Naked, Nakedness
Naked, Nakedness
naked, naked-nes: Naked in the Old Testament represents various derivatives of , ur and , arah chiefly, , arom (adj.) and , erwah (noun); in the New Testament the adjective is , gumnos, the noun , gumnotes, with verb , gumneteuo, in 1Co 4:11. In Exo 32:25; 2Ch 28:19, the King James Version adds , para’, break loose, cast away restraint. Both the Greek and Hebrew forms mean without clothing, but in both languages they, are used frequently in the sense of lightly clad or, simply, without an outer garment. So, probably, is the meaning in Joh 21:7 – Peter was wearing only the chiton (see DRESS); and so perhaps in Mar 14:51-52 and Mic 1:8. In Isa 20:2-4, however, the meaning is literally (for the three years of Isa 20:3 see the commentaries). So in Gen 11:25; Gen 3:7, where the act of sin is immediately followed by the sense of shame (see Delitzsch, Biblical Psychology, and Gunkel, ad loc.). A very common use of naked is also without proper clothing (Job 22:6; 1Co 4:11, etc.), whence, of course, the expression clothe the naked. Nakedness, in addition, is used as a euphemism in 1Sa 20:30. A slightly different euphemistic usage is that of Lev 18:19, which in Eze 16:36-37 is played off against the literal sense (compare Eze 22:10; Eze 23:18, Eze 23:29). The point of Gen 9:22-23 is a little hard to grasp, but apparently there is here again a euphemism – this time for a particularly horrible act (see the commentaries and compare Hab 2:15). Possibly some of these euphemisms are due to the Massoretes (see OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS). The Jews objected vigorously to exposure of the body (even athletes insisting on a loin-cloth (compare 2 Macc 4:12, 13)), and compulsory nudity was the extreme of shame and humiliation (Isa 20:2-4; Lam 1:8; Hos 2:3; Nah 3:5, etc.). The relation of this attitude to Israel’s high sexual morality needs no explanation.