Ham, son of Noah

And Noah the husbandman began, and planted a vineyard

Vineyard

A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture....
. And he drank of the wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage often made of fermentation grape juice. The natural chemical balance of grapes is such that they can ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes or other nutrients....
, and was drunken

Drunkenness

Drunkenness or inebriation is the state of being intoxicated by consumption of alcoholic beverages to a degree that mental and physical faculties are noticeably impaired and/or skewed....
; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan

Canaan

Canaan is an ancient term for a region encompassing modern-day Israel and Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, plus adjoining coastal lands and parts of Jordan, Syria and northeastern Egypt....
, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.

And 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.

And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done unto him.

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Encyclopedia

Ham ( ; Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 ?aµ , Cham ; Arabic: , , "hot"), according to the Table of Nations in the Book of Genesis, was a son of Noah

Noah

Noah was, according to the Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs ; and a prophet according to the Qur'an. The biblical story of Noah is contained in the book of Book of Genesis, chapters 5-9, while the Qur'an has a whole sura named after and devoted to his story with other references elsewhere....
 and the father of Cush, Mizraim

Mizraim

Mizraim is the Hebrew language name for the land of Egypt, with the dual suffix -ayim, perhaps referring to the "two Egypts": Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt....
, Phut

Phut

Phut or Put is the third son of Ham, son of Noah , in the biblical Genealogies of Genesis#Table of Nations .Put is associated with Ancient Libya by many early writers....
, and Canaan.

Ham in the Bible

The story of Ham is related in

And Noah the husbandman began, and planted a vineyard

Vineyard

A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture....
. And he drank of the wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage often made of fermentation grape juice. The natural chemical balance of grapes is such that they can ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes or other nutrients....
, and was drunken

Drunkenness

Drunkenness or inebriation is the state of being intoxicated by consumption of alcoholic beverages to a degree that mental and physical faculties are noticeably impaired and/or skewed....
; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan

Canaan

Canaan is an ancient term for a region encompassing modern-day Israel and Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, plus adjoining coastal lands and parts of Jordan, Syria and northeastern Egypt....
, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.

And 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.

And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done unto him. And he said: Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said: Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem

Shem

Shem was one of the sons of Noah in the Bible. He is most popularly regarded as the eldest son, though some traditions regard him as the second son....
; and let Canaan be their servant. God enlarge Japheth

Japheth

Japheth is one of the sons of Noah in the Bible. In Arabic language citations, his name is normally given as Yafeth ibn Nuh ....
, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be their servant..

Curse of Ham

The extent of the significance of this passage is debated, but the simplest interpretation considers uncovering the nakedness of his father to be a great taboo

Taboo

A taboo is a strong social prohibition against words, objects, actions, or discussions that are considered undesirable or offensive by a group, culture, society, or community....
, and the inaction of Ham who chose instead to publicize and perhaps make light of the situation, to be what led Noah to curse Ham's youngest son, whereas Ham's brothers were blessed for their attempt to preserve their father's dignity.

The Talmud

Talmud

The Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Halakha, Jewish ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
 deduces two possible explanations (attributed to Rab and Rabbi Samuel) for what Ham did to Noah to warrant the curse. (Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 70a.) According to one explanation, Ham castrated

Castration

Castration is any action, surgery, chemical castration, or otherwise, by which a male loses the functions of the testicles. In common usage the term is usually applied to males, although as a medical term it is applied to both males and females....
 Noah, while the other says that Ham sodomized Noah. The textual argument for castration is as follows: Since Noah cursed Ham by his fourth son Canaan, Ham must have injured Noah with respect to a fourth son, by emasculating him, thus depriving Noah of the possibility of a fourth son. The argument for sodomization from the text draws an analogy between “and he saw” written in two places in the Bible: With regard to Ham and Noah, it is written, “And Ham the father of Canaan saw the nakedness of his father (Noah)”; while in it is written, “And when Shechem the son of Hamor saw her (Dinah

Dinah

According to the Hebrew Bible, Dinah was the daughter of Jacob, one of the patriarchs of the Israelites and Leah, his first wife. The episode of her abduction and violation by a Canaanite prince, and the subsequent vengeance of her brothers Simeon and Levi, commonly referred to as "The Rape of Dinah", is told in ....
), he took her and lay with her and defiled her.” Thus this speculation deduces that similar abuse must have happened each time that the Bible uses the same language.

This "curse of Canaan" by Noah was likely connected to the conquest of Canaan by Israel

Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
. Both the conquest of Canaan and the curse, according to the Book of Jubilees

Jubilees

The Book of Jubilees , sometimes called the Lesser Genesis , is an ancient Jewish religious work, considered one of the Pseudepigrapha by most Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Christians....
 10:29-34, are attributed, rather, to Canaan's steadfast refusal to join his elder brothers in Ham's allotment beyond the Nile

Nile

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the List of rivers by length in the world.The Nile has two major tributary, the White Nile and Blue Nile, the latter being the source of most of the Nile's water and silt, but the former being the longer of the two....
, and instead "squatting" within the inheritance of Shem, on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, in the region later promised to Abraham.

The existence of Ham

Traditionally, it is held that Ham was one of the sons of Noah

Sons of Noah

The Table of Nations or Sons of Noah is an extensive list of descendants of Noah appearing within the Torah at Genesis 10, representing an ethnology from an Iron Age Levantine perspective and its reflections in the medieval and modern history and genealogy researches....
 who moved southwest into Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
 and parts of the near Middle East

Middle East

File:GreaterMiddleEast1.pngThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, western Asia, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East....
, and was the forefather of the nations there. The Bible refers to Egypt

Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
 as "the land of Ham" in (Psalms

Psalms

Psalms is a book of the Hebrew Bible , included in the collected works known as the "Writings" or Ketuvim....
 78:51; 105:23,27; 106:22; 1Ch 4:40). The Hebrew word for Egypt was Mizraim

Mizraim

Mizraim is the Hebrew language name for the land of Egypt, with the dual suffix -ayim, perhaps referring to the "two Egypts": Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt....
 (probably literally meaning the two lands

Upper and Lower Egypt

File:Ancient Egypt map-en.svgAncient Egypt was divided into two regions, known as Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. To the north was Lower Egypt where the Nile stretched out with its several branches to form the Nile Delta....
), and was the name of one of Ham's sons. The Egyptian word for Egypt was Khem

Chem

Chem may refer to:*Chemistry*"Kemet#History of the Word" , the Egyptian language word for "black."*Min , in the past erroneously named "Khem"....
, plausibly the origin of the name Ham, or vice versa, according to sound change

Sound change

Sound change includes any processes of language change that affect pronunciation or sound system structures . Sound change can consist of the replacement of one phoneme by another, the complete loss of the affected sound, or even the introduction of a new sound in a place where there previously was none....
 between languages. The names of Ham's other children correspond to regions within Egyptian influence - Kush, Canaan

Canaan

Canaan is an ancient term for a region encompassing modern-day Israel and Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, plus adjoining coastal lands and parts of Jordan, Syria and northeastern Egypt....
, and Phut

Phut

Phut or Put is the third son of Ham, son of Noah , in the biblical Genealogies of Genesis#Table of Nations .Put is associated with Ancient Libya by many early writers....
 (probably identical with the Pitu, a Libyan tribe, though often associated with Punt

Land of Punt

The Land of Punt, also called Pwenet, or Pwene by the ancient Egyptians, at times synonymous with Ta netjer, the "land of the god", was a fabled site in the Horn of Africa and was known for producing and exporting gold, aromatic resins, African Blackwood, ebony, ivory, slaves and wild animals....
, an ancient name for Benadir

Benadir

Benadir is a coastal region of Somalia. It covers most of the Indian Ocean coast of the country, from the Gulf of Aden to the Juba River, including the capital, Mogadishu....
).

Creationist scholars hold that some early civilizations came to worship humans deified as gods in the generations after the flood, perhaps owing to the extraordinary longevity of the first few generations after leaving the ark. Minimalist scholarship holds a parallel view, that many (but not all) early gods (or deified humans, e.g. Herakles) are representative of personified archetype

Archetype

An archetype is an original model of a person, ideal example, or a prototype after which others are copied, patterned, or emulated; a symbol universally recognized by all....
s of races, i.e., their family trees being codified descriptions of the inter-relatedness of each race and tribe (with some of the older/earlier generations being more speculative). Both of these distinct viewpoints agree that there is a connection between the family tree of the characters (whether gods or men) and that of tribes and races (although the extent of that connection varies, both amongst the characters in question, and amongst the scholars).

In the minimalist view, the early tribal name either became seen by later generations as the name of the "old ones", and thus gradually evolved into that of a god, or else was deliberately transformed into the name of a god, demi-god or hero, for the purpose of making it easier to tell the tale of a tribe representatively. However, minimalists generally prefer to avoid giving any credence to accounts of tribes being named for eponymous ancestors.

Counter arguments are often put forward that the connection is only between the Egyptian

Egyptian language

Egyptian is a branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages language family along with the Chadic languages, Berber languages, Semitic languages, Cushitic languages and possibly Omotic languages languages....
 word and the typical modern pronunciation

Hebrew phonology

This article is about the phonology of the Hebrew language based on the Israeli Hebrew. It deals with current phonology and phonetics as well as with historical developments thereof, including geographical variants....
 of Hebrew ? as ("kh") rather than (as was the case with biblical Hebrew

Biblical Hebrew language

Biblical Hebrew, also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew languages in which the Hebrew Bible and various Israelites inscriptions were written....
, and suggest that the appearance is lessened with the original Hebrew ?? with Northwest Semitic

Semitic languages

File:Amarna Akkadian letter.pngThe Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa....
  (such as in Hebrew, Phoenician, and Syriac

Syriac language

Syriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from the 4th to the 8th centuries, the classical language of Edessa, Mesopotamia, preserved in a large body of Syriac literature....
). Further, Kam, the version of the name in Ge'ez

Ge'ez language

Ge'ez is an ancient South Semitic language that developed in the current region of Eritrea and northern Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa. It later became the official language of the Kingdom of Aksum and Ethiopian imperial court....
—a South Semitic language—is seemingly borrowed from Biblical Hebrew via the Hebrew Bible

Hebrew Bible

The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written mostly in Biblical Hebrew with some Biblical Aramaic....
 and perhaps does not reflect a native derivation of the word.

In the 19th century, there was an erroneous transcription

Transcription (linguistics)

Transcription is the conversion into written, typewritten or printed form, of a spoken language source, such as the proceedings of a court hearing....
 of the Egyptian for Min

Min (god)

Min is an Ancient Egyptian god whose cult originated in predynastic times . He was represented in many different forms, but was often represented in male human form, shown with an erect penis which he holds in his left hand and an upheld right arm holding a flail....
 as ("khem"), purely by coincidence. Since this Khem was worshipped most significantly in Akhmim

Akhmim

Akhmim is a city in the Upper Egyptian Sohag Governorate. The Greek names of the city were Khemmis, Chemmis and Panopolis. It is located the east bank of the Nile, 4 miles to the northeast of Sohag....
, the separate identity of Khem was reinforced, Akhmim being understood as simply a corruption of Khem. However, Akhmim is a corruption of ?m-mnw, meaning Shrine of Min, via the demotic

Demotic

Demotic may refer to:*Demotic Greek, a variety of the Greek language*Demotic , a script and stage of the Egyptian language...
 form šmn. The existence of a god named Khem was later understood as a faulty reading, but unfortunately it had already been enshrined in books written by E. A. Wallis Budge

E. A. Wallis Budge

Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge was an England Egyptologist, Orientalism, and Philology who worked for the British Museum and published numerous works on the ancient Near East....
—now out of copyright

Copyright

Copyright is a form of intellectual property which gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation; after which time the work is said to enter the public domain....
 and widely reprinted. Thus this error still finds a home among some writers, who often use it to identify Ham with the imaginary god Khem, who may also be identified with the Greek Titan

Titan (mythology)

In Greek mythology, the Titans ; were a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary golden age. Their role as Elder Gods was overthrown by a race of younger gods, the Twelve Olympians, effected a mythological paradigm shift that the Greeks borrowed from the Ancient Near East....
 Cronos. (See the article Min (god)

Min (god)

Min is an Ancient Egyptian god whose cult originated in predynastic times . He was represented in many different forms, but was often represented in male human form, shown with an erect penis which he holds in his left hand and an upheld right arm holding a flail....
 for more details.)

Nevertheless, since Khem (meaning black) was normally used to describe the fertile soils by the Nile, it was sometimes used as an epithet for Min, as the god of fertility. Since Khem was also an Egyptian name for Egypt (precisely because it described the soil of the Nile valley), there is also an association with Ham, who represented the forefather of the north-east African nations including Egypt. Ham could plausibly be a name derived from Khem (Egypt), or vice versa, via sound change, due to the change in language between Egyptian and Hebrew, corresponding to the well known phonological change of /k/ into /x/ (voiceless velar fricative) into /h/.

Many believe that ancient Jatt people of Persia (who now inhabit Punjab

Punjab region

Punjab , also Panjab , is a region straddling the border between India and Pakistan. The "Five Rivers" are Beas River, Ravi River, Sutlej, Chenab and Jhelum River; all these are tributaries of the Indus river, Jhelum being the biggest one....
), are descendants of Ham .

Identifications based on Jasher

Some of the names of Ham's descendants in the list below do not appear anywhere in the Bible, but rather originated from the mediaeval rabbinic work, the Book of Jasher

Sefer haYashar (midrash)

Sefer haYashar , a Hebrew language midrash known in English translation mostly as The Book of Jasher. The book is named after the Sefer HaYashar mentioned in Book of Joshua and 2 books of Samuel....
. Among the ethnic groups various modern authors have attempted to link to Ham's children include:

• Cush - also Chus, Kush, Kosh (Nubians
  Nubians
  
  The Nubians are an ethnic group originally from northern Sudan, now inhabiting East Africa and some parts of Northeast Africa, such as southern Egypt....
  , Ethiopians, Somalis, Eritreans, and other related groups).
• Mizraim
  Mizraim
  
  Mizraim is the Hebrew language name for the land of Egypt, with the dual suffix -ayim, perhaps referring to the "two Egypts": Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt....
   "double lands" (sons were Lud, Anom, Pathros, Chasloth and Chaphtor) - also Misraim, Mitzraim, Mizraite, Mitsrayim (Egyptians
  Egyptians
  
  Egyptians is the name of the nationality and Mediterranean North African ethnic group native to Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to the Geography of Egypt, dominated by the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the Cataracts of the Nile to the Mediterranean Sea and enclosed by desert both to the Easte...
  , Khemets, Philistines
  Philistines
  
  The Philistines were a ethnic group who occupied the southern coast of Canaan, their territory being named Philistia in later contexts....
  , and other related groups).
• Phut
  Phut
  
  Phut or Put is the third son of Ham, son of Noah , in the biblical Genealogies of Genesis#Table of Nations .Put is associated with Ancient Libya by many early writers....
   "a bow" (sons were Gebul, Hadan, Benah and Adan) - also Putaya, Putiya, Punt, Puta, Put, Libia, Libya
  Libya
  
  Libya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
   (Libyans
  Libyans
  
  The Libyans are a female-fronted hardcore punk band formed in early 2007 in Somerville, Massachusetts, Massachusetts. The band uses a completely-DIY approach to music, having self-released every recording....
  , Cyrenacians, Tunisians, Tuaregs,Berbers,The extinct Guanches
  Guanches
  
  Guanches , now extinct as a distinct people, were the first known inhabitants of the Canary Islands, having migrated to the archipelago sometime between 1000 BC and 100 BC....
   of the Canary Islands
  Canary Islands
  
  The Canary Islands are a Spain archipelago which, in turn, forms one of the Spanish Autonomous Communities and an Outermost Region of the European Union....
  , North Africans, and other related groups).
• Canaan
  Canaan (Bible)
  
  Canaan is a Biblical figure who, according to the Old Testament, was the son of Ham and the grandson of the patriarch Noah. The Book of Genesis states that the Canaanites, a people who mostly occupied modern-day Israel, were descendants of this Canaan....
   "down low" (sons were Zidon, Heth, Amori, Gergashi, Hivi, Arkee, Seni, Arodi, Zimodi and Chamothi) - also Canaanites, Cana, Chna, Chanani, Chanana, Canaana, Kana, Kenaanah, Kena'ani, Kena'an, Kn'nw, Kyn'nw, Kinnahu, Kinahhi, Kinahni, Kinahna, Kinahne (Canaanites.

See also

• Sons of Noah
  Sons of Noah
  
  The Table of Nations or Sons of Noah is an extensive list of descendants of Noah appearing within the Torah at Genesis 10, representing an ethnology from an Iron Age Levantine perspective and its reflections in the medieval and modern history and genealogy researches....
  
• Curse of Ham
  Curse of Ham
  
  The Curse of Ham refers to the curse that Ham, son of Noah's father Noah placed upon Ham's son Canaan#Biblical Canaanites, after Ham "saw his father's nakedness" because of drunkenness in Noah's tent....
  
• Wives aboard the Ark
  Wives aboard the Ark
  
  Although the Book of Genesis in the Bible does not give any further information about the four women it says were aboard Noah's Ark during the Deluge , there exist substantial extra-Biblical traditions regarding these women and their names....
  
• Noach (parsha)
  Noach (parsha)
  
  Noach or Noah is the second weekly Torah portion in the annual Judaism cycle of Torah reading. It constitutes -. Jews in the Jewish diaspora read it the second Shabbat after Simchat Torah, generally in October or November....
  

External links