Table of Contents
- Genesis 9:20-29: a later addition?
- Genesis 9:20–27 suddenly shifts to a personal, anecdotal style
- Chronological Flexibility in Genesis
- Wine and Vision in Ancient Traditions
- Recasting the Event as a Prophetic Vision
- Noah, an oracle or survivor
- Vision Through Altered State
- Building the Ark as a Symbolic Act
- Withdrawing from the Dream
- Parallels with Other “Awakened Witnesses”
- Ancestor of various peoples – Genesis continues Shem
- Read more
1And אֱלֹהִיםʼĕlôhîym · Strong’s H 430Plural of eloah: gods, or the supreme God; the plural form is used even when one being is meant.Read more blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
In Genesis 9:1, after the flood, God tells Noah and his sons: "Multiply and replenish the earth." "Replenish" implies doing it again, suggesting a prior civilization destroyed by the flood.
Similarly, in Genesis 1:28, God tells Adam and Eve: "Multiply and replenish the earth," implying recreation after desolation. Rabbinical works confirm this
Jordan Maxwell
2And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
3Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
4But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
5And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of humans; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of humans.
6Whoso shed humans's blood, by humans shall his blood be shed: for in the image of אֱלֹהִיםʼĕlôhîym · Strong’s H 430Plural of eloah: gods, or the supreme God; the plural form is used even when one being is meant.Read more made he humans.
7And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
8And אֱלֹהִיםʼĕlôhîym · Strong’s H 430Plural of eloah: gods, or the supreme God; the plural form is used even when one being is meant.Read more spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
9And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;
10And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.
11And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
12And אֱלֹהִיםʼĕlôhîym · Strong’s H 430Plural of eloah: gods, or the supreme God; the plural form is used even when one being is meant.Read more said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
13I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
14And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
15And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
16And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between אֱלֹהִיםʼĕlôhîym · Strong’s H 430Plural of eloah: gods, or the supreme God; the plural form is used even when one being is meant.Read more and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
17And אֱלֹהִיםʼĕlôhîym · Strong’s H 430Plural of eloah: gods, or the supreme God; the plural form is used even when one being is meant.Read more said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.
18And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.
19These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.
Genesis 9:20-29: a later addition?
Based on the writing style this part is likely a later addition:
20And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
21And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
22And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers without.
23And 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.
24And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.
25And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brothers.
26And he said, Blessed be Yahweh of Elohim of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
27אֱלֹהִיםʼĕlôhîym · Strong’s H 430Plural of eloah: gods, or the supreme God; the plural form is used even when one being is meant.Read more shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
This is recurring through the Genesis chapters:
28And Noah lived after the flood 350 years.
29And all the days of Noah were 955 years: and he died.
Genesis 9:20–27 suddenly shifts to a personal, anecdotal style
Genesis 9:20–27 suddenly shifts to a personal, anecdotal style. Here is why.
The passage jumps from the flood story to Noah’s vineyard and what follows. That jump has led scholars to look closely at where it came from and why it is there.
Genesis 9:20 calls Noah ish ha-adamah (אִישׁ הָאֲדָמָה), “man of the ground.” The phrase is unique. It is not used for Noah before this point. That suggests an editor added it, or that it comes from a different source.
The flood account has a structured, repetitive style. That style is typical of the Priestly source (P), which focuses on genealogies and covenants. The vineyard episode is more anecdotal and moralizing. That fits the Yahwist source (J), known for vivid storytelling and a human-like picture of God.
A vineyard needs several years before its grapes are good for wine. Yet the story has Noah plant a vineyard and get drunk soon after the flood. That raises a problem of timing. The compressed time may point to a separate tradition or a symbolic insertion, not a continuous historical account.
Noah’s curse falls on Canaan, Ham’s son, and not on Ham himself. This shift has led some to read the passage as an origin myth. In that reading it justifies the Israelites’ rule over the Canaanites.
The story may reflect real tension between Israel and Canaan. Issues of a later time would then be projected onto ancestral figures. That would give support to claims on land and to social rank.
The Genesis Apocryphon, part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, gives other versions of biblical stories. Its differences suggest that the canonical Genesis was edited over time. Different traditions and views were worked into it.
Greek and Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible, such as the Septuagint and Targum Onkelos, sometimes read the passage differently. They also stress different parts of it. This points to several traditions of interpretation.
The episode works as a warning. It shows what drunkenness and disrespect within a family can lead to. Ham’s act and the curse on Canaan bring up honor, shame and consequences that pass down the generations.
In the Bible, wine is often tied to joy and blessing. Here it becomes a source of disgrace. Human inventions can do good or harm, and moderation matters.
The style, the timing problems and the themes of Genesis 9:20–27 suggest that the passage came from a separate tradition. It may have been added to Genesis later to meet cultural and theological needs.
Its inner style and its historical setting point the same way. Genesis 9:20–27 was likely a separate tradition grafted onto the Noah story. It may have served a political or theological purpose in Israel’s early history.
Chronological Flexibility in Genesis
The Genesis story does not always run in a straight line. The text has loops in time and layered stories. One example is the two Creation accounts in Genesis 1 and 2. Genesis 9:20–27 does not clearly place the vineyard after the flood. Only the opening phrase does that: “Noah began to be a man of the soil.” That phrase can also be read loosely, as a description of who Noah was rather than a marker of sequence.
Wine and Vision in Ancient Traditions
Wine mixed with herbs or psychoactive plants was used in many rituals of the ancient Near East and the Mediterranean:
- The Hebrew text uses the verb vayyishta (וַיֵּשְׁתְּ), “he drank.” The context does not say what kind of wine it was. No detailed description is given.
- Ancient rituals sometimes used intoxicants to bring on altered states. This was above all true for prophets, priests and kings. The Hebrew Bible generally discourages such methods, but the idea exists in the cultures around it.
- Noah may have had a visionary trance while drunk. In that case the story could hold a prophetic insight that later editors misread or turned into a moral lesson.
Recasting the Event as a Prophetic Vision
The curse on Canaan could be a vision or oracle that Noah spoke in an altered state, rather than a punishment:
- The phrase “cursed be Canaan” (אָרוּר כְּנַעַן) has no divine command before it. Other curses in Genesis have one, such as the curse on the serpent in Gen. 3:14. Here the text gives no direct moral cause for cursing Canaan.
- This supports the idea that the statement is an oracle or a symbol, not a judgment.
Noah, an oracle or survivor
Vision Through Altered State
The wine episode could stand for a shift in consciousness instead of moral weakness.
Noah drinks. He lies uncovered, a symbol of the ego stripped away. He enters a trance-like state. In it he sees through time, backward to the origin and forward to the flood and the curse.
In ancient terms this would be called second sight. In modern metaphysical language it looks like a breakthrough from the matrix.
Building the Ark as a Symbolic Act
The ark may be a symbol as well as a physical vessel. It is like the Merkabah in Jewish mysticism: a way to pass safely through the collapse of illusion.
Building it might stand for inner preparation. The aim would be to stay conscious while everything else is “reset.”
Withdrawing from the Dream
After the event, Noah does not take part in the world again. He falls silent and drops out of the story. This suggests he has left the simulated plane. Or he has withdrawn to an in-between state, like Mahavatar Babaji or Utnapishtim.
His curse on Canaan may not be a judgment. It may be a fragment of vision he keeps from beyond linear time. It would come from seeing karma unfold.
Parallels with Other “Awakened Witnesses”
Babaji: Awakens beyond form, yet appears at will.
Krishna in the Gita: Tells Arjuna the world is maya and that the wise are not disturbed by death, birth, or destruction.
Yogic or Taoist sages: Enter altered states (samādhi, wu wei) and return changed. They know that the visible world is only energy in motion.
Ancestor of various peoples – Genesis continues Shem
According to the Bible, Shem was one of Noah’s three sons. He had several sons and became the ancestor of many peoples. Genesis 10:21-31 lists his descendants. Shem’s sons were:
- Elam: Elam was the father of the Elamites. They were an ancient civilization in what is now southwestern Iran.
- Asshur: Asshur is seen as the founder of the Assyrian people. Their ancient civilization was centered in Mesopotamia, mostly in what is now Iraq.
- Arphaxad: Arphaxad was an ancestor of several Semitic peoples. The Hebrews descend from him through Eber. According to the Bible, his line led to Abraham, the patriarch of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
- Lud: Lud is linked to the Ludim, an ancient people whose exact location is uncertain.
- Aram: Aram became the ancestor of the Arameans. This Semitic people settled in a region that includes modern Syria, Iraq and Turkey.
These genealogies are part of the Table of Nations in Genesis 10. The Table lists the descendants of Noah’s sons and the nations they became. Shem’s line matters in the Bible because it leads to the Israelites. It also leads to the covenant with God through Abraham and his descendants.
Arphaxad is next in line. He is the father of Shelah, and the bloodline goes all the way to Abraham.
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Part of: The Old Testament
