Who Told You That You Were Naked Summary

Perhaps no story in the history of literature has been subjected to a wider range of interpretation than the ancient Hebrew tale of our first forefathers, Adam and Eve. It seems that everyone whose ever cracked a bible feels up to the task of finding something new in the story, giving it an added layer, or a new twist, and usually adding nothing that really makes the story more relevant to our theology and our lives. So, it was with low hopes that I began reading William E. Combs’s book “Who Told You That You Were Naked?” -- the latest theologian to weigh in on the most hackneyed topic since Kate Middleton’s wardrobe.

I was wrong. The man has something to say. There are some genuine insights here, and a good number of ideas that stand in …show more content…
That’s one of the good things about this book. It is not a simple rehashing of an old story, with a few insights here and there thrown in to spice things up a bit. Combs really does take a fresh approach. He really does challenge many of the established -- one might even say orthodox -- views on this subject, sometimes by making some very fine distinctions, such as when he insists that Adam’s decision to believe Eve’s account of the fruit of the tree rather than God’s did constitute sin, as has always been taught, but did not constitute rebellion, which is almost never taught.

Another strong point of the book is how he relates the lessons of the Adam and Eve story into a larger theological framework, insisting that Adam’s real sin was a failure of faith; he was right to want to be like God, but he went about it the wrong way, trying to attain it by his own -- and Satan’s -- means, rather than by faith. This has obvious implications for anyone trying to live a good Christian life.

What Combs achieves here ought not to be underestimated. He has mined a story that has been mined to no end and somehow managed not just to find something new, but to dredge out of it something truly fresh, interesting, and, most importantly, relevant to the faith. I give it four out of four

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