19 - Who Told you that you were naked

Who told you that you were naked?

Eating of the tree gave Adam and Eve new and uncomfortable knowledge about creation. First of these lessons is that everything in creation is not working in your favor. There are entities within creation with more power than you which will take advantage of that for their benefit against your interests. They are vulnerable. They are naked.

Before this, they were naked and unashamed. Nudity did not equal vulnerability. Prior to the serpent, they were blissfully unaware of the true implications of power relationships. Without knowing that power could be actually used against them, they had no reason to feel vulnerability. No need to clothe oneself in the presence of greater power because there was no reason or indication that it would affect the relationship. No reason to feel shame. No reason to guard against the powerful being offended by the sight of weakness. No reason to hide vulnerability from the powerful. This all changes with the new knowledge.

Eating of the tree provided all the knowledge that they lacked. The answer to “Who told you that you were naked?” is: we did.