Umbilicus in History and Its Religious Background

The umbilical cord is a very intricate device, a very complex affair indeed, but it is as a piece of string compared to the complexity of the silver cord. The ‘belly button’ has been the cause of tremendous theological debate for centuries; specifically, the question that has led to such scholarly reflection: Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons?. Five hundred years ago, when the matter was most heated, painters of Adam’s navel had different choices: many took a cowardly path, blocking the view with a fig leaf or some other artist’s ploy; some left off the dab of paint which would have represented a navel; and others gave him a navel; Raphael did and Michelangelo.