I have been reading a book that suggests Noah's curse on Ham in Genesis 9 was because Ham committed maternal incest, and that Canaan is actually Noah's wife's child. This makes sense to me, since his curse is directed towards Canaan rather than Ham. What is your view of the theory, or do you have another view as to why he got so angry simply because his son saw him naked? -- Trish Stringer

Well, I've never heard this explanation before! In the Old Testament blessings (and curses) were often directed towards the offspring of the person in (or out of) favor with the one doing the blessing. A man's future depended on his offspring. Their future was his future!

One problem with the incest theory is that Canaan hadn't yet been born -- if Noah had just awakened from his stupor and learned of Ham's perverse act. (At least that's the way the text seems to read at face value.) Another problem is the lack of any reference to Mrs. Noah anywhere in the account. The greatest problem, though, is that Genesis in chapter 9 is tracing the origins of the Canaanites -- the enemies of Israel in later times, for example in the time that the book of Genesis was finalized. Canaan is the ancestor of the Canaanites, even more than Ham. (With multiple wives -- being as common as they were in patriarchal times -- and multiple children, most of the descendants of Ham would not have been Canaanites at all.)

Incest -- or any illicit action, for that matter -- would not have been necessary to bring Noah to anger. (Think about it!) The point may not at all have been that Ham saw something he shouldn't have. How did Ham tell his brothers about what he'd seen? Did he enjoy what he saw? Did he invite them into the tent to have a look?

At any rate, the curse fell where it was likely to fall: on the family of the sinner. (We see a similar scenario in connection with Achan's sin, In Joshua 7. Even in the law, the Lord says he will visit the sins of the fathers onto the children for three or four generations. In other words, what we read of in Genesis 9 is "par for the course" in the Old Testament.

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