Table of Contents
Ham (Hebrew חָם, Ḥām; Greek Χαμ, Kham) is one of the three sons of Noah in the Book of Genesis, with his brothers Shem and Japheth; see Noah’s family.
The sons of Ham
And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.
Genesis 10:6, KJV
The name Cush may come from Kash, the Egyptian name for Upper Nubia; see the Cushites. Mizraim is the Hebrew and Aramaic name for Egypt. The Bible uses Put, or Phut, for ancient Libya, though some scholars link it to the Land of Punt in Egyptian records. The descendants of Canaan are said to have populated the region later known as Canaan, covering parts of modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria; see the Canaanites. Josephus and others read Ham’s descendants as the peoples of Africa, and the Psalms call Egypt “the land of Ham” (Psalm 105:23, KJV).
Noah’s Tent
After the flood Noah planted a vineyard, “drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent” (Genesis 9:21, KJV).
What Ham saw
And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
Genesis 9:22, KJV
Shem and Japheth “took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father” without seeing him (Genesis 9:23, KJV). When Noah woke and “knew what his younger son had done unto him” (Genesis 9:24, KJV), he cursed Ham’s son, not Ham.
The curse on Canaan
And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
Genesis 9:25, KJV
The “Curse of Ham”
Why Noah cursed Canaan when Ham had sinned has been argued over for more than 2,000 years. Biblical scholar Nahum Sarna names this as the hardest question in the story. Some scholars suggest the tale first served to justify Israel’s rule over the Canaanites. Later, some people claimed the “Curse of Ham” as a biblical warrant for slavery and racial discrimination against Black people. Scholars such as David Goldenberg reject that reading as a misconception, and Martin Luther King Jr., in his sermon “Paul’s Letter to American Christians,” called it a “blasphemy” that “is against everything that the Christian religion stands for.”
Some versions of the claim traced African peoples to Ham through Canaan. Daniel Heimbach of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary points out that the curse fell on Canaan, and that Africans would descend from Ham’s sons Cush, Mizraim and Put rather than from Canaan.
