Nakedness

Exod. xxxiii. 5.NAKEDNESS, Nudity. These Terms, besides their ordinary and literal Meaning, sometimes stand for being deprived of Succour, or disarmed. For Example, after the worshipping of the Golden Calf, the Israelites found themselves naked in the midst of their Enemies. God had quitted them, and withdrawn his Protection from them. He took Vengeance of their Perfidy by the Hands of the Levites, who killed twenty three Thousand of them. And the Day following, when Moses went up to Mount Sinai, God said to him; Bid the People put off their Ornaments, their Cloaths, their usual Arms; Jam nunc depone ornatum tuum, the People obeyed, Nullus ex more indutus est cultu suo.

Exod. iii. 5.The Nakedness of the Feet was a Token of Respect. Moses put off his Shoes when he came near the burning Bush. The greatest Part of the Commentators are of Opinion¹, that the Priests served in the Tabernacle with their Feet naked, and afterwards in the Temple. In the Enumeration that Moses makes of the Habit and Ornaments of the Priests, he no where mentions any Dress for the Feet. The Thalmudists² teach, that if they had but stept with their Feet upon a Cloth, a Skin, or even upon the Foot of one of their Companions, their Service would have been unlawful. That as the Pavement of the Temple was of Marble, the Priests used to incur several Inconveniencies in the Time of their Attendance, because of the Nakedness of their Feet; to prevent which in the second Temple, there was a Room in which the Pavement was warm, that they might come there to warm their Feet. Also the frequent Ablutions appointed them in the Temple seem to insinuate, that their Feet were naked.

There are some also that maintain, that the common Israelites might not enter into this holy Place, till they had first put off their Shoes, and cleaned their Feet. To this Purpose are applied these Words of Eccles. v. 1. Levit. xix. 30. Matth. x. 9, 10.Ecclesiastes, Keep thy Foot when thou goest to the House of God. Take Care that your Feet be clean. Rabbi Solomon, upon these Words of Leviticus, Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my Sanctuary, understands the Obligation of appearing before the Lord with naked Feet. Maimonides says expressly³, that it was never allowed to enter the House of God upon the holy Mountain with Shoes on, or with a Staff, or with their ordinary Cloaths on, or with dirty Feet. Some think our Saviour alludes to this Custom, when he says to his Disciples, Provide neither Gold nor Silver nor Brass in your Purses. Nor Scrip for your Journey, neither two Coats, neither Shoes, not yet Staves. For the Labourer is worthy of his Hire. The Turks still observe to this Day not to enter into their Mosques, till after they have washed their Feet, and their Hands, and till they have put off the outward Covering of their Legs. The Christians of Ethiopia enter not into their Churches except with their bare Feet⁴. The Indian Brachmans have the same Respect for their Pagods. Solinus says⁵, that no one can enter into the Temple of Diana of Crete, till he has made his Legs bare. Juvenal says⁶, that even the Jews kept their Sabbaths with naked Feet.

Exercent ubi festa mero pede Sabbatha Reges. The Nakedness of the Feet is sometimes put in Scripture for that Nakedness that Modesty forbids: With-hold thy Feet from being Jerem. ii. 25. Jerem. xiii. 26unshod, says Jeremiah. Take Care of discovering your Feet, or of falling into a shameful Action. And elsewhere, Therefore will I discover thy Skirts upon thy Face, that thy Shame may appear. The Feet express what Lam. i. 9. Levit. xx. 19.Modesty would conceal. Sordes ejus in pedibus ejus, & aqua pedum.

To uncover the Nakedness of any one, commonly is put for a shameful and unlawful Conjunction, or an incestuous Marriage. 1 Sam. xix. 24. Isai. xx. 2, 3. 1 Cor. iv. 11. 2 Cor. xi. 27. Job xxvi. 6. Hebr. iv. 13.Ignominiam carnis suæ nudavit. And Ezekiel xvi. 37. Nudabo Ignominiam tuam. And again, Eras nuda & confusione plena.

Nakedness is sometimes put for being ill clad. Saul continued naked all Day long in the Midst of the Prophets; that is, having but few Cloaths on, or, as one may say, in his Shirt. Isaiah receives Orders from the Lord, to go naked; that is to say, cloathed as a Slave, and half naked Thus it is recommended to cloath the Naked, that is, such as have very bad Cloaths on. St. Paul says, that he was in the Cold, in Nakedness; that is, in Poverty, and the Rom. viii. 35. Gen. ii. 25. iii. 7.want of Rayment.

Naked is put for discovered, known, manifest. So Job, Hell is naked before him. The Sepulchre, the Place wherein the Souls of Men are reserved, is naked and uncovered to the Eyes of God. He pierces thro’ the Depth and Darkness of it. St. Paul says in the same Sense; Neither is there any Creature that is not manifest in his Sight; but all Things are naked and opened unto the Eyes of him with whom we have to do.

The Nakedness of Adam and Eve was unknown to them before they sinned. They were not ashamed at it, because Concupiscence and irregular Desires had not yet made the Flesh rebel against the Spirit; and their Nakedness excited no Disorder in their Imaginations, nor any Thing that was irregular or contrary to Reason. They were exempt from whatever Indecency might happen among us, upon the Occasion of the Nakedness of the Body. The brute Creatures are under no Apprehension of Shame at the Nakedness of their Bodies, and it gives us no Offence, because there is nothing irregular in it, or contrary to Order.

Some Interpreters translate the Text of Moses⁷, Adam and Eve were wise, or crafty; for the Hebrew Word Harom has sometimes this Signification. But it is plain from the Sequel of Moses’s Discourse, that he meant it of bodily Nakedness; for he says, that to hide their Nakedness they made themselves Aprons of Fig-Leaves. ‘Twas believed by the Pagans⁸, that in the golden Age all Men went naked.

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