213. By "knowing that they were naked" is signified their knowing and acknowledging themselves to be no longer in innocence as before, but in evil, as is evident from the last verse of the preceding chapter, where it is said, "and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed" and where it may be seen that "not to be ashamed because they were naked" signifies to be innocent. The contrary is signified by their "being ashamed" as in this verse, where it is said that they "sewed fig-leaves together, and hid themselves;" for where there is no innocence, nakedness is a scandal and disgrace, because it is attended with a consciousness of thinking evil. For this reason "nakedness" is used in the Word as a type of disgrace and evil, and is predicated of a perverted church, as in Ezekiel:
Thou wast naked and bare, and trampled on in thy blood (Ezek. 16:22).
Again:
They shall leave her naked and bare, and the nakedness shall be uncovered (Ezek. 23:29).
In John:
I counsel thee to buy of Me white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear (Rev. 3:18).
And concerning the last day:
Blessed is he who watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame (Rev. 16:15).
In Deuteronomy:
If a man hath found some nakedness in his wife, let him write her a bill of divorcement (Deut. 24:1).
For the same reason Aaron and his sons were commanded to have linen breeches when they came to the altar, and to minister, to "cover the flesh of their nakedness, lest they should bear iniquity, and die" (Exod. 28:42-43).