Curse of Ham / Canaan

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Curse of Ham / Canaan

A drunken ‘perfect man who walks with God’ curses his grandson (Canaan) because his son (Ham) saw him naked.

Genesis 9:

20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.
24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.
25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
26 And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

According to the tale Noah gets drunk, lies about naked, and is seen naked by a son (oh horror of it all) and then curses a grandson to be a servant.

Note: This tale was used for many centuries as justification of slavery and/or subjugation of black people.

An interesting Wikipedia article with many references
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_Ham

If anyone were ‘cursed’, shouldn’t it be the drunken Noah? What did Canaan have to do with the matter?

Wait a minute: A drunken Noah seems less than ‘perfect’ as he was described in Genesis 6:9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

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Wait a minute: A drunken Noah seems less than ‘perfect’ as he was described in Genesis 6:9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

Interestingly other translation says it this way:

This is the history of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.
Genesis 6:9

First thing that is good to notice is, Noah was “perfect� in among the people of his time. I understand it means, in comparison to the others Noah was “perfect�. But if even Noah was not very good, it means the others were really bad. And it was said before the flood. Maybe Noah became less “perfect� after flood? I don’t know enough details to judge Noah.

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Wait a minute: A drunken Noah seems less than ‘perfect’ as he was described in Genesis 6:9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

Interestingly other translation says it this way:

This is the history of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.
Genesis 6:9

Right. If one translation doesn’t say it they way you want, find another translation that seems to fit better. If that isn’t good enough, re-define words.

Let’s play word games with ‘blameless’. A common use dictionary definition:

Blameless - free of guilt; not subject to blame; "has lived a blameless life"; "of irreproachable character"; "an unimpeachable reputation". inculpable, irreproachable, unimpeachable. clean-handed, guiltless, innocent - free from evil or guilt; www.thefreedictionary.com/blameless

First thing that is good to notice is, Noah was “perfect� in among the people of his time. I understand it means, in comparison to the others Noah was “perfect�. But if even Noah was not very good, it means the others were really bad.

If so, ‘perfect’ was a very poor word choice by Bible writers.

Isn’t the Bible supposedly ‘The word of God’ (or at least ‘inspired by God or the HS)?

And it was said before the flood. Maybe Noah became less “perfect� after flood? I don’t know enough details to judge Noah.

Do you know enough about the rest of humanity at the time in order to judge them as ‘really bad’ or deserving of death?

Is it difficult to come up with enough excuses?