Sin of Ham
I have recently came in contact with an explanation on the sin of Ham and was quit amazed at the overlap of this story with the story of Lot and his daughters after Sodom en Gomorra was destroyed.
They call this a chiastic structure.
This means that there are certain themes that connect the 2 stories which explains them better in perspective.
If we connect Genesis 6 with Genesis 19 we get a better picture of what is going on here.
1st) Noah was found a righteous man, Abraham was also found righteous
2nd) The earth was corrupt/the end of all flesh the cry became great before YHVH
To destroy To destroy
3rd) Genesis 7:1-16 Genesis 19:15-22
Deliverance and protection Deliverance and protection
4th) complete destruction complete destruction
5th) Yah remembers Noah and family Yah remembers Abraham
6th) the mountains the mountains
7th) Noah gets drunk and became uncovered Father got drunk. Lots daughters
uncover his nakedness
8th) cursing oaf a child cursing of 2 children.
The child/children uncovering the nakedness of the father, resulting in a cursed incestuous offspring…… Lev.18:8 and Lev20:11 and 17
We see here that it could be that Ham did it with is mother which would explain why Canaan was cured. He was born through Ham’s mother. This is also called uncovering your fathers nakedness. Which to me makes a hole lot of sense.
What do you guys think?
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January 10, 2025 at 6:01 pm /
Hello! Thanks for you thoughts. Drawing out the Chiasm like that makes a lot of sense.
The maternal incest view of Genesis 9 is the most logically coherent view based on strictly what the text gives us and the parallel passages in scripture.
The expression to “uncover the nakedness” or to “see the nakedness” is idiomatic, in that it referred to having sexual relations with someone. This can be seen in Leviticus 20:11
“If there is a man who lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death, their bloodguiltiness is upon them” (New American Standard Bible: 1995)
More specifically uncovering the fathers nakedness is equated to having relations with his wife. Later on in the passage the phrase “see their nakedness” is used in parallel with this phrase demonstrating the possibility of it meaning the same thing.
Leviticus 20:17 “If there is a man who takes his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace; and they shall be cut off in the sight of the sons of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he bears his guilt.”
This parallel shows that the language of “seeing his nakedness” could very likely be idiomatic and suggests having sex with Noah’s wife.
The next piece of evidence that points towards more than voyeurism or Ham showing Canaan his fathers nakedness is the use of wine in the passage. Wine and vineyards are strongly associated with intercourse in Hebrew culture. Examples of the vineyard being a place of intercourse are Song of Psalms 1:2, 4;
2:4; 4:10; 5:1; 7:9; 8:2. Examples of wine and intercourse include the narrative of David and Bathsheba’s husband Uriah the Hittite, where David tries to convince Uriah to go home to “drink and sleep” with his wife. The presence of vineyard and wine language point towards a sexual nature of the offense and also parallel with the story of Lot and his daughters.
Lastly, this view gives the best explanation of the curse on Canaan. If Ham committed the offense, then why was Canaan cursed? This ties into a deeply rooted practice in ancient near eastern culture when trying to consolidate power. In order to take power, a son might sleep with his father’s wives. This was seen as raising up competitive “seed”. The son that was born from the mother (also her grandson…gross) would then become the child who in turn inherits the estate. Examples of this can be found with Rueben sleeping with his father’s concubine Bilhah, David being given Saul’s wives and concubines to consolidate his power, and Absalom publicly sleeping with David’s concubines when he tries to usurp his fathers power. So, when Ham has sex with his mother he is attempting to usurp his fathers power and give it to his son Canaan. This explains the curse of Canaan, as Noah declares that he will in fact be the servant of all the other brothers rather than ruling over them. This juxtaposition helps draw clarity to the intent of Ham.
January 23, 2019 at 11:09 pm /
Why does Noah curse Ca’naan then if it was Cham who committed the Sin. It doesn’t seem fair. The answer is of course not clear but since we know Noah wouldn’t be unfair, Cham’s son was clearly involved. I think it is unlikely that Cham would sleep with his own mother. I feel it is more likely that he allowed Ca’naan, who was a roudy youth, to see Noah naked and this immature fellow told the matter to others not immediately involved (Cham actually confessed to his brothers) and it came to be an embarrassment to Noah. It was appropriate for Cham to tell his brothers what happened, but not for Ca’naan to share to matter. Noah seems to have a special distaste for Ca’naan and I cannot attribute this just to the fact that Cham is his father.
January 24, 2019 at 1:47 pm /
IT does to me if Ca’ naan was born through Chams mother. That makes a whole lot of more sense to me.?
January 22, 2019 at 10:51 pm /
Makes me wonder about all the incest taking place this day and age. How angry God must be about it. Or was it extra bad because of the linage that this took place in. An attempt by Satan to mess up God’s plans?
January 23, 2019 at 11:12 pm /
I wasn’t aware that incest was any greater a problem in our day and age then before. In fact, there has been a growing taboo on marrying one’s own cousin, and many people associate this with being ‘white trash’ etc. Of course there is nothing wrong with marrying your cousin, per se, but wow that’s not popular to say.
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