“the glory from above garbed them better than any garment.” (St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 16.5)

“And [we] wore Him as a glorious garment. Adam was wrapped about with His grace.” (St John of Damascus, Exact Exposition 2.11)

The fathers of the church teach that Adam and Eve, before the fall, were clothed in garments of glory. When they fell into sin, they were ashamed at their nakedness. It is not that they saw for the first time that they were not wearing clothes, it is that they realized the depravity and true nakedness of a human body that is not clothed in God’s glory. This shame drove them to hide when they heard God approaching. Afterward, they were clothed in garments of skin, which represents our present fallen tendencies, or as St. Paul calls it, the flesh. ...

... we cannot image the great heights from which our ancestors fell during after their sin, when they went from being clothed in the unspeakable glory of God to being stripped of that glory and having nothing besides corruptible human beauty. No matter the immense physical beauty a person possesses, they will die and they will decay. However, Christ offers us garments of incorruptible beauty and glory: if we will cast aside these fleshly ones.

(Fr. Jeremy)

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Conclusion:

Technically yes the saints Adam and Eve, were physically naked, but they were "better than being clothed". As they had no corruption they had no lust, they were pure, and did not know depravity. They were originally clothed in God's Glory.

Answer 3

Why Adam and Eve were created naked?

Just as new born infants are born into this world, both Adam and Eve created naked, having been created in the image and likeness of God, free of all stain of sin, corruption, and any shadow of concupiscence or evil tendencies. The were created in all purity and holiness, completely united to their Creator.

Metaphysically speaking, they may have been clothed with some sort of covering that was removed (after they sinned) which explains why they felt ashamed and hid in the bush for the first time. Being engulfed in light is not exactly the same thing as being clothed in light, this they remained naked in essence until they committed sin.

There is a long standing tradition that both Adam and Eve were both clothed in light, shortly after their creation which was stripped of their persons the moment they committed the original sin. Being clothed in light reflects their unique reflection as being in the imagine and likeness of God. “You cover yourself with light as though it were a robe” - Psalm104:2

Here follows an excerpt of an article showing a glimpse into the possibility that Adam and Eve were clothed in light prior to the fall.

The Background: The Garments of Light

The Biblical passages found in Gen 1:26-27 and Gen 3:21 represent two pivotal starting points for the subsequent Jewish and Christian reflections on the glorious garments of Adam and Eve. Gen 1:26 describes the creation of human being(s) after the likeness (úSî©) of the image (íìö) of God. It is noteworthy that Gen 1:26-27 refers to the íìö (tselem) of Adam, the luminous image of God's glory according to which Adam was created. The particular interest in Gen 1:26 is that Adam's tselem was created after God's own tselem (Sîìö<) (literally "in our tselem"), being a luminous "imitation" of the glorious tselem of God. Some scholars argue that the likeness that Adam and God shared was not physicality - in the usual sense of having a body - but rather luminescence.

The Tarqums, the Aramaic renderings of the Hebrew Bible, also attest to the prelapsarian luminosity of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The Biblical background for such traditions includes the passage from Gen 3:21, where "the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin and clothed them." The Targumic traditions, both Palestinian and Babylonian, read, instead of "garments of skin," "garments of glory." This Targumic interpretation is reinforced by Rabbinic sources. One of them can be found in Genesis Rabbah 20:12, which tells that the scroll of Rabbi Meir reads "garments of light" (øS? úSúë) instead of "garments of skin" (øS? úSúë): "In R. Meir's Torah it was found written, 'Garments of light: this refers to Adam's garments, which were like a torch [shedding radiance], broad at the bottom and narrow at the top.'"

It is usually understood that Gen 3:21 refers to God's clothing Adam and Eve's nakedness after the Fall. S. Brock, however, argues that sufficient evidence exist to suggest that there also was another way of understanding the time reference of Gen 3:21. According to this alternative understanding the verbs are to be taken as pluperfects, referring to the status of Adam and Eve at their creation before the Fall.

It is noteworthy that in the later Jewish and Samaritan sources, the story about Adam's luminous garments is often mentioned in conjunction with Moses' story. In these materials, Moses is often depicted as a luminous counterpart of Adam.

Jarl Fossum and April De Conick successfully demonstrated the importance of the Samaritan materials for understanding the connection between the "glories" of Adam and Moses. The Samaritan texts insist that when Moses ascended to Mount Sinai, he received the image of God which Adam cast off in the Garden of Eden. According to Memar Marqa, Moses was endowed with the identical glorious body as Adam. Memar Marqa 5.4 tells that: He [Moses] was vested with the form which Adam cast off in the Garden of Eden; and his face shone up to the day of his death.

The Adam/Moses connection also looms large in the Rabbinic sources. Alon Goshen Gottstein stresses that "the luminescent quality of the image (tselem) is the basis for comparison between Moses and Adam in several rabbinical materials."[14] Deuteronomy Rabbah 11.3 offers important witness to the Adam/Moses conection. It includes the following passage in which two "luminaries" argue whose glory is the greatest:

Adam said to Moses: "I am greater than you because I have been created in the image of God." Whence this? For it is said, "and God created man in his own image" (Gen. 1,27). Moses replied to him: "I am far superior to you, for the honor which was given to you has been taken away from you, as it is said: but man (Adam) abideth not in honor, (Ps. XLIX, 13) but as for me, the radiant countenance which God gave me still remains with me." Whence? For it is said: "his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated" (Deut. 34,7).

Vested with Adam's Glory: Moses as the Luminous Counterpart of Adam in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the Macarian Homilies

But it was not until 19th century and in particular Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich’s revelation that the idea that Adam and Eve were somehow clothed in light and this light reflected God’s intimacy and presence with them. It was not until the first sin had been completed that they realized that they were indeed naked and God withdrew his Divine Presence and God’s light faded away from both Adam and Eve...

They were like two unspeakably noble and beautiful children, perfectly luminous. and clothed with beams of light as with a veil. From Adam's mouth I saw issuing a broad stream of glittering light, and upon his forehead was an expression of great majesty. Around his mouth played a sunbeam, but there was none around Eve's. I saw Adam's heart very much the same as in men of the present day, but his breast was surrounded by rays of light. In the middle of his heart, I saw a sparkling halo of glory. - Were Adam and Eve originally clothed in garments of light?

Answer 4

Yes, they were in the same state as the animals when God was done creating them. Scripture indeed confirms that they were naked from the perspective of other beings but not from the perspective of Adam and Eve. That statement can be accounted for by the fact that Adam and Eve did not realize that being naked was bad since they did not possess the knowledge of good and evil which came about as a result of eating that fruit. Genesis 2:25

Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Answer 5

Before sin, nudity was not a problem. It was only after sin that nudity became problematic and God created clothing for man.

Genesis 3:6-7 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

Genesis 3:21-24 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

It was only AFTER sin that God created clothing. There was nothing wrong about nudity before sin existed, and the only problem is that with sin, man's senses became corrupted.