3

Paul in speaking of men, will in the coming age put on an outer covering

“if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.” ‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭5:3‬ ‭

Adam an Eve were naked from the beginning but prior to their disobedience they did not perceive their nakedness as shameful or wrong

“And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭2:25‬ ‭

Is this the reason or part of the reason, that differentiates the heavenly body from the earthly body given man is described as lower in rank than the heavenly beings? A supernatural outer covering?

“Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.” ‭‭Psalm‬ ‭8:5‬ ‭

Improve this question
1
  • 1
    I would suggest that the 'house' or 'habitation' is the opposite (considering the context) of disembodiment. But your emphasis is astute, considering that the ultimate goal is sourced from heaven, as opposed to (formerly) from earth. So, definitely an up-vote from myself (+1). – Nigel J Dec 30 '20 at 15:15
1

An interesting question! Naked (gymnos, eyrom - uncovered.). Is there a connection between these two verses? Yes, and no. Let’s look a little closer. An important question to ask regarding the verses in Corinthians is ‘Who is we?’

2 COR 5:
“¹For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ²For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, ³if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.”

It’s clear that ‘we’ is not ‘the body’. That is, you are not your body. This is crucial to see if you want to understand the correlation between this and the verses from Genesis. Man is a spirit being, and ‘he’ lives in a body [house/tent]. And, to ‘do’ anything, man needs a body. So, ‘nakedness’ here talks about the ‘spirit’ [man] being ‘uncovered’. Let’s add some precision - the spirit being uncovered.

Now let’s take that understanding back to Genesis ...

GEN 3:7 “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked;”

Whereas this talks about being ‘physically’ uncovered, i.e., man's ‘physical body’. The ‘key’ to further understanding this passage is understanding what ‘‘the eyes of both of them were opened” says. Obviously they could ‘see’ before eating, Eve ‘saw’ the fruit. But, what happened when they ate? They died - instantly but spiritually. They could no longer ‘see’ using their ‘spiritual’ eyes - so all their understanding now came via their ‘physical/natural’ eyes, and using this (new) source for understanding - they saw they were ‘physically naked’!.

You need to understand that we can ‘see’ either using our natural eyes (leading to natural understanding.), or ‘see’ using our spiritual eyes (believe/faith), leading to revelation.

One excellent example of this principle is found in the Old Testament, where Elijah asked God to open his servants [spiritual] eyes to ‘see’ the angelic hosts. (2 Kings 6).

So, your question is there a connection? One relates to the physical one to the spiritual - with the connection being both talk about the need to be covered.

Improve this answer
4
  • It’s clear that ‘we’ is not ‘the body’ I disagree with this not in general but as it is applied to this text. We, here is referring to embodied believers alive and on the earth. – Nihil Sine Deo Dec 30 '20 at 23:51
  • @Nihil Sine Deo That’s right. No argument. So ... if Paul says ‘we’ live in an earthly house, or ‘tent’, what is that ‘house’ referring to? His body? Which means, ‘he/we’ are not our body. The ‘house’ or ‘tent’ is not Paul, but it’s where he lives. (in a body) – Dave Dec 31 '20 at 0:28
  • I guess why it’s confusing to me is because Paul says we are clothed with this human body, awaiting to be clothed with the heavenly body ONTOP of the human earthly body. Hence the nakedness as I understand it, is being without the outer spiritual/heavenly body. Adam and Eve were naked physically the whole time, they were without the supernatural body at a minimum from the moment their eyes opened. “For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.” ‭‭2Cor‬ 5:4‬ – Nihil Sine Deo Dec 31 '20 at 1:57
  • @Nihil Sine Deo “[quote] Paul says we are clothed with this human body, awaiting to be clothed with the heavenly body ONTOP of the human earthly body.” Yes- ‘we’ are waiting to be ‘clothed’ - but ‘we’ are not a ‘human body’, so the ‘clothing’ (new body) goes over us, not over our ‘human body’ (house). Our [human] body is mortal. But, our spirit (us) is eternal. We [spirit] are awaiting an immortal body - which comes at the resurrection. – Dave Dec 31 '20 at 17:50

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.