Shared Nakedness

Leviticus 18 describes sexual sin as occasions of exposure, as “uncovering nakedness.” At times, the nakedness is not only an individual’s, but is shared. The reason given for the prohibition of maternal incest in Lev 18:8 is that the mother’s nakedness is the “father’s nakedness.” This makes sense: In the nature of the case, husband and wife share a single covering, and so an exposure of the nakedness of the one is an exposure of the nakedness of another. There’s more going on here, but the basis for the notion of shared nakedness is pretty obvious.

What about 18:10, which prohibits incest with a granddaughter on the basis of the fact that “they are your nakedness.” The grandfather’s nakedness and the granddaughter’s are the same. How is this the case? Perhaps John Kleinig’s suggestion is right: “Incest violates the nakedness of the family, its ordered intimacy; it exposes the sexuality of its members and confuses its sexual ecology. It shames the family publicly.” So if a grandfather uncovers the nakedness of his granddaughter, he brings the shame of public exposure on himself, he himself is stripped before the world. Perhaps, but I suspect there’s more going on, and that it is somehow connected with the naked Jesus on the cross, the fact that he bears the shame of our Adamic nakedness in his own exposure.