GENESIS 3:7 - Why the Sudden Shame?

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

Why the Sudden Shame?

I had always found the logic of this series of events rather curious. A few verses back it's made clear to us that Adam & Eve are not ashamed to be naked: Genesis 2:25 - "And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed". I can understand how eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a sin and caused the fall of man, but I don't see the direct relation between that and why nakedness suddenly becomes a bad thing or something to be ashamed of.

"Looking at self is a fruit of eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. [...] When Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden tree, they began to be self-conscious. They started looking at themselves. They knew they were naked. Until then, they weren't even aware of that. In fact, they were clothed with a kind of spiritual glory before they fell, and they lived in the presence of Almighty God without shame. After eating of the forbidden Tree, they lost that glory and began to be selfish and desire to escape from the presence of Almighty God." (Christian Faith - Tree of Life)

That makes a lot of sense. The nakedness wasn't so much the sin than the means through which Adam & Eve's self-consciousness manifested itself. It's funny how - besides the obvious disobedience of God's direct order - Adam & Eve's first sin was something we don't even see as a sin these days: self-awareness! But this article lays it out fairly well I think. Before they eat of the fruit, they were too busy being in constant fellowship with God to even think about themselves for a split-second. The second we start looking at ourselves we introduce the possibility for sinning whether it be through worry and dissatisfaction, or worse yet, pride.

"A really humble man will not be what most people call "humble" nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. [...] he will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all." (Mere Christianity - The Great Sin)

(back to Genesis 3)