2 out of 4 stars
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Official Book Review – Who Told You That You Were Naked? By William E. Combs
Who Told You That You Were Naked? is a thought-provoking analysis of the third chapter of the Bible book of Genesis. We are all familiar with the story: God creates Adam and places him in an idyllic garden to the east of Eden, where he is given free rein to work, play, cultivate the earth and partake of everything that grows there. Everything except one thing: the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam is given a companion, woman, and the two of them live a perfect existence until…well, the rest is well known.
Questions are raised and answered, such as:
What exactly was ‘the knowledge of good and evil’ that suddenly made Adam afraid?
What was Eve’s motive for eating the forbidden fruit?
Not least of all: Who told them that they were naked, and what does this actually mean, since they had been unclothed from the beginning?
The author is certainly abundantly qualified to tackle such questions, with multiple theological degrees to his name, as well as a passionate love of the Bible. As a former Presbyterian pastor, he had the ability to paint word pictures for his congregation in order to make his sermons sound more alive, and this is just what he’s done in this book. His conversational and informal writing style makes this profound topic interesting and digestible, and his ideas largely come across as plausible. As verses are thoroughly dissected, word by word, and with references to alternate versions of the Bible and texts in the original languages, Dr Combs is able to shed some light on the plethora of questions that surround this event.
While the book is replete with academic detail, there are occasional diversions into descriptive narratives of certain events: these are entertaining and provide the reader with some relief from the content-rich chapters. I found it most engaging to read in story form about certain events, and immediately the characters and their circumstances became more relatable.
That’s not to say that I necessarily agree with all of the author’s assumptions and conclusions, and I cannot admit to being wholly satisfied with many of the explanations offered. As with all things biblical, there seem to be more questions than answers. The point is made that God, being Omnipotent, knew that Adam and Eve would sin, so from the world’s inception He already had a plan in place for mankind’s salvation. In my mind, this immediately casts doubt on the ‘free will’ that Adam was attributed with. Occasionally, Dr Combs makes assumptions about certain details that are unsupported by Bible texts. There are also several references to the author’s own personal, supernatural experiences, as well as those of his wife, of which I remain sceptical. These testimonies may deter more cynical readers from appreciating all the valid ideas raised elsewhere in the book, so I would suggest moving swiftly past these, and on to more solid concepts.
Moving away from the events in the garden, the author shows how true faith in God should allay one’s anxieties, which he likens to feelings of nakedness – an interesting interpretation of the phrase. Another viewpoint that impressed me was that ‘belief does not imply righteousness’, and that faith that is misplaced does not guarantee salvation – profound assumptions indeed.
The book is fairly short, and written with double line spacing making it easier to read when the topic becomes a little heavy. Pull quotes are used frequently, but I found that these appeared off-sync with the main body of text and thus were more distracting than enticing. At the back of the book, along with references, the author provides a comprehensive appendix of endnotes which are well worth reading to complement the main text. The editing was professionally done and I found no grammatical or typographical errors whatsoever, but it is the amount of research that has clearly gone into the writing of this book which I feel deserves special mention. The ten chapters each tackle different aspects of faith, and each chapter ends with a series of questions which may be answered individually or as part of a Bible study group. I found it better to read each chapter carefully, considering the questions, then take a break before moving on, allowing me to digest and understand the content fully.
I would give this book 2 out of 4 stars purely because the emphasis on detail may be a bit tedious for the lay-person. However, whether you are someone with strong religious views or not, this analysis of events in the Garden of Eden and their consequences will certainly make you re-examine everything you thought you knew about original sin and its impact on us today. It will appeal to anyone with a questioning mind who is searching for the truth behind biblical accounts, and should find readership in Christians and non-Christians alike, purely for the valuable lessons held therein.
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Who Told You That You Were Naked?
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