50. SeeGn 18:1-15.
456 The Literal Meaning ofGenesis drawing their attention up to heavenly matters, he never allowed them to take any notice of their nakedness, until after they sinned and then felt the shameful motion in their members under the penal law in the members (Rom 7:23). So then, they were embarrassed as men and women usually are embarrassed under the eyes of men and women; and such was his embarrassment at the punishment of the sin, that he wanted to escape the notice of one whom nothing escapes, and to conceal his flesh from one who is the inspector of the heart.
But why should we be surprised, if after wanting proudly to be like gods they gave way to futile thoughts, and their silly heart was darkened (Rom 1:21)? What it amounts to in fact is that they said they were wise in their abundance, and when he turned his face away they became fools (Rom 1:22; Ps 30:6-7). What they were ashamed of, you see, in each other's presence—which is why they made themselves aprons—they were much more terrified of being seen, even covered up like that, by the one who through some visible creature used to come and see them like a friendly relative, with seemingly human eyes. lf the reason, after all, that he used to appear to them like that was so that human beings might be able to talk to him as to one of themselves, as with Abraham at the oak of Mamre.50 Then this very friendliness, which used to put them at ease before their sin, began after they committed it to burden them with shame; nor would they any longer have the nerve to display to such eyes the nakedness which was now an embarrassment to their own.
Excusing self, blaming others
35, 47. So then the Lord, after interrogating the sinners in the manner prescribed by justice, wished now to inflict a severer punishment than this one they were forced to be ashamed of; so Who told you, he said, that you are naked—unless you have eaten from the tree which l commanded you, from it alone you shall not take a bite? (Gn 3: 1 1). It was the death, you see, conceived by this act, according to the sentence which God had threatened to pass, that made them lustfully notice their members when their eyes were said to be opened, and what they were ashamed of followed. And Adam said: The wife whom you gave with me, she gave me of the tree, and l ate (Gn 3:11). Oh, pride ! Did he say, "l have sinned"? He is awkward enough to be confused, not humble enough to confess.
The reason all this was committed to writing because this questioning was assuredly conducted in order that it might all be truthfully and profitably written down—if it was false it would obviously not be profitable—was so that we might mark what a diseased pride people today are infected by, who attempt to
50. SeeGn 18:1-15.