Something I've always wondered about. How could mankind have been "fruitful & multiply" before they even knew that they were naked?

Please don't blast me, I know it's a dumb question, but I have always wondered about it.

umm... I guess you don't need clothes to know that 2 X 2 = 4

I think they knew they were naked and knew how to multiply, but that it wasn't shamefull before they sinned.

When reading Biblical narrative, try to focus on the details that the author (in the case of Genesis, it was Moses) does supply the reader with. Anything else wasn't important to either the human author or the Spirit who inspired them to include. Attempting to 'fill in' details that the text itself doesn't provide is simply a waste of time. The command to 'be fruitful and multiply' (known as the Creation Mandate) is simply meant to demonstrate that the human race expanded by Divine decree. The text doesn't describe the nature of Adam and Eve's sexual understanding or the nature of coitus before the Fall. Sure it would've been interesting to see and have details about the first sexual encounter in human history. All we know is that, like all of creation at that time, it was perfect, which would suggest no limitations to their sexual imaginations or the emotions and sensations associated with intercourse (not to mention the amount of semen that Adam could produce ). I'm sure that they put Sting and his wife Trudy Stiler, who claim to have Buddhist tantric sex for hours at a time, to shame on every level.

One book that might interest you is entitled The Genesis of Sex: Sexual Relationships in the First Book of the Bible by O. Palmer Robertson, a Reformed Evangelical OT scholar. It will help you better understand the importance of sex (there are 20 types of sexual relationships mentioned in Genesis, each of which this book discusses) within God's overall plan for redemptive history as well as the Creation Mandate itself.

Genesis 3:16
To the woman He said, "I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you."

Wouldn't this imply they had knowledge of sex and childbirth before the fall?

Imply?? Yes......maybe......kind of/sort of. I can imagine how you could think that, yes.

I think you might be over-spiritualizing it, Missionary. Its an interesting interpretation, and fully possible as it does fit with the remainder of Scripture.

However, the first thing they did was try to cover themselves physically. That says to me that the nakedness spoken of here was physical. They did from God in shame of what they had done, sure. But the nakedness spoken of was not spiritual nakedness in my view.

yeah, i didn't explain that well, did i? i agree they were neh-kid. the question of "how could they be fruitful if they didn't know they were naked..." is a misunderstanding of two entirely different discoveries combined into one thought.

they obviously had the knowledge to understand their ability to physically procreate before the fall. after, they covered themselves physically as a result of their spiritual awareness of being ashamed before God; spiritually neh-kid.

it goes even further when you consider that their own attempts to cover themselves was insufficient and God finally covered them Himself.

it's not simply a situation of indiscreet embarrassment.

Weren't Cain and Able born after the Fall? There's no mention of Adam and Eve having children before the Fall. After it, pretty suddenly they get children.

Cain & Abel were born after the Fall according to Genesis 4. There's nothing in the text suggesting that procreation started as a result of the Fall, if that's what you're getting at.

Not as a result, but you could add up the facts that they only realised they were naked after the Fall and them suddenly getting children after the Fall and conclude that the Fall opened the option of multiplication.