Hi all,

I was reading a web page on nudity and also a chapter on nudity in a book and they were being up what the Bible says about
shame and nudity.
I know some of the verses are dealing with the shame of
being nude against ones will. Is that true of ever time the
the Bible is talking about shame and nudity?

thanks
dayhiker

No shame involved with Isaiah's nudity. God told him to do so.

No shame with Noah's nudity. Ham thought so. He was cursed for it.

No shame with David's exposing himself. Michal thought so. She was cursed by God.

No shame with Peter working naked on his boat. Guess it wasn't the thing to go naked on the shore though. He dressed before jumping into the water to go to Jesus.

There was no shame involved when God made Adam and Eve and left them naked.

The shame with nudity were almost always at least one of these things:

1. It was associated with being poor. (Read Job 24:7 to see how the some poor lived)
2. It was associated with being defeated. The Isaelites had to march into captivity with their clothing torn to expose their buttocks. Forgot where that scripture is.

People worked naked, or the women at least topless. This is why the female in Song of Solomon had brown breasts.

Ralph

On the shame with being poor and naked, even then, we need to look at the social aspect of it at that time.

Being poor was considered a result of sin, therefore if you are poor, it's because you are a sinner, and if you are rich, it's because you are righteous in the site of God, or so they thought.

Being naked then is a sign that you are poor and chances are, a slave at that. Clothing, espcially rich clothing, is a sign of not only prosperity, but status and righteousness as well.

Seems today, we have the same idea, especially as Christians began to move away from grace and are focusing more on the wealth and health mentality that is associated with works. As people become wealthy believing the "health and wealth" gospel, the more they show it to others by the cars they drive and the clothes they wear. They are the ones who are driving the Mercedes with a tag on it saying "We are blessed", or "Too Blessed to be Stressed".

But if they were driving an old clunker, they wouldn't be showing that tag.

The "shame" associated with nudity at that time is pretty much the same today, but in a different way since people were showing their wealth as righteousness.

However, we should not "show righteousness" by our nudity either. We should not allow ourselves to think we are any more special than others just because we embrace the idea of social nudity. We are no better than any other or more blessed or less blessed. Righteousness comes from God alone and we are only the recipients of it.

But it doesn't stop me from saying "Live Nude and Prosper"!

Boyd

I've been writing an article on Biblical referances to nakedness, etc (which I hope to have available at the AANR booth, Boyd), and whenever there is any shame associated with a person's nakedness, it is due to some other activity, not the nakedness itself.

Examples are prostitution, drunkenness, sexual immorality, and the like. The simple act of being naked is never in and of itself comdemned as shameful, as others have mentioned above.

I'll see about putting up a list of the verses here, but I'll have to get it together.

BTW, Ralph, were is the referance to the woman's breasts in SOS being tanned? I've looked in every translation I've got and I don't see it...

Later
God Bless
Kevin

Don't look for tanned, but read the Song of Solomon where he shows appreciation for his companions dark breasts from being out in the field or something like that.

We are looking forward to your article, Kevin!

Boyd

I'd been skimming the part where she describes herself, so I guess I was in the wrong part.

I'll have to concentrate on looking for tanned breasts... that just sounds funny...

God Bless

Oh- BTW, Boyd, I saw you had tried to call me yesterday, but I had been away from my phone for a while.

Thanks for the call, and I hope you and the ladies had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Later
Kevin

I was trying to find out if you were going to be in town for TG, but I remembered you saying that you plan to be home this year. And you posted here then too, so I knew you were home.

Boyd

"Stop staring at me because I am so dark. The sun has tanned me.
My brothers were angry with me. They made me the caretaker of the vineyards."

This is God's Word wording. In KJV or RSV, you'll find unknown words like "swarty" or some such.

Couldn't find the tanned breasts. Guess my mind leaped to it because I've seen women working topless. Think this is how the young girl was working in the vineyards. It doesn't say this though.

Ralph

Thanks for the verse, Ralph.

Later
God Bless
Kevin

Thanks for the comments. Maybe sometime I'll get to read all
the scritpures on the topic and do a more formal study myself.
dayhiker