The Meaning of “Nakedness” – Part 1

What does nakedness mean?

That by itself might be a worthwhile question for discussion, but it would likely be very difficult to nail down. Doctors would respond very differently than pornographers. Indigenous jungle tribes would respond very differently than Western Christians. However, this post is not about that topic. I’ll restate the question above this way:

What does the term “nakedness” mean in the Old Testament?

Most of the passages speaking to nakedness of any sort are found in the Old Testament, and it is within its pages that most Bible teachers today draw their conclusions about what God thinks about nakedness.

If we really want to know what God’s perspective is towards nudity, it stands to reason that we must correctly understand the words He chose to use when He inspired the biblical authors to write the Scriptural texts. 

OT Words Describing Nakedness

Here’s a very brief overview of the three primary terms referencing nakedness in the Old Testament:

• arowm [H6174] (ex. Gen. 2:25, 1 Sam 19:24, Job 1:21) — This term refers to the condition of simple and innocent nakedness.
• eyrom [H5903] (ex. Gen. 3:7 & 10, Deut. 28:48, Eze. 18:7) — This term seems to indicate nakedness with a sense of being exposed to harm.
• ervah [H6172] (ex. Gen. 9:22, Exo. 28:42, Lev. 18:6) — This term seems to indicate a sinful, shameful, and/or sexual nakedness.

Those that know more than tell me that all three of these words have their basis in the same root Hebrew Word, but their biblical usage seems to indicate slightly different shades of meaning.

Without going into an exhaustive demonstration of their usage, I can state very definitively that the first two terms are never described by God as shameful. For personal examination of these words, you can see a listing of everywhere these words appear in the Hebrew text by clicking the links after each word above.

Essentially every passage where nakedness is considered “shameful” by God in the OT text, the Hebrew word used is ervah. Consequently, this is the word we most need to ensure that is correctly understood; if we hold a faulty definition of this word, then interpretations drawn from passages containing the word will very likely be faulty as well. And since we need to correctly understand God’s view of nakedness, it is of central importance that we understand the biblical definition of ervah.

A Full Word Study on ervah — A Summary of My Findings

There is not room in this blog post to present such a study, but I have researched it and prepared a full document of the word study that I will link you to at the conclusion of this post. Here, I will only summarize my findings. If anyone disagrees with my conclusions, I would strongly urge you to carefully examine the full document to discern if and where I may have erred. If you find something, I welcome discussion and/or correction.

Part 1 - The Natural Meaning

The natural etymological meaning of ervah is exactly that to which it is generally translated in English—“nakedness”—which simply is the state of being unclothed. Therefore, my starting point for my study was to assume this definition.

The word ervah appears 54 times in the OT. I examined every instance to see if the natural meaning of the word made sense in every case. My assumption was that if the natural meaning made sense, there would be no need to look any further for a clearer definition.

In some instances, the natural meaning did make sense in the passage. For example:

“Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness [ervah] of his father, and told his two brothers outside.” (Gen. 9:22)

In this and a few other verses, the word “nakedness” communicates a very understandable and straightforward meaning.

However, the majority passages seemed a little unclear with the natural meaning. The words themselves made enough sense, but God’s intended meaning leaves us puzzled. For example:

“Then Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan and he said to him, ‘You son of a perverse, rebellious woman! Do I not know that you are choosing the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother's nakedness [ervah]?’” (1 Sam. 20:30)

The words make sense, but what could Jonathan’s kindness towards David possibly have to do with the nakedness of his mother?

Finally, some passages using ervah made little or no sense at all when using the natural meaning of the word. In several such cases, the translators didn’t even bother using “nakedness” to translate ervah; instead, they used a different word that made more sense in the context. This by itself is evidence that the natural meaning of the Hebrew word was not what the original author had in mind. Here’s an example (using “nakedness” where ervah appears rather than the word “indecency” which the NASB translators used):

“When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some nakedness [ervah] in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce… (Deut. 24:1)

When a man marries a woman, it is to be expected that he would see her naked thereafter. Yet this law deals with a case when a man finds “nakedness” in his new wife and decides to divorce her as a result. Clearly, in this passage, the natural meaning of ervah cannot be an accurate definition of the word. There must be something else that he’s finding there.

Conclusion to Part 1

The purpose of Part 1 was to examine the natural meaning of the word ervah to discern if it adequately satisfies the various passages where the word is used. In my opinion, the natural meaning of ervah (meaning “nakedness” or simply being “without clothes”) does not sufficiently satisfy the usage of the word in many of the passages where it appears in the Hebrew text.

Therefore the word must have connotations beyond the natural meaning, or else it must have two or more distinct definitions.

In my next blog post, Part 2 – the Connotations, I will examine the possibility that there are consistent connotations in the Scriptural usage of ervah in order to craft a more clear and biblical definition of the word. If such connotations can be discerned, then it can and should inform our interpretation of any Scripture where it appears.

To reiterate… until we know for sure what ervah means, we cannot be confident that we know God’s perspective on nakedness.

— Matthew Neal

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This blog post is a summary of part 1 of the full word study on ervah. The complete document may be downloaded here.

The Stuff of Fantasies…

Why is it that most Christian men assume that if a man goes to a naturist resort, he’s doing it to look at all the naked women?

Of course, I don’t know the answer empirically since I’ve never asked anyone else, but I have my own theory…

Been there, done that…

Before I became a naturist, I struggled like so many others with fantasies about naked women.

Having been raised in a very conservative Christian home, I never ever saw my mother unclothed. And since I had no sisters, I never even saw any female unclothed as a small child. Once puberty hit and I began to have interest in the fairer gender, I still had essentially no idea what the nude female body really looked like.

I used to look at Mark Eden ads (a bust line enhancement product) in my grandmother’s magazines, or look through the lingerie pictures in that big ol’ J. C. Penney catalog. As I looked at them, sometimes I would just wish and wish that they would take off what little they were wearing so I could see their bodies completely unclothed. Of course, they never did.

The ultimate opportunity!

Everyone’s heard about “nudist colonies” where people (including women!!) go completely naked all the time! Imagine that!! You can bet I fantasized about finding a knot-hole in the fence around such a place so that I could look in and see this marvelous yet forbidden sight!

But as a maturing Christian young man, this was not an acceptable fantasy for me to dwell on. Nudity was about sex, and I was saving myself for my future wife. To even imagine seeing other women naked was mental adultery (Matthew 5:27-28) because I could not have a sexual relationship with them. Seeing someone naked was equivalent to experiencing them sexually. To desire to see them naked was nothing less than sinful lust. Right?

The Obvious “Conclusion.”

So… any thoughts about ever seeing the naked people at a “nudist colony” are forever and always associated with lust. That was sure clear to me. Only the lustful and ungodly would even think about such a place. Certainly no godly Christian man would ever contemplate going to a place where everyone was unclothed.

 

Am I alone in thinking this way?

I don’t think I’m the only one who’s ever thought about a nudist venue this way. I think just about every young man has been intrigued by the very idea that there might be places where all the women are naked. Whether he’s indulged it or rejected it, the notion captured his attention. And those who have become committed Christians and have purposely determined that they wanted to be sexually pure before God have dutifully repented of their lustful desires to see it.

Whether he indulged in fantasies about seeing nudists as a young man or not, he now guards against fantasies about any sort of social nudity. And since he knows what seeing naked women would mean in his own heart, he’s quite sure that every other man responds the same way… and every other Christian man should reject social nudity for the same reasons that he himself has. Righteousness demands it!

The “Conclusion” is not in question…

Nobody ever bothers to question that conclusion according to Scripture. Consequently, if any man claiming to be a Christian attends a naturist resort (they’re not called “nudist colonies”), most other Christian men would dismiss that man as one who is in obvious sin rather than take into account the rest of his life, conduct, and character.

They “know” that man is in sin because the only time they themselves have ever imagined looking on naked women at a “nudist colony” was when they themselves were indulging in lustful fantasies!

It’s easier to condemn another man’s actions than to question one’s own assumptions.

 

Morality is not based on Fantasies.

Yes, going to a place where all the women are naked is the stuff of fantasies. Probably every young man has had such fantasies…

But morality is not based on fantasy, it’s based upon TRUTH!

The truth is this:

• A naturist resort is not a sexual context (or it’s not truly naturist!).
• Seeing someone naked is not equivalent to experiencing that person sexually.
• Even if you expected it to be a sexual turn-on, after a very short time watching a mixed bag of people doing very non-sexual thing unclothed, you’d find it very sexually boring.

And then there’s the Biblical truth about it:

• The Bible never tells us that we can never be around or see other people naked.
• Jesus didn’t say that to look at a woman was mental adultery, He said that it was looking at her “with lust.” (Matthew 5:27-28) There’s a huge difference… Ask any doctor.
• Social nudity was originally God’s idea… and ideal. In the beginning, Adam and Eve “were both naked and were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:25)
• God never rescinded that ideal. There’s no command in Genesis 3:21 or anywhere else in all the Bible that requires us to be clothed in order to be pleasing to Him.

 

I dare you…

If you’re reading this and are still convinced that I’m wrong, then I know for sure that you’ve never personally been to a naturist resort. So… I dare you to go. Take your clothes off and participate (don’t go as a voyeur). Only then do you have any basis upon which to tell me how “sinful” and “sexual” social nudity is.

But you won’t… because there’s nothing like a dose of reality to dispel the fantasies.

— Matthew Neal

The Objectification of Women – Part 2

So, gentlemen… how much of a woman’s body has to be covered before you can look at her without lust?

How you answer will tell us how much—and what parts—of a woman’s body you objectify.

Is it her breasts? Her legs? Her butt? Her belly? All of the above?

Let Me Be Very Honest with You…

For many years, I objectified women’s breasts as a sexual turn-on. So long as they were covered, I did not have a problem with lustful thoughts when I saw and/or interacted with a woman. But if I ever saw them exposed (even if only partially), it was “automatic” sexual thoughts and arousal.

Even in my sexual relationship with my wife, I tended to focus on her breasts as a trigger for my arousal and fulfillment. In other words, I was objectifying my own wife. When we entered into the sex act, I ceased interacting with the person who is my wife (with whom I share a deep relationship), and started using her as a sex object for my own sexual satisfaction.

Dare I look upon any woman as if the sight of her breasts trumps her personhood? No woman deserves that… not even my wife!

Sex is, at its core, about relationship. God established this in Gen. 2:24 when He said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” The “one flesh” sexual union is divinely decreed as a physical expression of the newly established marriage relationship.

To be sure, a woman’s body is visually attractive, but her body is an expression of her person. To define any part of a woman’s body according to its sexual impact upon us is to objectify her body and demean her personhood!

Wouldn’t every woman rather know that it was her real self that attracted and aroused her husband, not just her body parts? Wouldn’t that be more honoring and fulfilling relationally… for husband and wife?

Men, if there is any part of a woman’s body to which you only have a sexual response, then you are objectifying that part of the woman. If you objectify any part of a woman, you objectify the woman, for she is a whole person… spirit, soul, and body.

In Part 1 of this series, I addressed the societal objectification of women and their bodies. Here in Part 2, I am asking you to ponder the personal objectification of women’s bodies in your own heart.

There may be little or no hope for a wholesale transformation of society in this matter. However, if we are willing to take a hard look within our own hearts and minds—and endeavor to address what we discern there—we will find that the truth really does have the power to transform us. A woman’s body parts are not about sex. They are beautiful expressions of the person that God created her to be. We must appreciate the beauty without divorcing it from the complete person she is. When we do, we will finally be innocent of the objectification of women.

So… What Does This Have to Do with Naturism?

First of all, as I pointed out in Part 1, naturists—probably more consistently than any other definable group—do not objectify women’s bodies. They simply do not consider a sexual response to the sight of a woman’s body to be appropriate in a social context, let alone “automatic.” They treat every woman—no matter the size or shape of her body—with acceptance, dignity, and respect. To become a naturist, you must lay aside the objectification in your own heart.

Secondly, if a man never sees any nudity except in a sexual context, it may prove very difficult for him to really break free from the body-part/sexual-response association in his mind. However, the very experience of social nudity (which is not a sexual context) will very quickly cast out the false expectations of a sexual response to the mere sight of a woman’s unclothed body. There is probably no quicker cure.

If, for whatever reason, real social nudity is not possible for you to experience, then at very least spend as much time as possible with your own wife—both of you naked—when sex is not on the agenda. Grow accustomed to relating to her as a person non-sexually even while you can see every inch of her body. You’ll find that it’s really not that difficult. And have no fear that you will not be able to “perform” if you get “too accustomed” to seeing her naked… when you’re both in the mood for sex, relational arousal beats visual arousal any day!

A Higher Calling

Of all people in the world, we as Christian men should be leading the way… treating women with their true God-given dignity. Let us repent of our sin and conquer it in our own hearts. Let us train our sons (and daughters) to honor all women… refusing to be swayed or infected by our culture’s objectifying pattern of thoughts and responses. And let us demonstrate to the church of our Lord Jesus Christ that there is a more godly and biblical understanding of our bodies than that which our church tradition has taught us.

— Matthew Neal

P.S. Don’t ever refer to any woman as “hot.” It’s a term of objectification. It has no place in the vocabulary of a godly man.

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See also:

The Objectification of Women - Part 1

Naturist by Biblical Conviction

Quotes and Comments #3

He had discovered a great law of human action,

without knowing it - namely, that in order to make

a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary

to make the thing difficult to obtain.

— Mark Twain—

You remember the story, right? Tom Sawyer has to whitewash his Aunt Polly’s fence on a Saturday morning when he had planned all sorts of other activities. When one of his friends happen by, he pretends that whitewashing is a great and wonderful privilege to get to do!

“I reckon there ain't one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it the way it's got to be done,” Tom says to the first hapless boy who comes to jeer at him. Moments later, Ben Rogers is doing Tom’s job… the first of a non-stop lineup of boys who insisted that they be given a chance, too… even paying him to let them do it!

“He had had a nice, good, idle time all the while—plenty of company—and the fence had three coats of whitewash on it! If he hadn't run out of whitewash he would have bankrupted every boy in the village.” (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Chapter 2)

It is right at this point in the the story that the quotation above is found. It capsulizes this very significant human reality…

    To make someone covet something, just make it hard to obtain!

We laugh at Tom’s cunning pretence and the gullibility of all his friends who fell for it. But therein is an important truth about us all. In light of my most recent post, The Objectification of Women – Part 1, I thought this quote was imminently appropriate. Let me explain…

An Exquisite Beauty

Women are—by God’s fabulous design—wonderfully beautiful. For years (and long before I became a naturist) I have held the opinion that the naked female body is the most beautiful thing God made in all of creation.

God is aesthetic… He loves and creates beauty. Humans, who are made in God’s likeness, reflect that aesthetic nature; we are attracted to beauty.

Unlike the task of whitewashing a fence, the beauty of a woman is intrinsically attractive to us all. It is natural and pleasing to see. That beauty, by itself, does not incite lust. It is—like all other beauty—attractive to the human eye. And it should—like all other beauty—prompt us to admire the one who crafted the beautiful sight!

But what if we never get the chance to actually see it? What if we are told that its only permitted on a very limited basis? What if that sight is very “hard to obtain”?

Hiding Women’s Beauty Leads to Lust.

If the chance to whitewash a fence can be coveted because of its inaccessibility to a young man, how much more will lust be ignited when the inaccessible object is something of genuine beauty?

When Muslims make the beauty of a woman’s face “hard to obtain” by keeping it covered from sight, they cause men to “covet” or lust after women’s faces.

When Indians make the beauty of a woman’s legs and ankles “hard to obtain” by keeping them covered from sight, they cause men to “covet” or lust after women’s ankles.

When we in America judiciously ensure that every woman keeps any sight of the beauty of her breasts and buttocks “hard to obtain” by covering them, we also ensure that men will “covet” or lust after women’s breasts and buttocks.

Frank Exposure Defeats Lust

One of Tom Sawyer’s opening lines to his first victim was, “Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?”

Herein is the key to Tom’s success… by hinting that whitewashing was a rare and exciting opportunity, he drew the fellow into wanting it for himself.

If Ben Rogers had ever been assigned the sorry duty of whitewashing his own fence, he never would have fallen for Tom’s pretense. Frank exposure to the truth of how much work it really is to paint a fence would have made him immune to any ideas to the contrary!

In like manner, boys who are exposed to the natural female form in non-sexual contexts will know the truth that seeing a woman’s unclothed form is not a “big deal,” and that the incident, by itself, is not a sexual experience at all. They will not fall for pornography’s offer of a rare and special experience (seeing a woman’s body) nor its pretense about how “sexual” that experience is.

But make it very difficult to ever see a woman’s body, and those boys will be ripe for lust… and ripe for falling into pornography’s distorted ideas about the meaning of that beauty.

Let’s Not Fall for the Pretense Anymore.

Tom Sawyer understood this reality, and he used it to con others into doing his work.

Satan understands this reality, too, and he’s used it very successfully to con countless men and women into doing relationships and sex his way.

In both cases, the allure is based on a lie. It’s time to open our eyes to the truth. We’ve been whitewashing Satan’s fence far too long.

— Matthew Neal

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See also:

The Objectification of Women – Part 1

(If you have not already done so, please read the Introduction to the Quotes and Comments.)

The Objectification of Women – Part 1

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Quotes and Comments #2

Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.

— Edward Abbey —

Truth may be its own reward, but sometimes that “reward” comes at a price. Even so, the truth is still better than that which is false. After all, the God of truth always sides with truth… while the delusion will always be in alliance with the father of lies.

The trouble is that no one recognizes his own delusions; in his own mind, all that he currently believes is filed under “TRUE.” To root out delusions, we must be willing to honestly test our current beliefs.

• What about the Church’s current understanding regarding social nudity? Truth or Delusion?

For a long time, Christians have simply taken it for granted that nudity around anyone but one’s own spouse is immoral. Since the Bible doesn’t declare this to be so, the only way to biblically support the assertion is to presume that the state of nudity around someone of the opposite gender is tantamount to a sexual invitation. And since sex outside of marriage is forbidden in the Bible, social nudity must be as well.

Since the whole argument hinges on that presumption, let’s ask some basic question about it…

• Is that notion (that nudity is a sexual invitation) taught in the Bible?
• If there are “exceptions” to that assumption (parental or medical necessity), are the exceptions found in the Bible?
• Can we justify granting “exceptions” that are not found in the Bible?
• Is the sight of nudity really the automatic sexual “turn-on” we’ve been told that it is?

Discerning the answers to these questions is not very hard. But precious few are genuinely willing to submit their assumptions on this issue to honest evaluation.

I simply don’t understand that reticence.

If what we currently believe is true, then what’s the harm in allowing it to be challenged? If it is true, then it will exonerate itself! But if it is not true, shouldn’t we want to know? Would anyone actually prefer to continue believing something that is false?

Would people actually prefer to hold onto a delusion simply because it’s more comfortable than the truth?

Here’s another related quote…

It is easier to find a score of men

wise enough to discover the truth

than to find one intrepid enough,

in the face of opposition, to stand up for it.

— A. A. Hodge —

Correctly answering the questions above is one thing…

Being willing to stand up for the truth you’ve discovered when everyone else is “sure” that you’re wrong… well, that’s quite another.

Since I personally addressed those questions and found the presumption to be in error, I’ve paid a very high price for standing up for the truth. It’s been a cruel truth, but a truth nonetheless.

I have spoken to a number of people important to me who still hold to the belief that non-spousal nudity is wrong. I am quite sure that they all are “wise enough” to discern the correct answers. I am inexpressibly disappointed that none of them have actually been willing to do so.

Why is it so hard for people to do that? Why are so many people seemingly more committed to their current way of thinking than they are to truth?

I am more than willing to submit what I believe to the most stringent critique, provided it is honest and biblically grounded. I have no interest in holding to my current position if it proves false. But neither will I hold to a false position simply to escape “opposition.”

To date, not one of my friends or family have been willing to honestly open God’s Word with me to examine this topic.

I’m ready to put what I now believe to the test. You who believe me wrong… will you do the same?

Matthew Neal

(If you have not already done so, please read the Introduction to the Quotes and Comments.)

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For previous blog posts related to this one, see:

The Unchallenged Belief!

You Can’t Have it Both Ways…

Quotes and Comments — #1

Conventionality is not morality.

Self-righteousness is not religion.

To attack the first is not to assail the last.

— Charlotte Bronte —

Christian Naturism is certainly a blow to “conventionality.” Social nudity is considered (it would seem) by all Christendom to be utterly immoral. It is viewed as an utter rejection of Biblical chastity.

But it’s not.

Christian Naturism directly challenges the spoken or unspoken assumption that “adequately” covering the body and avoiding non-spousal nakedness is a measure of holiness, “modesty,” or righteousness. Those that cover themselves judiciously are upheld as “pure.” Those who would allow strangers to see their unclothed bodies are considered “perverse.”

But they’re not.

Christian Naturism strongly affirms chastity and biblical sexual morality. In fact, I would contend that the practice of naturism will actually promote greater purity in one’s life. I testify before God that it certainly did for me.

Christian Naturism rejects false measures of righteousness regarding clothing, but it affirms the centrality in every believer’s life of a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Man-made rules of righteousness (no matter what the issue) are enemies of true righteousness, and we are called to actively reject them (See Gal. 3:1-3 & Col. 2:20-23).

Christian Naturism and those who promote it are accused of rejecting morality and spurning righteousness.

We have rejected…

• conventional notions about the unclothed body…
• the covering of the body as a sign of righteousness…

…but we we have not lifted our hands or voices against moral purity or true relationship with God… not in the least.

…To attack the first is not to assail the last.

— Matthew Neal

(If you have not already done so, please read the Introduction to the Quotes and Comments.)