Adam and Eve...the Unanswered Question!!!?

Question

In the scripture of Adam and Eve (specifically Genesis 3:1-11), there is a single question asked by God Himself that is scripturally unanswered. It is this one question that has been consuming my mind for the past several months because I believe it is at the root of most biblical understanding.

While I believe I have found the answer, it seems to contradict many popular beliefs. This means I could be flat out wrong.

That is why I have turned to you for some fresh perspectives.

God's unanswered question is this, "Who told you that you were naked?" (Genesis 3:11)

1) Who told Adam and Eve they were naked?

2) Is naked evil?

3) Are we damned to hell every time we bathe?

4) What exactly was (is?) the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil?

Thank you.

God bless!

Answer 1

I believe the question at the root of most biblical understanding is -- "Am I my brother's keeper." The purpose of the entire book is to teach us that we are, indeed, our brother's keeper.

We are indignant about the atrocities of the holocaust and can't imagine how such a horrible catastrophe could have occurred in a Christian culture. However, another genocide is occuring right now in Darfur, Sudan and how many of us are indignant that these atrocities can still take place. I'm sure God is weeping once again about the state of the humanity He created!

Find another problem to obsess over and start DOING something for your brothers and sisters!
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Answer 2

There is nothing essentially sinful about nudity (Genesis 2:25). Adam and Eve did not realize they were naked after the Fall (Genesis 3:7-11). Before the Fall, they were naked, and it was good (Genesis 1:31). Sin is what caused nakedness to become a problem. Sin introduced lust, immorality, and perversion into the human race. As a result, we can no longer look at a nude person of the opposite sex in a pure manner. God made clothing for Adam and Eve to resolve this problem (Genesis 3:21). If God approved of nakedness, He would have simply told them that being naked was okay, and they did not need to feel embarrassed or ashamed. The fact that God clothed Adam and Eve indicates that God expects us to be clothed. Nude beaches, nudist colonies, and all other forms of public nudity are not honoring to God. A Christian should definitely not be involved in nudist "activities."

Answer 3

The serpent/Satan told Adam & Eve they were naked.

Being naked is not evil, however, as you know people can say things that when written read many different ways, but when spoken are clearly meant in one specific way due to tone and voice inflection. My thought is that when Satan told them they were naked, the tone of his voice and the inflection on the word "naked" (or whatever word in whatever language means the same thing) inferred that being naked was a bad thing. When God asked the question, I think it was more of a rhetorical one. God already knew the answer, and He knew that Adam and Eve already knew the answer and that they knew they had broken God's command to not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If they hadn't then they wouldn't have been able to grasp the concept of what Satan was telling them about being naked.

No, we're not going to hell everytime we bathe. God's question had very little to do with nakedness, but more to do with how they knew they were naked.

Personally, I think it is that quality we now develop naturally when we're toddelers that keeps us from taking every stitch of clothes off in the middle of a store/other public place. At some point prior to us having verbal skills (or at least more than a couple of words), I think we decide certain things. Among those things is whether or not to symbolically eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Remember that it wasn't the fruit itself that contained the knowledge of good and evil, but that the fruit represented that knowledge. As hard as it is to grasp the concept that a piece of fruit can contain the ability to transfer the concepts of good and evil, imagine if there was no piece of fruit!

There are a lot of things that happened in the Garden of Eden that we don't have a written record of, it doesn't mean that other things didn't happen. For example, we don't know that God didn't spend eons trying to get Adam and Eve to grasp the concept of good and evil without a visual aid. I don't think He did, but He might have. It could have just as easily been that if they tracked mud on the grass, then they did something bad that Satan would make them believe, and thus believing God would have asked them how they knew they had done a bad thing by tracking mud onto the grass.

God gives us visual aids because we're too dense to get it in any other way.

Answer 4

To try and best answer your question i guess i'll use scriptures for u to understand best. I actually like the question, Adam where art thou, b/c it exposes man's compulsion to hide his sin, which ties into the story of redemption.

1) Who told Adam and Eve they were naked?
Actually nobody told them they were naked. As u remember the serpent said in the day you eat that your eyes would become open. Their eye opening process was that of a fleshly level, where they just happened to have been naked at. (Gen. 3:5)

2) Is naked evil?
Why would GOD create one naked and then call it evil? the evil was the act of eating from the forbidden tree.

3) Are we damned to hell every time we bathe? You are judged according to the deeds done in your body.(Rev. 20:12) Jesus said it is what comes out of a man that defiles him.(mark 7:15)

4) What exactly was (is?) the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil?
Of personal opinion to me, it was a path. When GOD presented it, he presented them with TWO options...One was the tree of LIFE and the Other was "THE FULL KNOWLEDGE of GOD and EVIL". Adam knew that he would continue a beautiful walk with GOD if he continued with the way things were, or he could understand sorrow, grief, and talking serpents if he ate from the Evil tree.

Answer 5

They ate the fruit & gained knowledge that they were naked. The serpent (aka Satan) convinced them to eat the fruit in Genesis 3:4 & 5- "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
When they ate the fruit, they went against what God had said, and hence, the original sin of man came about - they gained knowledge of their nakedness and were ashamed.
Genesis 3:7 "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves."

So...
1.) They gained knowledge from the fruit of the forbidden tree - aka the "Tree of Life."
2.) Naked isn't evil - we're born naked! It was symbolic of the shame that they had for their transgression & the knowledge of sin that they gained.
3.) No, don't be silly! lol
4.) It was in the Garden of Eden - I don't think that there have been any since - in Genesis 3:23, Adam & Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden & the Garden was hidden away.

Answer 6

Noone told Adam and Eve that they were naked, when God came to visit them, they realized that they were naked, no one told.
If naked is evil, then why were they placed in the garden naked? and why are kids born naked? And kids are innocent, and Adam and Eve were innocent.
When they took the fruit, they were not innocent anymore, because they didn't follow what God said.
If we didn't bathe, then we would all stink, and I'm sure God wouldn't wont us to stink.
And the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, is right there in the name.
DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Answer 7

I wondered about this for a time too, but if you take it at face value, you must remember not to interpret the bible literally. I believe that eating from the forbidden tree made them aware of having gone against God's express instructions. Adam and Eve were like kids, innocent kids at that, but once having gained knowledge they were not supposed to obtain at that moment, they became aware that things were changed. They felt shame because the Bible refers to nakedness as shame, they did wrong, they became aware of having done wrong and therefore were ashamed. If you have kids you will notice that when they don't know about something they will not pay attention to things we grownups do, but as they grow those same things can become shameful at times, I think that is what happened.
Adam and Eve became aware of their nakedness, they had new knowledge that rendered that nakedness as shame.
Naked is not evil, depends on how you view it, the human body is a nice piece of work, of course if you look at porn there is nothing nice about it. Even the most beautiful thing can be made tawdry and vulgar.
We are not damned every time we bathe, whatever gave you that Idea?
The tree you mention in my opinion is all that knowledge we are not prepared to handle.

Answer 8

I'll try 4 first. It's the belief that there is such a thing as evil. I.e. that there is some power opposed to God.
In regard to 3, you can relax. Adam and Eve were not damned anyway. They were sentenced to till the soil, reproduce, with women subjected to men, and die. The Jews of the Old Testament only had the haziest idea of what happens after one dies.
2. Naked is not evil. The text is something to do with self-consciousness about the material body, and shame which is tied in with sexual desire.
It's incredibly interesting though. The story is a myth, a symbolic story about sexual identity.

Answer 9

You haven't looked. Merely scanning the results page gave me the answers to quite a few of your questions. Do your own homework. Edit: I think it rude that you would pretend to have looked for this info when quite obviously you have not made an effort. I spent many years of hard work learning photography and photo history. The best way to get this info is to attach the rear end to the chair, google and read. Really, should we write the essay as well? What's your teacher's email so I can just send it along directly?

Answer 10

The question is answered. God asked two questions of Adam. Who told you that you were naked and then have you eaten the forbidden fruit? Adam passed the buck to Eve by saying that she gave him the fruit and did eat. Eve then passed the buck to Satan by saying the serpent beguiled her and she did eat. Satan then tried to pass the buck by saying that he did what had been done in other worlds by giving the fruit of good and evil to Adam and Eve. It was Satan that told them that they were naked and that they should hide from God. Then having eaten the forbidden fruit, they were no longer innocent and thus recognized their nakedness. God then cast them out of the garden and gave them coats of animal skins as a covering for their nakedness.
Obviously, we have to wash ourselves and when we know our spouses, in the biblical sense of the word, we have to undress. Ham was chastised for uncovering, or seeing, his father's nakedness when Noah was drunk in his tent. Christ always taught us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked.
We are supposed to remain dressed, not to run around naked, despite what the humanists think.
As for God asking a question. He already knew the answer, it was for Adam and Eve to be able to confess what they had done.