What Does Nakedness Have To Do With Shrewdness?

In Biblical Hebrew, the word arum means both naked and shrewd.

Genesis 2 and 3 play on this double meaning: the snake is described as the shrewdest animal in the animal kingdom (3:1), while man and woman are described as naked (2:25, 3:10-3:11). The same word is used in both cases.

What theories do you have as to why nakedness and shrewdness are linked in Biblical Hebrew? Does your theory have anything to teach us about the human condition?

One theory I have is that the more shrewd you are, the more naked you can be (without being vulnerable). Technology and mental acuity are a substitute for the bodily protection needed by less sophisticated minds. Humans are hairless compared to other mammals; but in place of hair (natural protection), we have clothing (artificial protection).

The transition of the first humans from “naked and not ashamed” at the end of Genesis 2 to “naked and ashamed” by the end of Genesis 3 represents the high psychological price we pay for shrewdness.

Shrewdness is thus double-edged: it allows us to evolve beyond the animal realm, but it also becomes its own source of shame, alienation and self-consciousness.

What’s your theory?

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