Noah, Ham And Canaan
By Ian B. JohnsonDoes This Story Teach The Need For Clothing, For Privacy Or For Respect?
Genesis 9.20-27, NIV:
Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant 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. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said, "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers." He also said, "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave.Did You Notice Who Is Silent In This Story?
In this story of Noah's drunkenness,
God says not a single word to any of the participants. He doesn't speak
to reprove Noah for his drunkenness. He doesn't speak to tell Noah he should
put some clothes on before he lies down in his tent. He doesn't criticize
Ham for entering his father's tent or seeing his father's nakedness. He
doesn't speak judgment on Ham for telling his brothers what he saw. He
doesn't even speak to Shem and Japheth commending them for what they did.
He doesn't speak at all. And in telling the story, He simply narrates the
events, without adding any editorial comments explicitly approving or disapproving
the behavior of any of the participants. Thus, God does not in this passage
declare Noah's nakedness to have been sinful.
This Is Really A Story About Privacy And Respect
As was discussed at length
in another article, when Adam sinned, he and Eve incorrectly associated
their guilt before God with their naked bodies and therefore made themselves
clothing to hide their bodies from God, each other and all people born
thereafter. Because their sin was really a spiritual transgression, their
guilt was also centered in their spirit, and no mere bodily covering could
hide it from God. Nevertheless, God accommodated their new, spiritually
insensitive state by providing them more adequate clothing, not because
it really hid them from Him, but because it made them more comfortable
coming before Him. But this clothing also performed another function —
it hid the man and woman from each other, creating an area of privacy in
which the parts of their bodies which they (still incorrectly) most associated
with their guilt would be hidden.
The story of Noah's drunkenness
demonstrates that, as more people came into the world, the role of clothing
in creating a zone of privacy protected from other people became more important.
Indeed, it became so important to Noah and his family that, when Noah learned
that Ham had seen him naked and told his brothers about it, Noah placed
a curse on one of Ham's sons. Ham had entered the zone of his father's
privacy unbidden and had disrespected his father by telling his brothers
about it to his father's shame. Shem and Japheth, by contrast, had shown
proper respect by doing what they could to help their father preserve his
privacy and maintain the covering of his guilt and sinfulness before them.
This story is not about Noah's nakedness and the passage nowhere calls
it sinful (remember that he was only naked in his own tent!). Rather, it
is about respect for parents and respecting the privacy of others.
A Disclaimer
In the past, some groups
have used this passage in support of racist arguments. That is certainly
not its point. Noah cursed only Canaan, not all of the children of Ham.
The descendants of Canaan were all either killed in war or intermarried
and thoroughly assimilated into other cultures centuries ago. The Arab
invasions of Palestine after the time of Mohammed completed this process
if it hadn't been completed before this. I've never met a Canaanite. Besides,
the death of Christ has abolished all such ethnic divisions in God's sight.
Therefore, I don't see any basis for applying Noah's curse to any group
of people present in the world today.
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