Reading about biblical characters like Ham makes you think, “Why haven’t I researched my genealogy yet?”
Almost everyone eventually becomes interested in the people who came before us. These explorations into our family history can be enlightening, exciting, or something that brings greater understanding.
Some jokingly say we’re all related to Noah since it was just him and his family who were rescued on the ark. But who else was on the ark with Noah? Of the eight people that came from the ark in Genesis 9, Ham was one of them.
We are first introduced to Ham in Genesis 6 in the list of Noah’s sons.
“Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” (Genesis 6:10)
If this verse follows the same pattern as other genealogies in the Bible, we assume that Ham was Noah’s second son, Shem was the first, and Japeth was the third.
The greater genealogy that takes up much of Genesis 5 would place Ham as the eleventh generation from Adam.
Ham is mentioned again in Genesis 9, as we are told of some of the events after the Flood.
In the post-diluvian world, we are told that Noah built a vineyard.
“When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside.” (Genesis 9:21-22)
There is a lot that is unclear about both Noah’s and Ham’s actions in these verses.
As to what Ham did after the flood, there seem to be three camps.
One that Ham dishonored his father by looking at his father’s nakedness.
Ross P. Allen makes this commentary in an article for Bibliotheca Sacra Volume 137:
“It is difficult for someone living in the modern world to understand the modesty and discretion of privacy called for in ancient morality. Nakedness in the OT was from the beginning a thing of shame for a fallen man [3:7] … the state of nakedness was both undignified and vulnerable. To see someone uncovered was to bring dishonor and to gain advantage for potential exploitation.”
Another point of view, based on other scriptures that use the phrase, “Saw his father’s nakedness” (such as Leviticus 20:11 and Deuteronomy 27:20), is that it is a euphemism for something else. It could mean that Ham committed adultery with Noah’s wife or did something immoral with his father. Marty Solomon discusses the theory that Ham did an immoral act (such as castrating his father) in an episode of The Bema Podcast and how it would explain why Noah curses Ham’s son Canaan: Ham damages his father’s ability to have more children, so Noah curses Ham’s children.
While it is unclear what Ham did that led to the Curse of Canaan, it is clear that Moses, the author of Genesis, is setting up the Table of Nations. In Genesis 9, Moses gives an understanding of Israel’s place in the world, reminding the readers of humanity’s propensity to sin and our need for God’s grace.
While the genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11 communicate the relationship between God and his chosen people. The genealogies in Genesis 10 serve to communicate a horizontal relationship between nations.
We are told about Ham and his descendants as we enter the Table of Nations in Genesis 10.
Ham’s descendants moved south, east, and southwest from Mt. Ararat into Africa and Mesopotamia. Canaan’s descendants settled in Philistia, or modern-day Palestine. In Bruce K. Waltke’s book Genesis, he makes this interesting statement about the line of Canaan: “The length of these Hamite Canaanite lists indicates the importance of these people and places in Israel’s later history. Note the absence of the common sevens in the structuring in Canaan’s genealogy, suggesting chaos.”
Ham’s sons were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan (Genesis 10:6).
The people known as the Luddites, Anamites, Lehabits, and Naphtuhites inhabited lower Egypt), Pathrusites (inhabited Upper Egypt), Casluhites, and Caphtorites (inhabited Crete, which is considered the homeland of various Philistine groups, mentioned in Jeremiah 47:4) all came from the descendants of Mizraim.
Not much is told to us about Ham’s son Put. As a people group, Put’s descendants are mentioned again in Jeremiah 46:9 and Nahum 3:9, both referring to areas known to us as modern Libya.
Ham’s son, Cush’s descendants, moved to Mesopotamia as the family of Noah became divided. He was the father of the Assyrian and Babylonian people groups. We are also given further details about one of Cush’s sons, Nimrod.
Nimrod is known as a “mighty hunter” (Genesis 10:9). In Dr. Thomas L. Constable’s Bible Commentary on Genesis, he lists several journals and research suggesting that Nimrod might be the Hebrew name of Sargon I, who is considered the first king of Babylon. Constable also considers possible connections to the Greek story of Orion and a reference to a character named Nimrod being the hero of the flood story in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Finally, we get to Canaan’s descendants. But we are only given the name of Canaan’s firstborn son, Sidon (Genesis 10:15). What follows the mention of Sidon is a list of other people groups, many of which play a large role in the future history of Israel.
The Hittites, a powerful people group from Asia Minor, controlled much of Canaan from 1800 to 1200 BC.
The Jebusites were the inhabitants of Jerusalem at the time of Israel’s conquest of Canaan (Judges 19:10-11).
The Amorites lived in the hill country of Canaan at the time of the Israelite conquest. Other people groups listed in Genesis 10:16 are the Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites, and the Hamathites.
Just as the “Mark of Cain” often comes with some confusion and racial tensions, so does the curse of Canaan. Crosswalk.com Aaron D’Anthony Brown states that “during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Christians living in a world of slavery needed biblical support for their ideology. The Curse of Ham was one frame of text they used to defend owning slaves.”
Even in more recent times, Communist leaders in Ethiopia for a time used the misinterpretation of the Curse of Canaan in their anti-Christian propaganda.
If you remember, Canaan’s descendants didn’t settle in Africa but in Palestine. Genesis 10:19 says, “and the borders of Canaan reached from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboyim, as far as Lasha.”
It was not an issue of ethnicity but of the wicked practices that characterized Canaanite culture. If we look at Genesis 10:19, we see the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah listed. Genesis 19 is where we hear more about the actions and culture of Sodom and Gomorrah and the judgment God reigns down on the city because of their immorality.
Many people have sought to use the Curse of Canaan to justify slavery and racism. However, as Derek Kidner states in his commentary on Genesis, “interpreting the curse of Canaan along purely politico-ethnic lines involves a complete misreading and misapplication of the Biblical text.”
We must remember that we are to use the Bible to inform the way we live our lives of faith, not that we manipulate the Bible to justify our actions and ideologies.
Further Reading:
What Is the Meaning and Significance of Noah’s Ark?
What Do We Know about Noah’s Son Shem?
What Does the Bible Tell Us about Noah's Sons?
Photo Credit: © Getty Images/1971yes
You can find out more about Valerie, her books, and her blog at www.valeriefentress.com.
This article is part of our People of Christianity catalog that features the stories, meaning, and significance of well-known people from the Bible and history. Here are some of the most popular articles for knowing important figures in Christianity:
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