Why did Noah curse Canaan instead of Ham? | GotQuestions.org

The unbiblical idea that Noah cursed Ham, and thereby all of Ham’s descendants, was used to justify the African slave trade, and is still used by some today to justify racism, prejudice, and discrimination against people of color. Let it be clearly said. Noah did not curse Ham. Noah did not curse all of Ham’s descendants. Rather, Noah only cursed Canaan, one of Ham’s sons, and through Canaan, all of Canaan’s descendants. Why and to what end? Please continue reading. What is abundantly clear, however, is that this account in Genesis 9 regarding Noah, Ham, and Canaan does not, in any way, support slavery or racism in any form.

Genesis 9 records the story of Noah getting drunk, being found naked in his tent, and then cursing Canaan. In this video we answer your question: Why did Noah curse Canaan instead of Ham?

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[ergonentertainmentllc]

The biggest misinterpretation that I constantly hear when people try to explain what really happened boggles my mind. First and foremost, HAM didn’t do anything wrong and NOAH didn’t curse HAM — he cursed CANAAN. That’s the main subject. So, the question is why? Genesis 9:18 establishes the lineage of Noah and the birth order of his (3) sons… this is found more than once in scripture — SHEM, HAM, and JAPHETH. If you don’t start there then you will misinterpret and mistranslate this event. We have to establish that HAM “was not the youngest son of NOAH.” In fact, JAPHETH was the youngest son of NOAH. All of this has to be known before you even dive into this passage. And even before you reference LEV. 18. So, when you read the passage and realize that it says that once NOAH woke up “and found out what his youngest son had done… he said, “Curse be Canaan.” Now, if you already know by SCRIPTURE CONFIRMATION that HAM isn’t the youngest son of NOAH, then who was he taking about? Obviously, JAPHETH being the “youngest son of NOAH” didn’t do anything. He wasn’t even there when the “thing” happened. So, now this is where hermeneutical studies come into play. The word “son” in Hebrew is the word “Ben”… as in, “BEN-DAVID” whom the Scripture calls CHRIST the “SON OF DAVID.” Why would CHRIST be called the “SON OF DAVID” when he’s not the actual son of DAVID’s loins? Well, unlike the English language, the Hebrew words have more than one meaning. The word “son” [Ben] in Hebrew actually means.. “son, grandson, or descendant”. So, when the Scripture says that NOAH had found out what his “youngest son” had done he wasn’t talking about HAM (his second born), nor was he talking about JAPHETH (his actual youngest son — third born)… he was talking about his YOUNGEST GRANDSON (BEN)… CANAAN was the YOUNGEST GRANDSON of all the grandchildren of NOAH. This is why HAM I’d never mentioned as being cursed because he didn’t do anything. HAM saw his “father’s nakedness/nakedness of his father” which was a sexual act taking place that his youngest son (NOAH’s youngest grandson) was doing to NOAH’s wife (HAM’s mother). So, when HAM went out and told his brothers what had happened (CANAAN violating their mother), SHEM & JAPHETH walked backwards with a covering to “cover their mother (father’s nakedness)” because of the shame involved. It was and never has been a sin for a man to see his father naked. But, according to LEV. 18 (sexual sins), father’s nakedness is a sexual act that we know and is proven by scripture was what CANAAN did to his grandmother. This is why CANAAN was cursed and also why the people of CANAAN (the land) were known for their godlessness and sexual deviance. SODOM & GOMORRAH was in the land of CANAAN. And this is what GOD had the people CANAAN wiped out because of their forefather’s sin and curse — CANAAN and its people no longer exist because of what CANAAN the “BEN” (youngest grandson of Noah) did to Noah’s wife. HAM remains innocent and still is innocent to this day! In fact, the idea of HAM sexually involved with his mom and then going out to tell his brother’s what he supposedly did is the dumbest thing ever explained when it comes to this passage of scripture. If you truly pay attention to what MOSES is writing, you will see CANAAN’s name mentioned twice even before the actual act is known. MOSES was trying to give us clues about something that would involve CANAAN even before it actually happened. Don’t believe me? … ”The sons of Noah who came out of the boat with their father were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham is the father of Canaan.)“ Genesis‬ ‭9‬:‭18‬ ‭— ”Ham, the father of Canaan...“
Gen‬ ‭9‬:‭22‬ ‭

[misspiggy]

The nakedness of his father is actually the nakedness of his mother, which is an euphemism for having intercourse with her (or maybe even him?) according to the Bible. Lev. 18:7-8 (14) and 20:11. While Noah was drunk and unaware of what was going on around him, Ham entered his father's tent and had relations with his mother. Canaan was likely the result of that union, which explains why he was the target of the curse.

[djfan]

No, Leviticus 18 states that a man’s nakedness is the nakedness of his wife. Clearly this is talking about the fact that Ham slept with his own mother and she became pregnant with Canaan. The reason Ham did this is because it was an attempt to take charge over the household since he wasn’t the firstborn.

[shany]

Thank you for providing different perspectives and interpretations.

[jeffreyshumate]

Do a word search for nakedness in the Old testament and you will discover what seeing or uncovering somebody’s nakedness really means. I don’t understand why people have such a hard time with this. We must free ourselves from reading scripture using our worldview and strive to read scripture with the worldview of the it’s contemporaries.

[markd]

I spent 2 years working on unraveling this knot. This passage in Genesis seems to come out of nowhere, and what it says is shocking to say the least. Noah didn't react to Ham the way you would expect a father to. His reaction was one of 'I've had it with you', which indicates a long history of difficulties between him and Ham. Not only was the curse shocking, but a holy man such as Noah getting drunk and passing out naked in his tent just seem so jarring and out of place. What I finally worked out was the following:

I believe Noah's wife was Naamah the sister of Tubal Cain. She is mentioned by name in Genesis, and Japheth the first born of Noah named one of his sons Tubal. (It's customary for a child to name one of their children after either a parent, or grandparent.) When the ark project got underway, Noah was completely involved with all of it, so I believe Naamah was the one who handled the household and the children. It wasn't until God told Noah to build the ark, that they even had any children. Things in the pre-flood world must have been so bad, that they didn't want to bring children into that world. Once they knew there was hope, Naamah had 3 sons one right after the other, with Japheth the first born, Shem the second, and Ham the third and youngest.

I believe Ham was a problem child. He most likely had enough of the genetics of Cain in him to make him rebellious, and since Naamah knew she had that in her, she felt guilty for it and probably tried to shelter Ham from the stigma. As a result, Ham grew up being able to 'get away' with things, because his mother sheltered him. Noah was too busy to deal with it, so he left it to Naamah.

I think when the ark was finished, and before they entered it, Noah must have given strict instructions to his sons to NOT get their wives pregnant while they were in the ark. This would cause all kinds of difficulty, and everyone was going to need to be in full health for the tremendous amount of work they were going to have to do once the flood was over, and they entered the world afterwards. I think Ham disobeyed his father, and got his wife pregnant (she was a Cushite; Cush was the ancient word for black), and Canaan was born on the ark. When Ham had to tell everyone she was pregnant, it must have been unbelievably bad. I cannot imagine how both angry and hurt Noah must have been. Naamah did her best to smooth things over, but Noah never forgot it.

I believe the incident with Noah getting drunk in his tent was because his wife had just died. This would have been probably somewhere around 250-300 years after the flood (Noah lived to be 950, and was 600 when they left the ark). The sons were all in their 90's when they entered the ark, and by the time of the tent incident, they were all somewhere around 350-400 years old with family lines of their own. They would have been spread out by then in their own areas, yet they were all there outside Noah's tent when this incident happened. This led me to believe something serious had happened. The one thing missing in that whole scene was Naamah, the wife of Noah and mother of his children. This would explain Noah's behavior. I cannot imagine the kind of bond that would form between 2 people for that long a period of time, especially with all they went through together. I think Noah was so grief-stricken, he couldn't stand to be awake, and he couldn't sleep. The only thing he could think of was to drink wine until he passed out, which he did; sitting there naked next to where his wife had been by his side for centuries, but now she was gone.

Everyone outside of his tent must have been hearing him grieving, but there wasn't anything they could do or say that would help him. When he passed out, the sounds of his grieving would have suddenly stopped, and they all must have been wondering what happened. Ham being the person he was, must have scoffed at them and went to go look. This is why he went into the tent of Noah, and saw him. He went back and made an inappropriate comment about his father's condition, probably in a flippant and disrespectful manner. This horrified everyone. Shem probably took one of his own blankets, and he and Japheth walked in backwards and covered Noah. In the morning when Noah awoke, he would have had a wicked hangover, and out of habit reached over to where Naamah and always been, but she was gone, and it all came back to him. He noticed Shem's blanket covering him, and knew he had been in his tent. Noah must have been in a horrible mood, combined with grief and a brutal headache. He went outside and took the blanket to Shem, and wanted to know why he had been in his tent. Shem told Noah the truth, and in that instant, Noah remembered it all. He remembered the moment when Ham told everybody his wife was pregnant in the ark, only now Naamah wasn't there to cover for Him. That was it. Noah had had it. Ham had disrespected him for the last time. He cursed Canaan because he knew that would burn Ham more than anything else, and Ham would understand why.

I think this event caused the split in the family line, with Ham leaving in a rage and going down to northeast Africa and claiming that area as his. Ham apparently made a deal with Satan to gain power, and setup the whole demonic religion/government style that came to be known by Ham's son's name, Egypt. Ham blamed Shem for everything (just like Cain blamed Abel), and his hatred for Shem became ingrained in his descendants, which is why there has been enmity and hostility between Ham's descendants and Shem's all this time, and it's still going on.

[marquishajerry]

That's a lot of families to go through to find out, whose who!, But thank you for sharing this bit of info.

[KrishnaBoukadia]

There are many questions ro this story:

Why does Noah, the only holy man on earth, suddenly gets drunk, then when found out, doesn't own up to his mistakes but punishes, not his son but his grandson?

And how do the 2 other sons cover him without seeing his nakedness?

Could a grand father have the heart to curse his grand child realistically? And especially the only holy person on earth?

Could this story have been instead a later addition to justify the colonisation of the land?

If it was a later justification, could it be by Moses, when Moses told pharao he wanted to pray to the mountain, and that land belonged to Egypt anyway.

So it must be a much later addition, at a time when a people wanted to jusitify the conquest of that land.

Canaan is also a child a God, the same God who sent Jonah to an non hebrew nation to ask that nation to repent as God wanted to save them.

But in the case of Canaan, why are we not given any account of prophets sent to Canaan? This is odd.

[LovelyHi]

Very interesting, thank you for this 😊

[arnoldlinder]

Lev 20:11 says to see your father's nakedness is to sleep with your fathers wife. In this context, Ham slept with his mother and that union produced Canaan. So Canaan was both a son and a brother. This is why Noah cursed him. Canaan was not his son. All four sons inherited Noah's possessions proving that Canaan was considered a brother of Ham, Shem and Japheth all being born by the same mother. It's not complicated. The story narrator just didn't want to use plain language to keep it respectable.

[DayomondTV]

May Thy creator forgive you all…for speculations and assumptions, fallacies stories unverified that are claimed from “Holy Spirit “. Let’s take caution on interpretations of the scripture and how we perceive it.

[jvlp]

Take note: The Original Hebrew-Aramaic Word used for Nakedness in Leviticus 18:7 is "ER VAT."... while the Original Hebrew-Aramaic word used for Nakedness in Genesis 9:22, is "ER WAT."... and NOT the same in CONTEXT and MEANING... Praise be to God in Christ Jesus... Amen.

[RCSNIPER]

A lot of assumptions and interpretations have to be made in this passage. There are many different views on what Ham had actually done.

[ECKohns]

Maybe this is supposed to explain why the Canaanites were seen as lesser compared to Abraham’s family. Why Abraham’s family chose to never marry a local Canaanite. And why God later ordered the Israelites to wipe them out. As well as the fact that the land of Canaan would always been in dispute.

[faithman]

an ancient text stated that Canaan took the land allotted for Shem and his decendants.

I think that's why God took it back and gave it to Abraham

[NithiyaAdithiya]

Praise God... lovely explanation.. God bless your ministry

[FarrahParis]

this was great! thank you! I am reading the Bible from the beginning to see who the people were that came from Jesus' line, and I've always wanted to know why did Noah curse Canaan and not Ham himself. thanks for the explanation.

[timothykuring]

Tooth for a tooth thinking can draw innocent people into the punishment.
He wanted Ham to suffer the same way he suffered, from having a bad son.
There is something karmic about it.
A son who doesn't respect his father raises a son who doesn't respect his father.
And Ham will suffer like Noah.

[clarencetexada]

. Lev. 18:7-8 and 20:11 explains what Father nakedness means

[stanefm]

So a drunker has the authority issue a curse?