ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

Tu’apulelulu Sanuali 12, 2023

Naked and Crafty  ערום

Telefua mo Olopoto

GENESIS 2:25-3:1

AND THE MAN AND HIS WIFE WERE BOTH NAKED AND WERE NOT ASHAMED. NOW THE SERPENT WAS MORE CRAFTY THAN ANY OTHER BEAST OF THE FIELD THAT THE LORD GOD HAD MADE.

GENESIS 2:25-3:1

Pea na‘a na fakatou telefua, ‘a e tangata mo hono uaifi, ka na‘e ‘ikai te na mā. PEA ko e Ngata na‘e olopoto lahi ‘i he manu kotoa pē ‘o e fonua, ‘a ia ne ngaohi ‘e Sihova ‘Elohimi. Pea ne huhū ange ki he fefine, ‘Oku mo‘oni koā kuo folofola ‘e he ‘Otua ke ‘oua te mo kai mei he ‘akau kehekehe ‘o e ngouetapu?

Hebrew can be a playful language, coupling similar-sounding words, like tohu vavohu (Gen. 1:2) or adam and adamah (2:7). Here we encounter another one: the man and woman were arummim ("naked") and the serpent was arum ("crafty, clever, cunning"). Eliphaz uses this same word when he speaks of "the tongue of the arumim [crafty]" (Job 15:5). We might try to replicate the Genesis wordplay with "nude" and "shrewd," but, alas, it's no match for the cleverness of the Hebrew author.

Nor were this naked pair any match for their devilishly clever foe. Their nudity was emblematic of innocence and a pristine existence-the very gifts of God this smooth-talking serpent was about to attack with his own crafty tongue. The psalmist probably has this in mind when he says of violent men: "they make their tongue sharp as a serpent's, and under their lips is the venom of asps" (140:3). Against both lying serpents and lying men, however, hangs the Truth, Wisdom himself, the second Adam, stripped naked atop the cross. He is bruised and battered from head to toe. Only his tongue is unfettered and unwounded-that he might intercede for us all.

Lord Jesus, wisdom from on high, clothe us with your righteousness.