Does God approve of simple nudity? We believe He does. In fact, that is one of the founding principles behind this website. Through the lists of Scripture below, we show that nudity was an everyday part of life in Biblical times.

Genesis 2:25, 3:11 — God never told Adam and Eve they were naked.

Genesis 3:7, 3:11 — Man clothed himself after he sinned, because of fear and as a self-righteous act to redeem himself.

Genesis 1:31 — God declared His handiwork, including the nude human figure, is "very good".

Micah 1:8 — Prophets were known for prophesying in the nude.

1 Samuel 19:23-24 — Saul, Samuel and all those who went before him, prophesied naked "all day long" after the Holy Spirit of God came on them.

Isaiah 20:2-4 — Isaiah was commanded by God to go naked before everyone for 3 years as a sign. God, who hates sin, does not command people to something sinful or wrong.

John 21:7 — Peter, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus, fished naked, and was doing so when Jesus came to him after he was resurrected. It was customary for people to work without the encumbrance of clothing in those days.

Galatians 5:16; Titus 1:15 — A transformed, purified heart is stronger than clothing, to keep you free from lust and sin.

Matthew 25:41-43 — There is no sin in being homeless, hungry, thirsty or even naked here. The sin is in seeing a need and choosing not to fill it. Those who were naked were so because of poverty. It is similar to our homeless people today.

Romans 14:14

1 Peter 3:3

In Greek (New Testament era) the common garment is called a himation. The himation was typically the only and single garment owned by the common majority in those times (recall the Law of Moses commandment against keeping a debtor's garment, Exodus 22:26-27). More wealthy persons also could own a chiton, made of linen. In the Old Testament, wealthy persons and royalty also possessed multiple garments. The garment industry slowly developed in the ancient Near East over the period between 4,000 BC to the time of Christ, as the population increased, and the economy made it feasible. Clothing was worn for warmth, to show that a man had married a woman (Ezekiel 16:7-8), and to show prestige (as in Joseph's coat of many colors), but not to hide “private parts.“ That came later with the teaching of the Gnostics and later, Augustine.

Historically, underwear as we understand it first came into general use only about 200 years ago (see The Importance of Wearing Clothes by Lawrence Langner, 1991 edition, chapter 16). Thus, lacking underwear, when people removed their himation (and chiton if they had one) they would inevitably have been totally naked. Because most people owned only one set of clothing, workers typically removed their clothing to work in order to keep the clothes clean and undamaged. So gardeners were nude (why Jesus was mistaken for a gardener upon his resurrection) and fishermen were nude (some of Jesus’ disciples are nude while working). In fact, it was common for workers to be nude while doing physical labor and while bathing in bodies of water. Historic records indicate that baptisms were conducted nude in front of the entire church body.