THE BARE-FACED LIAR,

OR "THE 4 NAKED WORDS'

        Shame entered the Garden of Eden because of sin. There are four different Hebrew words that could translate into English as "naked". One of the words describes a participants in the scenario as a naked deceiver. He's the proverbial "bald-faced liar."

        God created man and wife in the beginning and they were naked without being ashamed (Genesis 2:25).

        FIRST "NAKED": `AROWM<sup>H6174</sup>. The Hebrew word translated into English as "naked" in verse 25 is the adjective `arowm^H6174 and according to Mikelson's means "nude, either partially or totally" being a word derived from the root `aram<sup>H6191</sup> "in its original sense." The original sense of `aram^H6191 is "(properly) to be (or make) bare." With verse 25, this chapter ends on this positive outlook for the humans. But this `aram^H6191 has a secondary meaning which is dark and ominous and it is used in the next verse.

        CHANGE OF SCENE.   To the Hebrew reader the very next verse would be a warning to what was coming. The serpent appears as the more subtle ('aruwm^H6175) than any beast of the field. "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made." 'Aruwm^H6175 according to Mickelson's means "cunning (usually in a bad sense)." This word is also from `aram^H6191 but from its dark derived meaning "used only in the derivative sense 'to be cunning' (usually in a bad sense):--X 'very, beware, take crafty (counsel), be prudent, deal subtilly.'" We understand from later Scripture that this beast is being used as an instrument for the Devil, called also the Dragon. Perhaps that's why subtle is a passive participle in the Hebrew. ("Passive" suggests that the serpent is not doing the acting but is being acted upon; i.e., "used").

        SECOND: "NAKED" LIAR.     Americans have an idiom that appears to mean about the same thing. Someone is accused of being "a bald-faced liar." This expression has developed from the British "bare-faced liar" originating during the Middle Ages. It meant one who originally had the face uncovered, and hence was figuratively acting in an unconcealed or open way. Shakespeare used it in both literal and figurative senses. "From the latter part of the seventeenth century onwards, it took on a sense of something or someone who was audacious, shameless or impudent, so that a barefaced lie was one in which the speaker made no attempt to disguise it as truth." ⁱ The serpent, hence, was a "naked-faced liar."

        A THIRD "NAKED."     Having sinned, the wife and husband are frightened and are now ashamed that they are naked.

        A FOURTH "NAKED."     Our merciful God strips the hide of an animal and makes a temporary but acceptable covering for Adam and Eve. The word "skins" of 3:21 is ore^H5785 which Strong interprets as "skin (as naked); by implication hide, leather: - hide, leather, skin." Ore^H5785 is from its root: `uwr^H5783 "     1. to (be) bare- be made naked." The animals began the offering of animal sacrifices that looked forward to God's Son being made naked for us in God's plan of redemption.

        Abel's offering was more pleasing to God because he offered a lamb by faith. God had shown the parents what he would accept for a covering for their nakedness. Cain ignored it and offered plants that had already been rejected. The crucifixion of the Lamb of God and the consequent building of Christ's church (Matthew 16:18) was not an afterthought, but was in God's mind from the beginning (Ephesians 3:10, 11). Before the conception of the world God had planned for man's redemption (Ephesians 1:4) by the death of Jesus to cover the nakedness of sins. For without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.