Unclothed, be (1562) ekduo by Greek Word Studies

To be unclothed (1562)(ekduo from ek = out + dúo = cause to sink, go or come) means literally to go or come out of, to put off and especially to put off clothing and thus to unclothe. To remove clothing, strip off garments (of Jesus' before His crucifixion - Mt 27:28, 31, Mk 15:20), undress oneself (in middle voice). In 2Co 5:4 Paul uses ekduo figuratively to described the laying aside of a body. In other words Paul is saying we do not want to be in a disembodied state after death, but instead desire to possess our resurrection body which God will give us (As alluded to in 2Co 5:5 God "prepared us for this very purpose"). Ekduo - 6x in 6v in NAS - Mt 27:28, 31; Mk 15:20; Lk 10:30; 2Co 5:3 4. NAS = stripped(2), took...off(2), unclothed(1). Luke 10:30 Jesus replied and said, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. Ekduo - 21x in the non-apocryphal Septuagint - Ge 37:23; Lev 6:11; 16:23; Nu 20:26, 28; 1 Sam 19:24; 31:9; 1Chr 10:9; Esther 5:1; Job 11:15; 19:9; 30:13; Song 5:3; Isa 32:11; 52:2; Lam 4:3; Ezek 16:39; 23:26; 26:16; 44:19; Hos 2:3 A majority of the uses in the Septuagint refer to stripping off clothes. Leviticus 6:11 'Then he shall take off his garments and put on other garments, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place. Job 19:9 "He has stripped my honor from me And removed the crown from my head. Matthew Henry: "He has stripped me of my glory, my wealth, honor, power, and all the opportunity I had of doing good. My children were my glory, but I have lost them; and whatever was a crown to my head he has taken it from me, and has laid all my honor in the dust." See the vanity of worldly glory: it is what we may be soon stripped of; and, whatever strips us, we must see and own God's hand in it and comply with his design. But (alla) is a strong adversative (contrast) - not unclothed but clothed. The first edition of the New Living Translation paraphrases the passage... We want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by everlasting life. Here is the Amplified Version to help us understand what Paul is saying... For while we are still in this tent, we groan under the burden and sigh deeply (weighed down, depressed, oppressed)—not that we want to put off the body (the clothing of the spirit), but rather that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal (our dying body) may be swallowed up by life [after the resurrection]. (Lockman) Comment: Keep in mind that when you are "stuck" on the meaning of a particular verse, first pray and examine the context, but if you are still "stuck", consider looking at another Bible translation (see chart comparing Bible Versions). The two I have found most helpful are the Amplified (which is more literal to the original language) and the New Living Translation (NLT), which is a paraphrase but one which tends to be a relatively accurate interpretation of the original Greek text. The discerning Berean (Acts 17:11-note) should be cautious with some of the "loose" paraphrases such as The Message (a version from which I do not quote), which in my humble opinion can stray quite far away from the meaning intended by the original Greek text and from God's intended meaning! And remember if you are "off" on the interpretation, you are at risk of inappropriate application which can have significant spiritual consequences. Harry Ironside associates the phrase we do not want to be unclothed with the Second Coming of Christ noting first that... we are not earnestly desiring to die, for that would not be a natural thing for any Christian. The Christian should not earnestly desire to die, and yet should be prepared for it, but he should also be prepared to live for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Php 1:21-note). And then he says that he would rather live to be a help and blessing to other people. And so we hope "not for that we would be unclothed," but we do long to be "clothed upon." That is, we would like to live to the second coming of our Lord Jesus to get our resurrection body in that wonderful hour of His triumph, "that mortality might be swallowed up of life." And whether we live or die this is the final goal. John MacArthur discusses the Greco-Roman dualistic philosophy (matter is evil and spirit is good - see MacArthur's sermon for more discussion of "dualism") that was prevalent in Paul's day and writes that... even after addressing it (dualism) in that letter (First Corinthians), it is still a problem. It was still a present issue so here he points out, "We are waiting to put on our resurrection body not to be found naked." He points to the truth that when his earthly tent is dismantled and he dies, God's plan is not for him to exist as some disembodied spirit, floating around in infinity somewhere as the Greek pagans taught. Their dualism, their hatred of the physical, their miscomprehension of creation, their seeing matter as evil led to the idea that death released the immortal soul into the nebulous freedom of the spiritual world. And they would be freed from the bondage of their body to float throughout eternity freely. For example, a Roman thinker said the body is a tomb, we need to escape from it. Platonus could say that he was ashamed that he had a body. Another writer, Epictetus, said of himself, "Thou art a poor soul burdened with a corpse." No less than Seneca wrote, "I am a higher being and born for higher things than to be the slave of my body which I look upon as only a shackle put upon my freedom and so detestable a habitation dwells the free soul." Paul wasn't looking for the release from his body, he was looking for the next body, one that was perfect in the perfections of immortality. Paul isn't looking for nirvana, some kind of unconscious extinction. He's not looking for freedom as a disembodied spirit. He's not waiting for the day when he's going to get absorbed into the infinite. He wants a body. He is a person. He was designed by God and promised by God he would have a body and he wants a body in which he can be like Jesus Christ. Jesus had a resurrection body and he wants one because he wants to be like Christ and he wants to serve God and glorify God and honor God and praise God through the means of that glorified body.... Paul just throws it in to make it clear, we long to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven inasmuch as we having put it on shall not be found naked. We're not looking to be floating spirits. The ancient philosophers may have longed for the nakedness of the soul, but Paul didn't. The ancients may have felt that the soul needed to be stripped of the body to enter its highest bliss, but Paul didn't. The highest expression that we will ever know in the glory of God's eternal heaven will be when we receive our bodies, our new resurrection bodies. And body-lessness to Paul and to any thinking Christian is a repulsive thought. We are to be a person, not a floating spirit lost in infinity. In fact, Paul was so passionate about this, follow this, that he didn't even want to experience the period of time in which he would have to wait for his body. And I find that fascinating. He so longed to be like Christ, he so longed to have the perfect vehicle for expression of praise and service to God in eternity that he didn't even like the idea of having to wait around to get his body. You say, "Well now wait a minute, did he have to wait around?" Yes, that's, you see, why I told you if he had his choice he would prefer to be raptured, right? Remember we went into that last week. If he had his choice he'd like to be raptured because at the Rapture there's a transformation of the body, right? And he would rather, just like you would, live until Jesus comes for His own. He comes and changes us and we don't experience death, we just get our new body right like that, in a twinkling of an eye (1Co 15:52). On the other hand, if he were to die, he would have to wait till the Rapture to get his body because the bodies aren't raised until the Rapture.... Well He hasn't come yet. So the saints that have died, their spirits are in heaven, but they haven't received their resurrection bodies yet. Their spirits are there. You say, "Well what are they like?" I don't know, their spirits are there but they don't have a form. Their presence is there without that resurrection body. You say, "Do they have their earthly body?" No, you can check anybody's grave, the earthly body is there, whatever is left of it. They don't have that. They're in a spirit form. And Hebrews 12:23 says, "They are the spirits of just men made perfect." Their spirits have been made perfect, they're perfectly holy and righteous and virtuous, they just have not yet received their resurrection bodies. That awaits the Rapture of Jesus Christ. So there is a waiting period for those who have died and who will die before the Rapture. If you live till the Rapture, you won't have that. If you die before the Lord Jesus comes, there will be a period of waiting. Though the sting of sin is removed, there is still a period of waiting. You say, "Will we have the sense of "Boy, this is taking a long time?" Paul's saying to himself, "I've been counting the days and do you realize I've been here for two thousand years? Is it like that?" No, it's not like that because you can't read time into eternity and a day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day (2Pe 3:8, cp Ps 90:4). And when you get into that dimension you're not talking about time as we know time, but you are talking about the realization that something has not yet occurred.... But he said, "Look, we want to...we want to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, we want to put it on so we're not found naked." He wanted that glorified body which would bring him to the perfection that was like his Lord, his risen Lord. He didn't want the period of nakedness if he could avoid it. Though death and being with Christ even in that condition was better than life here, he was groaning for the perfection that his glorified body would bring. (Facing Death Confidently, Part 2) "Copy and paste the address below into your web browser in order to go to the original page which will allow you to access live links related to the material on this page - these links include Scriptures (which can be read in context), Scripture pop-ups on mouse over, and a variety of related resources such as Bible dictionary articles, commentaries, sermon notes and theological journal articles related to the topic under discussion." http://www.preceptaustin.org/2corinthians_54-5_commentary.htm#tbu

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Unclothed, be (1562) ekduo

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