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Genesis 3: Hiding Naked with Fear and Excuses ...

Wednesday, Aug 21, 2013. Reading the creation story and the fall of man, we are in the middle of a story which describes basic processes of our mind and sould. We read the verses 8-13 of Genesis 3:

The Cascade of Consequences …

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and

they hid

from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” 11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” 12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Gen 3, 8-13) The process as it is presented here is a template of human character, soul and mind. It describes us as we find ourselves in uncountable situations and reactions. After eating from the forbidden tree, there comes a) the feeling of being naked, b) fear and c) the impulse to hide and the hiding itself. A fourth reaction is d) excuses and accusation of others. The lost Paradise …**

We hear about a lost paradise in these text lines. The first man and woman lost their trust in God - that happens the moment they eat from the forbidden fruit. The important action here is to eat - it carries out any of the thoughts they might have had before, thinking about not trusting God. But eating realizes this, makes it real, and initializes a cascade of events which the bible identifies to be the crucial problem of mankind ever since.

The first thing which happens is that they feel naked. In the story, they are pictured as naked - and it was no problem before. Feeling naked symbolizes a whole collection of feelings. What do I have? What and who am I? What can I bring? Will I be accepted? Feeling naked means: I do not have. I cannot bring. I might not be accepted. The biblical story of the fall of man provides an analysis of the psychology of mankind. And feeling naked is a key process deep in every human until today.

Fear is the feeling which is linked to the loss of trust. Where you do not trust, you do not know whether the other person will be with you, will be for you and will help you. Fear is nothing else as the feeling, that the future is insecure. Fear points to the bad things which might happen. When trust is gone, it is clear that fear will take over.

Then, the humans start to hide. They start to put things between them and God, between them and others. They do not want to be what they are, but want to pretend to be something. They start to show themselves and present themselves in a controlled way. They are no longer naive in the way they are and appear. Hiding is something which is our core impulse in so many things. It is a deep part of our social behaviour, even our conventions and laws.

Finally, the first humans start to accuse others where they themselves had responsibility. One might consider their sentences as a part of the truth, since they have been deceived. But they try to point away from their own decisions, from their own motives, from their own missing trust. Look around and observe your environment: you will find similar things day by day. The bible hits the point and describes, how we are, humans, until today! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts