Review of Who Told You That You Were Naked?

[Macha Marumo Mphela]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Who Told You That You Were Naked?" by William Combs.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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The story of Adam, Eve, the serpent and the tree of life has been told and retold many a time. A lot of us are familiar with it. It is the genesis of our teachings in Sunday school. It is the genesis of humanity. It is the genesis of the biblical tales. It is the genesis! In this book, Who Told You That You Were Naked?, the author, William E. Combs, sets to retell this story in a way that explains sin differently than how we were taught and raised to believe. The author believes our understanding of sin isn't complete or even accurate, and so this is his contribution in elucidating this contentious subject further.

The author extensively uses scripture as both reference and source material, and he also references some theological writings. The book of Genesis is the focal point, but the author plucks from other books (such as the books of Mark, Luke and Romans) to make several points pertaining the topic at hand.

The introductory chapter was exceptional in the way that it set the lesson the author conveyed. I love lessons learned from stories and this one was so well-executed. The author also uses this storytelling ability to reimagine the events that took place in Eden. I thought this not only laid the foundation of the whole lesson in the book, but it was also entertaining in a small way.

Each chapter ends with an interactive questionnaire that tests our understanding of the lessons learned to that point. I thought this was a nice little addition. Some chapters also had relevant personal testimonials that served to give us glimpses of the author's life as he established and re-established his own faith.

The absolute highlights of the book for me were the analogies. The one on the caterpillar-to-butterfly transformation was best used to elucidate the point of distinguishing acts that are done to us versus those that aren't. Also, the baseball analogy used to explain the kind of rest that can be acquired through faith in God was absolutely perfect. It's these little moments that made the book great, and I wish the author could've included a few more.

The book not only gave me a new understanding of sin and faith, but I also gained a new understanding of the event that occurred in Eden. The author broke that scene down in a way that made perfect sense and gave much needed reason to the decisions and thoughts of the characters of the times.

The only bits of the book I can criticise were the little, random blips scattered across the chapters. These were repetitions of certain sections of the chapters for (most probably) emphasis. I thought that they were distracting and highly unnecessary, and they interrupted the flow of the book.

The overall editing of the book wasn't bad at all. I stumbled on a few mistakes which included a couple of spelling errors and a typo, but nothing too catastrophic. The final product was a great read and deserves nothing but a rating of 4 out of 4 stars.

This is obviously a book meant to be read by Christians, but if you are as open-minded as I am and are also keen in reading interesting topics that expand our thinking, then this is a perfect book for that. Otherwise, I'd only recommend this book to Christians who are looking for a good Christian book to add to their must-read.

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Who Told You That You Were Naked?
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[Yulisa Sanchez]

From the title of the book, I can tell this book is quite intriguing and open minded. I'm curious to know the author's belief of what sin really is and how the genesis story can be so wrong. Thanks for the great review!

[Macha Marumo Mphela]

From the title of the book, I can tell this book is quite intriguing and open minded. I'm curious to know the author's belief of what sin really is and how the genesis story can be so wrong. Thanks for the great review!

Thank you for taking the time to read. I appreciate it.