Translation
And he said,
Go to footnote number“I heard the sounds
Go to footnote numberyou were making in the garden and I was afraid
Go to footnote numberbecause I was naked, so I hid myself.”
Go to footnote numberParaphrase
Adam answered, “I heard the sound you were making as you were moving about in the enclosure and I was afraid because I perceived my nakedness differently than before, so I hid myself so I would not feel shame when you look at me.”
Footnotes
1: “he said”
It seems strange to us that Adam answered the question, instead of staying hidden. We can assume that the voice of God was so authoritative that Adam could not ignore it. The question may have carried with it an implied command to “show yourself.” If they didn’t know it already, they quickly learned that Jesus had powers they did not have, and He could see them no matter where they were hiding. We assume (correctly) that when Jesus came to earth as recorded in the Gospels, he was limited and He could not see through things or have special powers unless they were granted to Him by His Father specifically for that given situation (a miracle). But in the Garden of Eden His purpose was different and it seems correct to assume that He was not as limited; He was simply God in human flesh.
2
Once again this is the word that can mean “voice, or sound.” A few translations render it as “voice” in this verse but that does not make sense. By the time God called out to ask where they were, they had already chosen to position themselves in a hiding place. They had made coverings for themselves, then they heard whatever sound it was that Jesus was making as he walked through the garden. It was at that point that Adam and Eve both hid.
3: “I was afraid”
On previous days, he had heard the sound of Jesus walking in the garden and it had caused him joy, not fear. He had been naked since the moment he was formed, and it had never been a problem. But now he felt shame and the sound of Jesus coming created fear. In his answer, Adam avoided the real issue which was his sin of disobedience which had caused his relationship with God to be fractured. The awareness of his nakedness was one consequence among many, but it was the most tangible one and the one that was immediately obvious.
4
We all know that you cannot hide from God. But here it was not so much a “hiding” in the sense of not wanting to be found, but a covering up because he did not want certain parts of his body to be seen. Maybe that is another reason why he spoke up instead of staying hidden. He revealed his position by speaking, but he probably did not step into full view right away. He felt shame because of his new perspective on nakedness; He felt shame if someone else looked at him; he felt guilt for having violated God’s command, and the covering he had made for himself probably looked pathetic and strange, so he felt awkward about it too.