The Story of Noah: The Curse of Canaan

Stained Glass Stories

The Flood has now subsided, and Noah has been commissioned to be fruitful and multiply and populate the earth. But before we read of mankind's dissemination across the earth, a very unusual story takes place in Noah's narrative. Ham, one of Noah's sons, goes into his father's tent while Noah is drunk with the wine of his vineyard and "looks upon his father's nakedness". Ham tells his brothers of this, and they proceed to take a garment and cover their father's nakedness while walking backwards. Upon waking up, Noah knows what Ham has done, but instead of cursing Ham... he curses Canaan, Ham's son. But what exactly did Ham do? And why did his son Canaan receive the curse from Noah? Was it taboo for sons to look upon their father's nakedness? What on God's green earth is going on here? Find out more on this episode in The Story of Noah!

Resources:

https://www-jstor-org.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/stable/30040989?seq=1

Albert I. Baumgarten, “Myth and Midrash: Genesis 9:20-29,” in Jacob Neusner, ed., Christianity, Judaism and Other Greco-Roman Cults, Studies for Morton Smith at Sixty, vol. 3 (Leiden: Brill, 1975), 55-71