bibleresources.americanbible.org Open in urlscan Pro
52.7.77.54  Public Scan

Form analysis
3 forms found in the DOM

<form class="subscribe-form">
  <input type="hidden" name="list" value="engagers">
  <input type="hidden" name="group[]" value="Bible Resources">
  <input type="email" required="" name="email" id="email_signup" placeholder="Enter your email address">
  <input id="update_list" name="group[]" value="Bible Engagers" type="checkbox" checked="checked"><label for="update_list">Also receive Bible-reading tips, tools and resources.</label>
  <input type="hidden" name="channel" value="resources">
  <input type="hidden" name="medium" value="boilerplate">
  <input type="submit" class="button subscribe-submit" value="Subscribe Now">
</form>

POST https://bibleresources.americanbible.org/

<form class="search_form" method="post" action="https://bibleresources.americanbible.org/">
  <div class="hiddenFields">
    <input type="hidden" name="ACT" value="20">
    <input type="hidden" name="RES" value="10">
    <input type="hidden" name="meta"
      value="l91OhUku/RYkJveytBMpshgPiCWo4T/0TywuO6RK/HyVb/hQNZpuy3aEirDQc3JWjUA5BsKB040gu44Dewcww3+W2RU9/UuUKFM32znhsFfapuISBcve56VmjaVsP4iVNNfsMTeB1Lhfitz56Nwxt3p674N5z1DR5PqixOtaC1e/0R0U3qrVL+w6Yb+oUrLA3xGmXBK6tYg4AalasvVUOtGivhS1y9o8Qus3m+rJwE2Jnj8p5UPXUH5HIMXhJHn/AVgmf//Ka+GPnSlpMbOgX1HjYfILoHd9PTdfZstDQbywKzhzeHZTGc2JOd69FKa3j4YA6h7r9FtPMZhe4SL3tBqf7BMNClbukBXrlylYJivOrfG4ipsKg/srxCkB/uj5">
    <input type="hidden" name="site_id" value="1">
    <input type="hidden" name="csrf_token" value="b08e227d2b4264b45a66f1a92dbd5034e702fe65">
  </div>
  <div class="row search">
    <div class="small-12 columns">
      <div class="row collapse">
        <div class="large-8 columns">
          <input type="text" name="keywords" placeholder="search the site">
        </div>
        <div class="large-4 columns">
          <input type="submit" value="search">
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</form>

<form>
  <input type="email" required="" name="email" id="email_signup" placeholder="Enter your email address">
  <input id="update_list" name="group[]" value="Bible Engagers" type="checkbox" checked="checked"><label for="update_list">Also receive Bible-reading tips, tools and resources.</label>
  <input type="hidden" name="list[]" value="engagers">
  <input type="hidden" name="group[]" value="Bible Resources">
  <input type="hidden" name="channel" value="resources">
  <input type="hidden" name="medium" value="popup">
  <input type="submit" class="button" value="Subscribe Now">
</form>

Text Content

Subscribe Financial Accountability Language En Es



 * NAVIGATION

 * 

 * Resources Home
 * Browse Resources
 * Browse by Audience
   
   * BACK
   
   * Browse by Audience
   * Individuals
   * Small Groups
   * Church Leaders
   * Adults
   * Teens and Youth
   * Children
 * Browse by Format
   
   * BACK
   
   * Browse by Format
   * Web
   * PDF
   * Email
   * SMS
 * Language:
   En Es


All Resources » Categories: People Groups,About the Bible,Old
Testament,Genesis,Articles for Laypeople,Racism,Black History Month,Martin
Luther King, Jr. Day,Adult,Youth,Individuals,Small Group Leaders

THE ALLEGED CURSE ON HAM

Audience: Adult Youth Individuals Small Group Leaders Format: Web Author: Gene
Rice

Genesis 9:18–29 has been popularly understood to mean that Ham was cursed, and
this understanding has often been used to justify oppression of African people,
the descendants of Ham. In this view Ham offended his father, Noah, and because
of this his descendants are also cursed, and Ham is presented as the father of
African people. 

The text does give the impression that Ham was cursed, but a more careful
reading of the passage reveals that this is not so. In fact, Canaan was the
offender and the one cursed.


TWO VERSIONS OF NOAH'S FAMILY

Confusion has arisen because Genesis is not a book in the modern sense, but an
editorial synthesis of different traditions of Noah's family. The recognition of
the composite nature of Genesis provides the key to understanding of Genesis
9:18–29. As there are two versions of creation (Genesis 1:1–2:4a and 2:4b–25),
and two genealogies of humankind before the flood (Genesis 4:17–26; 5:1–32), so
there are two versions of Noah's family. In Genesis 9, verses 18 and 19
represent one tradition; verses 20–27 embody another.

Verses 18–19 reflect the view that the (married) sons of Noah were Shem, Ham,
and Japheth and that they were the ancestors of all the peoples of the biblical
world. In 9:20–27, on the other hand, the (apparently unmarried) sons of Noah
are Shem, Japheth, and Canaan. In this version of Noah's sons the one cursed is
Canaan, and the purpose of these verses is to account for relations between
Israelites, Canaanites, and Philistines in the land of Canaan. This tradition of
Noah's sons seems also to be reflected in Genesis 10:21 where Shem is referred
to as the elder brother of Japheth.

The popular understanding of Genesis 9:18–29 is so confused because the Hebrew
text at an early stage of its transmission had been edited to harmonize the two
traditions of Noah's sons. This was done by adding the note in 9:18b with regard
to Ham being the father of Canaan. The concern of 9:18–19 is to establish that
Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and only these three, were the forebears of all the
peoples of the biblical world. The note that explains Ham's relationship to
Canaan in 9:18b introduces a new and unrelated subject. And this note is made
conspicuous as an addition by the absence of similar information about Shem and
Japheth.

It is understandable that someone confronted by the two traditions of Noah's
family in Genesis 9:18–29 would attempt to harmonize them. The authority for the
editorial addition in 9:18b is Genesis 10:6, where it is stated that Ham indeed
was the father of Canaan. However, the author of these editorial notes overlooks
the fact that in Genesis 9:24–25 Noah is the father of Canaan.

The recognition that there are two traditions of Noah's sons in Genesis 9:18-29
opens the way to a correct interpretation of the passage. The only basis for
identifying Ham as the offender is the note in 9:18b. When it is understood that
this note was not a part of the original narrative but a later editorial
addition to the text, the offender as well as the one cursed is Canaan. Ham was
not the one cursed because in Genesis 9:1 God blessed Ham and his brothers. As
Balaam could not curse Israel whom God had blessed (Numbers 22:12; 23:8), so
Noah could not have cursed Ham, whom God had blessed. There is the additional
awkwardness that Ham is consistently referred to as Noah's middle son, but the
one cursed is identified as Noah's youngest son.


THE DESCENDANTS OF NOAH

Genesis 10 contains a list of the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. If
there were any negative thoughts and feelings toward Ham and his descendants,
this passage, following immediately on Noah's curse and blessing, would have
been the place to express them. But no disparaging remark is made about anyone.
Rather, all the descendants of Noah are listed as related to one another as
brothers and sisters. The point of Genesis 10 is that humankind is conceived as
a unity, and the diversity of peoples with "their own languages, tribes, and
land" (vv. 5, 20, 31, CEV) is understood as the fulfillment of God's command to
Noah and his sons to be fruitful and to multiply, and to fill the earth (Genesis
9:1,7). As God inspected the creation in Genesis 1 and declared it to correspond
exactly to divine intention—that it is good—so Genesis 10 implies that humankind
in all its ethnic and racial manifestations corresponds to God's intention and
is good.

Abraham had no reservations about going to Egypt, the land of Ham (Psalms 78:51;
105:23, 27; 106:22) when there was a famine in Canaan (Genesis 12:10–20). Nor
did Abraham and Sarah have any qualms about using Hagar, an Egyptian, as a
surrogate mother so they could have an heir (Genesis 16). Moses was married to a
Cushite (the Hebrew word for the peoples living south of Egypt whom the Greeks
called Ethiopians, a word meaning literally, "burnt faces"), and while Miriam
and Aaron spoke out against her, the context shows that they were really
protesting Moses' exclusive authority to speak for God (Numbers 12). Moses
accepted instruction from his Cushite father-in-law, Jethro, in the
administration of justice with the Israelites (Exodus 18:13–27). And, the
prophet Amos likens Israel to the Ethiopians to make the point that the distant
and different Ethiopians were just as near and dear to God as the covenant
people (Amos 9:7, 8a).


NO BASIS FOR A CURSE ON HAM

However one reads Genesis 9:18–29, it is clear that there is no basis for a
curse on Ham in this passage. The curse is on Canaan, and it is because of
behavior, not race. The passage is concerned with political relationships
between the Israelites, the Canaanites, and the Philistines in Canaan in the
10th century B.C., not with Africans.

The consequences of the popular misunderstanding and abuse of Genesis 9:18–29
illustrates what a responsibility it is to rightly interpret Scripture. The
erroneous idea that there is a curse on Ham and thus somehow on Africans is not
the fault of the Bible. At the least, it is poor exegesis and reflects lack of
knowledge of biblical scholarship. Used in a racist sense, this erroneous idea
is a reminder of the ingenuity and perversity with which humans find ways to
justify their sin to themselves and to others. 

The erroneous idea of a curse on Ham stands in violent conflict with the
theological heartbeat of the Bible that we are all sons and daughters of God,
that we are all related to one another as members of a family, that each of us,
whatever our race, ethnicity, and nationality, is special and precious to God,
and that we were created for companionship with God—and fellowship with one
another.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This article is adapted from an article written by Dr. Gene Rice in the African
American Jubilee Bible (American Bible Society 1999). Dr. Rice is Professor of
Old Testament Language and Literature at the Howard University School of
Divinity in Washington. D.C.

Thanks to the support of our faithful financial partners, American Bible Society
has been engaging people with the life-changing message of God’s Word for nearly
200 years.

Help us share God's Word where needed most.

Give Now

Sign up to receive regular email updates from the Bible Resource Center.

Also receive Bible-reading tips, tools and resources.


RELATED RESOURCES

EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES

Audience: Adult Small Group Leaders Individuals Youth Format: Web



Egypt was a key player in the Ancient Near East for thousands of years, but the
power structure within Egypt was constantly changing. Check out this brief
overview of over 3,000 years of Egyptian dynasties.



Read More »

ANCIENT ISRAELITES AND THE GREAT FLOOD

Audience: Adult Youth Small Group Leaders Individuals Church Leaders Format: Web



The story of Noah and the Great Flood conjures images of a cartoon ark bobbing
in blue seas. Yet a flood the magnitude of the one described in the Biblical
text would more closely resemble total devastation on a massive scale. How did
this story become a part of the canon of the Ancient Israelites, and how can it
help us better understand God?



Read More »

ANCIENT ISRAELITES AND CREATION STORIES

Audience: Adult Youth Small Group Leaders Individuals Church Leaders Format: Web



The Bible offers stories on how God created the world. Yet in the beginning,
“the earth was barren, with no form of life,” and “there was no one to work the
land”. If no people were there to witness the events of creation, how did the
Biblical writers know what happened?



Read More »

Today's Verse

1 KINGS 8:57, 58A

Good News Translation

“May the LORD our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never
leave us or abandon us; may he make us obedient to him, so that we will always
live as he wants us to live.”

Get the Bible in Your Inbox Daily

 * Home
 * Privacy Policy
 * Copyrights

 * Terms and Conditions
 * Contact Us
 * Financial Accountability

American Bible Society is a 501 (c) (3) non profit organization.
All donations are tax deductible in full or in part.



QUICK STARTS

 * Explore our Bible Resources for individuals and groups.
 * Engage with Scripture online on our Bible Blog.
 * Give the gift of God's Word.
 * Learn More about American Bible Society.

Combined Federal Campaign #10160

American Bible Society is a Combined Federal Campaign participant. Find out if
your employer will match, double or triple your donations.

A LITTLE ABOUT AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY

Our mission is to make the Bible available to every person in a language and
format each can understand and afford, so all people may experience its
life-changing message.

 * 
 * 

© 2024 American Bible Society, All Rights Reserved.
101 North Independence Mall East FL8
Philadelphia, PA 19106-2155
Phone: 215.309.0900 | Fax: 215.689.4308

×

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Sign up for regular email updates from the Bible Resource Center.

Also receive Bible-reading tips, tools and resources.