[color=#000099][/color] This may be the first
time that some of
you have heard of
this topic.
Well welcome
aboard this journey
into a religious idea
that has plagued the
minds of certain
groups of people
over long periods of
time, causing them
to wreck havoc and
scorn upon another
group of people for
hundreds if not
thousands of years.
Sadly, some people
still believe this idea.
First the text of the
curse then my
commentary on the
text
Genesis chapter 9
20 Noah was the first
tiller of the soil. He
planted a vineyard;
21 and he drank of
the wine, and became drunk,
and lay uncovered in his tent.
22 And Ham, the father of
Canaan, saw the unclothedness of
his father, and told his two
brothers outside. 23 Then
Shem and Japheth took a
garment, laid it upon both
their shoulders, and walked
backward and covered the
unclothedness of their father;
their faces were turned away,
and they did not see their
father’s unclothedness. 24 When
Noah awoke from his wine and
knew what his youngest son
had done to him, 25 he said,
"Cursed be Canaan; A slave of
slaves shall he be to his
brothers." 26 He also said,
"Blessed by the Lord my God
be Shem; and let Canaan be
his slave. God enlarge
Japheth, and let him dwell in
the tents of Shem; and let
Canaan be his slave." (Revised
Standard Edition)
My Commentary
Now let’s see what this
infamous curse is all about.
Well it appears that Noah got
drunk and passed-out naked in
his tent (Verse 21). His son
Ham saw him lying there
drunk asleep and told his
brothers about it and they
covered him with a garment
(Verse 22). So it seems that
Noah spoke this curse because
he was mad that his son, Ham,
saw him naked.
I guess he was pretty uptight
about being seen naked by
Ham but not about drinking so
much that he'd passed-out
and was lying there in the
nude where anyone could see
him, including Shem and
Japheth. Ham just happened
to see him first.
Now here’s where the story
gets interesting.
Noah’s mad at his son, Ham,
but he curses his grandson
Canaan (Verse 25). He says
"Cursed be Canaan; a slave of
slaves shall you be to your
brothers."
Why is he cursing his innocent
grandson Canaan, who's not in
this story at all up to this point
and who’s only mentioned
here in passing? (Verse 22)
And what’s so bad about being
seen naked that he’d want to
curse anybody anyway,
especially his innocent
grandson? Ham committed
this "horrible" offense so why
doesn’t he curse Ham instead?
Noah was drunk; so maybe he
intended to curse Ham but
mistakenly cursed Canaan. At
any rate, the person who
initially took the “forbidden”
action in relation to Noah was
Ham not Canaan.
Some people say that seeing
Noah naked wasn't the real
reason for his invoking the
curse…that the real reason
Canaan was cursed was
because he sexually molested
Noah while he was sleeping.
Read the text for yourself
folks;
“And Ham, the father of
Canaan, saw the unclothedness of
his father, and told his two
brothers outside. 23 Then
Shem and Japheth took a
garment, laid it upon both
their shoulders, and walked
backward and covered the
unclothedness of their father;
their faces were turned away,
and they did not see their
father’s unclothedness”. (Verse
22)
Do you see anything in the
text about Canaan molesting
his grandfather, Noah? Does it
seem to you that the real
reason for the curse was that
Ham saw Noah naked?
If seeing Noah naked wasn't
the reason why does the
writer emphasize the fact that
Ham saw his father's
unclothedness and Shem and
Japheth didn't? Anyway, the
innocent Canaan received the
curse not, Ham.
Let's move on.
Let’s dissect the historical
after shocks of this curse.
White supremacists and their
sympathizers say that Ham
was cursed by God with
blackness and as a result, all
of Ham’s descendants (Black
People) are cursed and are
destined to be slaves (A good
justification for enslaving
Africans during the European
slave trade.).
But as you can see by the
text, that’s not true. God
doesn’t curse anyone Noah
does. (Verse 24-25). Noah
doesn’t curse Ham he curses
his innocent grandson,
Canaan, and the text doesn’t
say that Ham or Canaan were
cursed with blackness.
Noah said in Verse 25,
“Canaan shall be a slave of
slaves to his brothers” and in
Verses 26-27, to his Uncles
Shem and Japheth not to
white supremacists or any
other group.
Now who are these brothers
Canaan is cursed to be a slave
to?
Get your bibles out, scroll
down to Genesis 10, Verse 6
where it lists the sons of Ham;
his son’s are listed as Cush,
Mizraim, Put and Canaan.
(Mizraim… was the name
generally given by the
Hebrews to the land of
Egypt…) (Easton’s Revised
Bible dictionary)
(This probably means that this
list of sons is metaphorical or
mythological because these
are all names of ancient
civilizations in Africa; groups of
people not individuals).
These are the blacks who
(according to the text) are the
descendants of Ham, who
historically, white racists say
were cursed by God with
blackness; but, again, as you
can see from the text that’s
not the case. God doesn’t
curse Ham or his sons with
blackness, but Noah does
curse Canaan.
So Canaan is cursed to be a
slave to his brothers Cush,
Egypt, and Put? Canaan is
cursed to be a slave to the
ancestors of the blacks?
Not to mention that if
Canaan’s brothers are black…
that means Canaan is black…
and his father Ham is
black...and since Ham, Shem
and Japheth all have the same
father and mother. It’s logical
to conclude that Noah, his
wife, Shem and Japheth are
black.
Remember Ham wasn't cursed
with blackness. So that means
that if his sons are black, he's
black, his mother and father
are black, and so are his
brothers. That’s how absurd
this whole thing about blacks
being cursed with blackness
is. Blacks weren't cursed with
black skin.
Dark Skin Is A Blessing
Actually, having black skin was
a blessing for Africans rather
than a curse. Dark skin
protected Africans and other
dark skin people from being
killed or severely burned by
the sun. The melanin content
of the skin is what causes dark
skin. It’s because of melanin
that you get tanned rather
than burned when you’re out
in the hot sun.
Those with very fair or pale
skin have very little or no
melanin in their skin, that’s
why they can be severely
burned or poisoned by
exposure to the sun. You could
say that those people are
cursed because they don’t
have dark skin which is just as
stupid as saying that those
with dark skin are cursed
because they don’t have white
skin.
I'm surprised by the number of
people that don't know about
melanin, especially white
people. Please those of you
who don't know do a search on
melanin and get updated and
maybe we can start to put an
end to some of the stupidity of
racism based on skin color.
Let’s trace the descendants of
the innocent cursed Canaan.
Go to Genesis 10, Verse15-20
and you’ll see that the
descendants of Canaan
actually end up populating a
large portion of what’s now
the Middle East. Canaan was
also the name of the
“Promised Land” (roughly
were present day Israel is
now) that Moses led the
Children of Israel to. And since
the Israelites were the
descendants of Canaan’s
uncle, Shem, that means they
actually fought their own
relatives for possession the
“Promised Land”.
As I said earlier, if Ham was
black, then the whole family of
Noah was black, therefore by
extension, Moses and the
people he led out of Egypt
were black. And if you believe
that we all descend from
Adam and Eve, they were
black; which goes along with
the current findings of genetic
and archeological science that
states that, all humans
originated in Africa near
Ethiopia.
Not to mention that Egypt was
also a descendant of Ham,
where these children of Israel
lived and intermingled for four
hundred years. (After
intermingling with Egyptians
for four hundred years, they
had become more Egyptian
than Israelite; as the
descendants of Africans have
become more American than
African after living in the
United States for a similar
length of time)
So if there were any “cursed
descendants of Ham.” It looks
like they would have to be
Canaan’s descendants. But
again…the text doesn’t say
Canaan’s descendants were
cursed just the innocent
Canaan (Verse 25-26).
So what happened to the
fabled curse on black people?
Unless you’re spiritually
myopic, you can see from the
text that this whole curse
thing has just been ethnic
propaganda, used for
centuries to justify enslaving
Africans and their descendants
for economic gain and to help
relieve the guilt of white
Christians for participating in
the slave trade. Generally
speaking, this myth has
allowed all whites to feel
superior to blacks for no other
reason than that they are
white!
According to the noted African
American Historian and
anthropologist, J.A Rogers, in
his book "Nature Knows No
Color Line" certain Jewish
Rabbis in the first or second
century A.D. taught that Ham
was cursed with blackness for
engaging in sex on the ark
against God’s command. This
is another source of historical
misinformation that helped
create the psychological
climate that made it easier for
various white Christian
cultures to abuse and enslave
blacks for social and economic
gain.
As Montesquieu, the French
political theorist said, “It is
impossible for us to suppose
these creatures, enslaved
Africans, to be men; because
allowing them to be men, a
suspicion would follow that we
ourselves are not Christians.”
In other words Christians
wouldn't enslave their fellow
man. So Montesquieu and
others would rather see the
enslaved Africans as not
human (not men) in order to
"save face" and still see
themselves as "good"
Christians. (How hypocritical is
that?)
The myth that God "cursed"
blacks made it easier for white
Christians and others to
engage in racist behaviors
without feeling guilty about it.
(Of course not all whites or
white Christians accepted this
ideology or engaged in those
behaviors and many were
totally in opposition to any
racist ideology)
Blacks must have previously
been very powerful and
enviously admired in the
cultural and religious history of
the various white cultures of
the world, for so much scorn to
have been heaped on them
starting in such ancient times.
“What a subject for
meditation, just think that the
race of black men today our
slaves and the object of our
scorn, is the very race to
which we owe our arts,
science and even the use of
our speech.” Anthropologist,
Count Constatin de Volney
(1727-1820).
Ironically there are African-
Americans who believe this
myth about blacks being the
"Cursed Descendants of Ham"
without ever researching it to
see if it's true or not! They
never critique nor question if
what they believe is true or
not. They just accept it as
true, because that’s what
they’ve been taught.
But that's the way it is with
those who are overly religious
or closed minded whether
they’re black or white. But we
should seek to know the truth
if want to free our minds of
deception and self deception.
“And ye shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you
free” John 8:32
This article is dedicated to
those who believed that
blacks were the “Cursed
Descendants of Ham” based
on what they’ve been taught
or believed that the Bible said
on the subject. Hopefully after
reading this article the truth
flashed across your Minds like
Lightening across a darken sky,, thx and goodbye

Spot on!