Someone asked the question:

“What was Ham’s sin when he saw Noah naked?”

This is an interesting question, and over the centuries, there had been various explanations. I’ll share the explanation that I find the most logical and most compatible with all the evidence, but keep in mind that not everyone agrees with this view.

Short answer

The short answer is: Ham committed incest, and Canaan (Ham’s son) is also Ham’s younger brother.

Long anwer

The question is part of today’s reading (3 Jan 2022), Gen 9, specifically the passage Gen 9:18–27. All Bible verses are quoted from the ESV. The rest of this page will give the more detailed answer.

Observations

We start with a few observations from the passage:

1. This incident happened after the flood.
2. Gen 9:18 Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, Japheth. Though we should know that this is not necessarily their birth order (as the Bible tells us just a few verses later in Gen 9:24), because quite often, the most important person is named first (Shem, in this case, because Shem’s descendants eventually leads to king David, then Jesus). Also, it seems to be a pattern throughout: the first-born is never chosen by God for carrying out his plan of salvation.
3. Everyone on earth, from after the flood until today (and beyond), were the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. This includes us! So in a sense, everyone on earth is related. We really are one big family!
4. Gen 9:20 Noah planted a vineyard. We should point out that this didn’t happen immediately after leaving the ark. It takes several years to cultivate a vineyard, so this incident happened a minimum of three to five years after the flood, probably longer.
5. Gen 9:21 From his vineyard, Noah produced wine, drank the wine, and got really drunk.
6. Gen 9:22 Ham “saw the nakedness of his father,” and told Shem and Japheth.
7. Gen 9:23 Shem and Japheth walked backwards into their father’s tent and “covered the nakedness of their father.” They didn’t “see their father’s nakedness.”
8. Gen 9:24 Noah found out “what his youngest son did.” From this, we now know that Ham is Noah’s youngest.
9. Gen 9:25 Noah placed a curse on Canaan (the son of Ham). Canaan will be “a servant of servants” to his brothers.
10. Gen 9:26–27 Similarly, Noah blessed his other two sons Shem and Japheth.
11. The narrator emphasised Ham is the father of Canaan (at Gen 9:18b and Gen 9:22). It’s like he won’t let us forget where Canaan came from. We also should know that the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses, what we have in our Bibles as the first five books from Genesis to Deuteronomy) was written for the generation that left Egypt and eventually settled in Canaan (as described in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua). The people living in Canaan were, of course, Canaanites, who were the descendants of Ham’s son Canaan. So the narrator is telling the Israelites that when you go into Canaan and encounter all thse people, you should know that they are the descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham, the grandson of Noah.

There are several other questions that we can ask as well:

1. What exactly did Ham do that so upset his father (Gen 9:24)?
2. Ham was the one who sinned, so why didn’t Noah curse Ham, but instead cursed Ham’s son Canaan?
3. Whatever Ham did, it didn’t seem to be very proper or acceptable. Why did he share that with his brothers?
4. Why did Ham do what he did? What’s his reason?
5. Why the repeated reminder that Ham is Canaan’s father?

Understanding the passage

Most of this passage is fairly easy to understand, but we need to know what “saw the nakedness” means, because it doesn’t mean what we think it means; the phrase is actually an euphemism for something else.

Two passages from Leviticus help us understand what “saw the nakedness” means.

Lev 18:6ff (“ff” means 18:6 and the following verses) The whole of Lev 18 is about unlawful sexual relations. In Lev 18:3, God tells the Israelites that they “must not do as they do in the land of Egypt where you have been living, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan into which I am about to bring you.” What do the people of Egypt and Canaan do? They practice sexual relations that God forbids. These relations are listed starting at Lev 18:6, and there we see a whole pile of “uncover nakedness.” Specifically, “uncovering the nakedness of your father” is refering to the “nakedness of your mother,” etc.

Lev 20:17 This verse tells us that “seeing someone naked” and “uncovering someone’s nakedness” both mean the same thing. The start of this verse tells us what this thing is: “takes his sister”, i.e., have sexual relations with his sister (whether she’s the daughter of his father or mother).

Lev 20:20–21 Further down in Lev 20:20, it tells us that if a man has sexual relations with his uncle’s wife, he has “uncovered his uncle’s nakedness.” And similarly in Lev 20:21, if a man takes his brother’s wife, he has “uncovered his brother’s nakedness.” Note that in both cases, it’s not the woman’s nakedness that was uncovered, but the corresponding man’s nakedness (either the uncle or the brother). So this also implies that when a man uncovers another man’s nakedness, it does not mean they had homosexual relationship with each other. Rather, it means the man who did the uncovering had heterosexual relations with the other man’s wife (either aunt or sister in-law, in this case).

From all these verses, we see that uncovering the nakedness of someone and seeing the nakedness of someone mean the same thing: to have sexual relations. Furthermore, uncovering the nakedness of a close relative (uncle, brother) means having sexual relations with that relative’s wife.

Ham, Canaan, and the curse

So from all this, we can deduce that this is what Ham did: he had sexual relations with his mother (he “saw his father’s nakedness”). This is, of course, incest, and forbidden by God.

We can go one step further, and say that Canaan is the result of this incest. I.e., Ham’s son Canaan is Ham’s younger brother, because Ham and Canaan had the same mother. This explains why Noah cursed Canaan, because Canaan is the product of a very improper relationship between his son Ham and Noah’s wife.

There might also be another reason for the curse, and this might tie in with why Ham did this thing, and why he shared it with his brothers. In OT days, to take over leadership of a family or a country, you “possess” that person’s wife (or wives). We see this in Gen 35:22 (Jacob’s son Reuben “went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine”), where Reuben wanted to assert his authority as the first-born. Another example is king David’s son Absalom, who publicly had sexual relations with king David’s concubines to show that he is now taking over from David and is in control (2 Sam 16:20–23). King David himself took all of Saul’s concubines when he became king (2 Sam 12:8).

Maybe Ham wanted to assert himself as the family clan’s leader (remember that Ham is the youngest, so he would likely not become the family’s leader). By sleeping with his father’s wife, he is forcing a takeover of the family’s leadership. This is why he told his brothers, because he wanted them to know that he is now the boss.

When Noah found out what Ham did, and realised that Canaan (born from his wife) is fathered by Ham, he cursed Canaan, to ensure that Ham, and Ham’s son Canaan, will not take over the family’s leadership.

When Ham’s brother heard what Ham did, they went backwards into the tent to cover up their mother (“covered the nakedness of their father.”) They didn’t approve of what Ham did. Maybe they even told their father, and that’s how Noah found out about the incident and about Canaan. I.e., Noah realised that his wife is pregnant not by himself, but by his own son Ham.

One final thing: why the repeated emphasis to say Ham is the father of Canaan? Probably because Ham had four sons: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan (see Gen 10:6). Canaan is likely the youngest, and all the sons were born after the flood. Cush is the ancestor of the country known to the ancient Greeks as Ethiopia (southern Egypt), Egypt is obvious, Put is the ancestor of Libya and neighbouring areas, and finally, Canaan is basically the promised land. The narrator is telling his readers that the place you left (Egypt), and the place where God is bringing you to (Canaan) are both inhabitted by Ham’s descendants, and they both practice sexual relations that are detestable to God. Don’t be like them!

Things to learn

There are many strange incidents in the Bible, some of which we cannot really explain. We trust the Bible as the word of God, and since we are not God, it’s not surprising that some of his words might not be understandable to us. It’s the height of pride to say that we must understand everything in the Bible.

This incident with Ham, especially the curse on Canaan, was (and probably still is) used by many (even many Christians) to justify racism and slavery, especially towards people of African descent. This is because they wilfully misread the Bible. Their rationale is that the Africans are Ham’s descendants (Cush, Egypt, Put, all located in Africa), and since Ham is cursed and is to be servants of Shem and Japheth, it’s perfectly fine to see Africans as servants and slaves (not just servants, but servants of servants as seen in Gen 9:25). What they seem to have conveniently missed is that it was Canaan who was cursed, not Ham. Of course, many racist people just turn a blind eye to this inconvenient fact.

---

References

Here are some books and papers that advocate the view expressed above.

Bergsma, John Sietze, and Scott Hahn. “Noah’s Nakedness and the Curse on Canaan (Genesis 9:20-27).” Journal of Biblical Literature 124, no. 1 (2005): 25–40.

Heiser, Michael S. “Uncovering the Curse of Canaan. (I Dare You Not to Bore Me with the Bible).” Bible Study Magazine 11, no. 4 (May 1, 2019): 8–9.

There are many others, of course, and there are also many that advocate other explanations. An example is the NAC (New American Commentary), which suggested that Ham showed disrespect to his father Noah, not just in seeing Noah literally drunk and naked in the tent, but in Ham’s “outspoken delight at his father’s disgraceful condition.” (p. 419)

Mathews, K. A. Genesis 1-11:26. Vol. 1A. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996.

查考以赛亚 54:1 的时候，有人问这个问题：

我有点糊涂，哪个是肉体生的，哪个是生灵生的，谁多？

加拉太书4章有解释，但是还不清晰。

以赛亚 54:1–10 提到一个不怀孕（54:1），被丈夫丢弃的（丈夫与她离婚了）的妇人。这个妇人就是以色列。神以前离弃以色列，因为她一直不守约。可是现在她可以扬声欢呼，她可以扩张她帐幕之地（因为孩子多了，需要大一点的帐棚），她会向左右发展，她的后裔必得多国为业。怎么会这样了？她有什么改变吗？她不是与以前一样的坏吗？原因不是因为她作了什么，而是因为神的仆人所成就的，在前面一段的《仆人之歌》，以赛亚 52:13–53:12（第四段仆人歌；其他三个《仆人之歌》是 42:1–4；49:1–6；50:4–9）。上帝的仆人所做的让以色列这个曾经被丢弃的妇人能够从新回到上帝面前。他们只要信靠上帝，就可以得到这个恩典。今天，在十字架的“这边”，我们知道这个仆人就是主耶稣，他成就了救赎。我们这些外邦人，本来与上帝没有关系的，现在也可以扬声欢呼，因为我们信靠耶稣基督，我们就变为神的儿女，与以色列一样。

你的问题，“哪个是肉体生的，哪个是圣灵生的？”，大概是来自加拉太书 4:27。保罗在这里应用了以赛亚 54:1，可是保罗应用的方法有点奇怪。

我们一般都认为保罗在讲夏甲的儿子与撒拉的儿子。若我们说撒拉就是以赛亚写的不怀孕的妇女，就有点勉强，因为撒拉本来是不生育，可是后来有生养。若说夏甲是那结婚的妇女，那也是有问题，因为夏甲是亚伯拉罕的妾，不是他的妻子。我们要注意的是在加拉太 4:21–31，保罗从来没有直接提到撒拉（他有直接提夏甲）。保罗不是说撒拉是我们的母亲，而是天上的耶路撒冷 “是我们的母”（4:26）。从这里就可以意思到保罗不是要比较夏甲与撒拉，而是要比较在地上与天上的耶路撒冷。可是这与以赛亚 54:1 有什么关系呢？这与撒拉与夏甲，以撒与以实玛利，行割礼或靠信心，有什么关系呢？

我们先看看加拉太书 4:21–31 提到的话题。从第 22 节开始，保罗就一直比较亚伯拉罕的两个儿子，一个是使女生的，一个是自主之妇人生的。我们可以做这个表格：

对犹太人来说，这是一个极大的冲击，因为他们一直都认为犹太人是来自以撒，外邦人是以实玛利的后裔，是没有律法（西奈山），耶路撒冷不是他们的城市。现在保罗说西奈山的律法是奴仆，不是自主的。现在的耶路撒冷也是属于奴仆的，而这些都归在奴仆之下。不单这样，他们排斥的那些外邦人（所有因信称义的，不单是外邦人，可是这里的问题是外邦人需不需要守犹太人的律法）是归在自主的后裔，锡安山是他们的。在加拉太书4:31保罗就说 “我们不是使女的儿女，乃是自主妇人的儿女了。” 这里的 “我们” 就是所有信靠耶稣基督的，不管是犹太人（行割礼的，守律法的）或外邦人（没有行割礼的）。

在 4:27 保罗就应用以赛亚 54:1，来证明与保罗一起的加拉太信徒有天上的耶路撒冷为他们的母亲。保罗怎么可以这样应用呢？其实保罗是跟着以赛亚的做法。看看以赛亚 51:1–2：

“你们这追求公义、
寻求耶和华的，当听我言！
你们要追想被凿而出的磐石，
被挖而出的岩穴。
要追想你们的祖宗亚伯拉罕
和生养你们的撒拉；
因为亚伯拉罕独自一人的时候，
我选召他，赐福与他，
使他人数增多。”

除了创世纪，这是唯一的一段旧约经文有提到撒拉。撒拉本来只是以撒的母亲，现在变为 “生养你们的撒拉”。这个 “你们” 是谁？就是在 51:1 的 “追求公义，寻求耶和华的”。以赛亚把撒拉的故事从生养一个儿子，变为生养一各民族。保罗就继续了同样的想法，现在把自主的妇女变为天上的耶路撒冷。现在这个撒拉不单只是以色列民族的母亲，她也是所有追求公义，寻求耶和华的基督徒，就是说包括外邦人。保罗的看法就是天上的耶路撒冷不是现在（在地上）的耶路撒冷，因为所有信靠耶稣基督的，不管是犹太人或外邦人，不管有没有行割礼，都属于天上的耶路撒冷。

以前以实玛利迫害以撒，现在一样的，那些律法主义的（他们认为外邦人需要行割礼才能成为基督徒）在迫害那些因信耶稣基督称义的（加拉太书 2:16）。所以保罗说要把使女和她的儿子赶出去（加拉太书 4:30）。这就是说加拉太教会应该把那些律法主义的赶出去！

在加拉太书这段保罗的主题就是：若天上的耶路撒冷是我们的母亲，那干嘛还要回去做地上的耶路撒冷的奴仆，一个已经被上帝弃绝的耶路撒冷？

---

References

Silva, Moisés. 2007. “Galatians.” In Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, 785–810. Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, UK: Baker Academic; Apollos.

Wilkin, Robert N. 2010. “The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Galatians.” In The Grace New Testament Commentary, edited by Robert N. Wilkin. Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society.