Origin Story #14 of 21:

Then they saw the other as naked;

so they sewed fig leaves together

and made coverings for themselves. (Gn 3:7)

What happened? Suddenly, without warning, our origin story moves from “naked and not ashamed” to “covering up”. It’s better read than explained. How do you explain such a thing? A serpent appears out of nowhere: “More crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made;” and, carries on a conversation with the woman. Nothing is said about who this serpent is or represents. We can’t help but suspect that it has to do with Satan’s mischief (Rv 20:2).

What is certain, is that this serpent happens to be a very cleaver conversationalist (Gn 3:1-7):

Serpent:         Did God say, “You shall not eat from any tree in the garden”?

Woman:         We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, “You shall

not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.”

Serpent:         You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes

will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

So, when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was

- good for food and

- pleasing to the eye, and also

- desirable for gaining wisdom,

she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

It turns out the serpent has some truth on his side: 1) The man and the woman will die, but not “in the day that you eat of it”; or, if so, it’s an awfully long day. Adam live nine hundred thirty years before he dies. 2) They come to know something about good and evil that they didn’t know before—something that causes them to “sew fig leaves together to cover themselves.”

Why is such knowledge destructive? Maybe, with this knowledge of what evil is, man is now able to do evil things to others. Animals do savage things—like kill and eat other animals. But we give them a pass. They do it because they are hungry. But humans can kill for other reasons—like power; or spite; or jealousy; or anger: “Why are you angry, Cain?” (4:6).

When we know about how evil hurts, we know something about how we can use evil to harm others. Our awareness of evil weaves its way into our social fabric. Suddenly, we see the other as “naked”—no longer as a gift from God, but as an object to be made use of for our own purposes. With such knowledge, life can no longer be lived freely and innocently. With such knowledge, we need covering.