Was Adam's chest covered?

[Lamb]

Genesis 3:21
And the LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.

I saw some young boys outside playing in their front yard yesterday and they had their shirts off. It made me wonder that when God clothed Adam and Eve, did he clothe only Eve's chest? Some cultures don't cover their women's chests, which is rare but we know that they aren't sexualizing breasts. What are your thoughts on the covering of the chests?

 

[Frankj]

Genesis 3:21
And the LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.

I saw some young boys outside playing in their front yard yesterday and they had their shirts off. It made me wonder that when God clothed Adam and Eve, did he clothe only Eve's chest? Some cultures don't cover their women's chests, which is rare but we know that they aren't sexualizing breasts. What are your thoughts on the covering of the chests?

How do we know he clothed Eve's chest?

 

[tango]

Genesis 3:21
And the LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.

I saw some young boys outside playing in their front yard yesterday and they had their shirts off. It made me wonder that when God clothed Adam and Eve, did he clothe only Eve's chest? Some cultures don't cover their women's chests, which is rare but we know that they aren't sexualizing breasts. What are your thoughts on the covering of the chests?

There's no way of knowing - the text doesn't tell us.

As you say some cultures don't regard the female breast as being sexual, and in those cultures women don't cover their tops. Small children often run around with no clothes on at all - to them no part of their body is sexual. My friend's daughter doesn't like wearing clothes at all - she's only 5 and doesn't see why they are needed. When she (the daughter, not the friend!) is at home it's quite common to see her running around wearing only underwear, although she does keep clothes on in public even if not entirely cheerfully. To her it's perfectly natural.

 

[Origen]

Genesis 3:21
And the LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.

I saw some young boys outside playing in their front yard yesterday and they had their shirts off. It made me wonder that when God clothed Adam and Eve, did he clothe only Eve's chest? Some cultures don't cover their women's chests, which is rare but we know that they aren't sexualizing breasts. What are your thoughts on the covering of the chests?

There may be a clue in the text of Gen. 3:7.

"Then the eyes of both were opened, aand they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths."

It appears that Adam and Eve only felt the need to cover their genitals not the whole of their bodies.

However the Hebrew noun used in Gen. 3:7 is not the same one used in Gen. 3:21. The noun kuttōneṯ (i.e. garment) usually refers to a much fuller type garment such as coat, robe or tunic.

Perhaps the clothes provide by God was an act of grace and mercy. Immediately after they were banished from Eden (i.e. paradise) to a world outside the garden. A fuller set of clothing would be necessary in order to cope with this new hostile environment.

 

[Lamb]

There may be a clue in the text of Gen. 3:7.

"Then the eyes of both were opened, aand they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths."

It appears that Adam and Eve only felt the need to cover their genitals not the whole of their bodies.

However the Hebrew noun used in Gen. 3:7 is not the same one used in Gen. 3:21. The noun kuttōneṯ (i.e. garment) usually refers to a much fuller type garment such as coat, robe or tunic.

Perhaps the clothes provide by God was an act of grace and mercy. Immediately after they were banished from Eden (i.e. paradise) to a world outside the garden. A fuller set of clothing would be necessary in order to cope with this new hostile environment.

That's interesting! I know that in some illustrations that Eve only has the fig leaves at the bottom and not the top so maybe they were referring to the loincloths from that verse? The tunic makes sense too for later on because of the elements of the earth since the entire earth fell into sin and was no longer gentle to them.

 

[tango]

Interesting - I was going to post again to ponder whether Eve's chest was covered. It's easy to assume that what happened in a Bible story aligns with our western norms, when that may not be the case.