Usually, the purpose of a taboo is to preserve
the boundary between the sacred and the profane.The word 'sacred' makes us
think of another world, where the
things are related to a sacred dimension of life. The sacred values go together
with the profane values according to the taboos and the tabooed objects. The
taboo exists to be broken periodically in order to preserve the sacredness.
The Biblical prohibition “Thou shalt not know”
suggest an inverted taboo, which is a way to conceal what it is forbidden. The
fact that the humankind is not allowed to know what it is forbidden to it makes
this taboo be powerful, even it is at risk of being destroyed.
Adam and Eve have been the first pair making a
mistake. In Genesis 2:16-17, God allowed Adam to eat from every tree that has
been existent in the Garden of Eden, except the tree of knowledge. This pair had
desires against what God had told them and because of this attitude they have
been punished to live on Earth. ''Thorns and weeds would make planting while
harvesting hard labor. Men would have to work to eat. Women would give birth in
pain. Animals became dangerous and carnivorous.''
The first parents left the Paradise because
they had been disobedient. The awareness
of being in Eden came after being forced to leave this paradise place to live
on the earth. This tree was existent there because they really lived in
Paradise.
The oldest taboo against eating from the Tree
of Knowledge was imposed for the good of humanity because God created this pair
for a purpose. In Genesis 2:9, there are described two trees, one being for
knowledge and the other one being for life, but only the first one is
forbidden.(Genesis 2:17) The tree of knowledge can awaken Adam and Eve. Then,
they can eat from the tree of life, which is not intentionally forbidden. After
gaining the knowledge, they could understand the meaning of the tree of life.
Without knowledge, they wouldn't need to know
the secret of life, which is, in modern terms, the human genome. ''If the doors of
perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.''
- British poet and mystic, William Blake
Yet, this tree was the tree of a
self-reflective knowledge. This way, Adam and Eve had the ability to come into
contact with the unknown. They started to understand their own thoughts,
feelings, and sensations. Prior to attaining this adeptness to the new state of
being, they had been naked while not knowing anything about the nakedness.
Therefore, they felt no shame. 'So when the woman saw that the tree was good
for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired
to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her
husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and
they knew that they were naked.' (Genesis 3:6-7)
In the phrases where the word 'nakedness' is
used in the Bible, only its natural meaning makes a plain sense. For example:
''Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness
of his father, and told his two brothers outside.'' (Gen. 9:22)
''…so I spread My skirt over you and covered
your nakedness.'' (Ezekiel 16:8)
''I will also take away My wool and My flax
Given to cover her nakedness.'' (Hosea 2:9)
In other phrases, this word has a deep meaning
being related to life and features:
''None of you shall approach any blood
relative of his to uncover nakedness; I am the LORD.'' (Lev. 18:6)
In Eden, Adam and Eve firstly have been “naked
and unashamed” (Gen. 2:25), but after committing the sin, they got a new
'nakedness', a sinful one, and they needed to cover it in order to make the sin
be their secret during the meeting with the Lord.
''Mankind can no longer look upon nakedness in
innocence,'' wrote Matthew Neal.
''You shall not uncover the nakedness of your
father's wife; it is your father's nakedness.'' (Lev. 18:8)
The words, “father’s nakedness” don’t mean
that the father is unclothed, but it is about to expose or not the father's
secrets and vulnerabilities.
This expression “uncover the nakedness of…”
can also be understood as an euphemism for a sexual intercourse.
It’s obvious that the target of Leviticus
18:6-
18 is to shape and to forbid the incestuous
sexual relationships.
This word ‘nakedness’ means the purity of the
soul, “naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord
gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”Job 1:21 .
The naked prophets were not sinners in order to do the will of the Lord. ''Then
the LORD said, "My servant Isaiah has been walking around naked and
barefoot for the last three years. This is a sign--a symbol of the terrible troubles
I will bring upon Egypt and Ethiopia.''(Isaiah 20:3). Their nakedness is a sign
of humility and brokenness before God. A man who dwelt in the Gadarenes region
had thousands of demons in him (Matthew 8:28 - 32, Mark 5:1 - 13, Luke 8:26 -
33). The spirits forced him to dwell, naked, in graveyards and to hurt himself
using stones (Mark 5:1 - 14, Luke 8:26 - 37, Matthew 8:28 - 32). He was 'naked'
because while being mad he couldn't do the sin.
''But I say to you that everyone who looks at
a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his
heart.'' (Matthew 5:28)
In
Matthew 5:27–30, Christ talks about the adultery, which is the seventh
commandment, but many people belonging to actual societies are not
Christians. It is not to be a Christian
in order to avoid the extramarital affairs, but to be a husband loving the
needed wife in order never to look at another person with lust in the heart. We
live in a world in which the pornography is allowed and encourages all the
illicit sexual activities.
The extramarital affairs are the growing
'seeds' of the lustful desires and are fed by the lack of faith. The sinners
don't know to fight through repentance.
They have an attitude toward the sexual sin.(James 1:12–15)
People don't understand that the sexual desire
is a part of their natural structure because they are created by God to be
married. (Gen. 2:23–24). Moreover, they don't really understand the physical
attractiveness, because the beauty which
is described in the Scripture has a different connotation .(Gen. 29:17; 1 Sam.
16:12; 25:3) This lust is a wish for some sinful sexual orientations like pornography, adulterous fantasies, some
homosexual behaviors, incests, sexual abuses, rapes, and aggressions that are
forbidden in the Bible. In fact, Cain is
considered to be the first sinner. ''Freud argues that the primal murder went
on to determine the character of every religion. To him, all religion is an
attempt to alleviate the feelings of guilt,'' wrote Jason Carr.
The Cristian Church says that any kind of sex
for the sole purpose of pleasure is not appropriate. The religious reason for
the sexual encounter is the pregnancy because this act means self-sacrifice
through love in the marriage relationships. They [the husband and wife] shall
become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24). In this sense, the sexual meeting is a
physical manifestation of God's statement involving the physical pleasure, but
it is not that sex for pleasure which is done in the absence of love, and which
is used for a physical release. Satan
keeps people from reading and understanding the truths of God.
''The question our century puts before us is:
Is it possible to regain the lost dimension, the encounter with the Sacred, the
dimension that cuts through the world and goes down to that which is not world
but is the mystery of the Ground of Being?'' said Theologian Paul Tillich,
Hillel Society, Harvard University, 1956.
''The oldest taboo in the world is seemingly a
most potent one. Its prohibitive power cannot be denied, yet it also suffers a
fatal weakness. As taboos go, this one is odd, an inexplicable exception.
Traditionally, native societies around the world observe taboos, ritual
prohibitions. Among the most common are taboos against eating certain foods or
animals: the Muslim taboo on eating pork, for instance. Or the Hindu taboo on
killing cows. Such prohibitions may look foolish or simple-minded,but there is
a profound understanding behind them.''
References:
The Bible
Beauvoir, Simone de (2009). The Second Sex. London: Vintage
Books. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-099-49938-1.
Jump up ^ Brown, Norman O. (1985). Life against Death: The
Psychoanalytical Meaning of Human History. Hanover: Wesleyan University Press.
p. 14. ISBN 0-8195-6144-4.
The Discovery of a Lifetime, John Lamb Lash and Lydia
Dzumardjin.
Sigmund Freud and the Primordial Murder, Jason Carr
Does the Bible Ever Condone Social Nudity?Matthew Neal
[MARIETA MAGLAS]
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