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Biblical Metaphors Shed Light on Ham's Sin in Noah's Tent.
Introduction:
The Bible has metaphors (or similitudes) within it.
For Hosea 12:10 says,
To not understand the Bible's metaphors is to be in confusion to what God's Word really says. Most Christians agree that the metaphor "knew" in relation to a man and a woman in the Bible can sometimes be in reference to sex; Most Christians believe the words, "slept with his fathers" is defined as death (See examples here, and here at BlueLetterBible). It is just like in Revelation. The seven heads are seven mountains (Revelation 17:9) which was an earlier description of the seven headed scarlet colored beast in Revelation 17:3. So the Bible uses metaphor to help us to gain an understanding of what it is really talking about.
The Metaphors:
Key Verses explaining the Biblical Metaphors used for our understanding on the "Story of Noah and Ham" in Genesis 9:
#1. Key Verse: Leviticus 20:17
#2. Key Verse: Leviticus 20:11
#3. Key Verse: Leviticus 18:8
The Story:
Taking all these metaphors into account, we understand that when we read the "Story of Noah and Ham," it is something a little different than what we have come to know.
The Hebrew word "רָאָה" (ra'ah) for the English word "saw" in Genesis 9:22 can also mean, "enjoy" (whereby we can see 4 other references for it). So one can read it as saying, Ham enjoyed the "nakedness of his father" (i.e. his father's wife).
Saw:
Strong’s H7200
Enjoy:
Strong's H7200
For we can see "his father's nakedness" = "his father's wife" in Leviticus 20:11.
Introduction:
The Bible has metaphors (or similitudes) within it.
For Hosea 12:10 says,
"I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets."
To not understand the Bible's metaphors is to be in confusion to what God's Word really says. Most Christians agree that the metaphor "knew" in relation to a man and a woman in the Bible can sometimes be in reference to sex; Most Christians believe the words, "slept with his fathers" is defined as death (See examples here, and here at BlueLetterBible). It is just like in Revelation. The seven heads are seven mountains (Revelation 17:9) which was an earlier description of the seven headed scarlet colored beast in Revelation 17:3. So the Bible uses metaphor to help us to gain an understanding of what it is really talking about.
The Metaphors:
Key Verses explaining the Biblical Metaphors used for our understanding on the "Story of Noah and Ham" in Genesis 9:
#1. Key Verse: Leviticus 20:17
"And if a man shall take his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is a wicked thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people: he hath uncovered his sister's nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity." (Leviticus 20:17).
Breakdown:
(a) See her nakedness = Sex.
(b) Uncovered his sister's nakedness = Sex.
Keywords relating here to sex:
(a) See
(b) Nakedness
(c) Uncovered (such a person's) nakedness.
#2. Key Verse: Leviticus 20:11
"And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." (Leviticus 20:11).
Breakdown:
(a) Lieth with his father's wife = Sex.
(b) Hath uncovered his father's nakedness = Sex (or lieth with his father's wife).
Keywords relating here to sex:
(a) Lieth
(b) Lieth with his father's wife
(c) Uncovered
(d) Father's nakedness
(e) Uncovered his father's nakedness.
#3. Key Verse: Leviticus 18:8
"The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father's nakedness." (Leviticus 18:8).
Breakdown:
(a) The nakedness of thy father's wife shall you not uncover = Do not have sex with your father's wife.
(b) The nakedness of your father's wife = the father's nakedness (Also see explanation below).
(c) The father's nakedness = his wife or intimate partner in marriage (i.e. an extension of his own body, for the Scriptures say: "The two shall become one flesh." (Mark 10:8)). To "uncover the wife's nakedness" is to see what the husband sees in their joining together in physical union. The wife's nakedness is a part of the husband's nakedness because they both are one flesh (joined together in marriage).
Keywords relating to the Intimacy or Intimate Partner of the Husband:
(a) Nakedness
(b) Nakedness of thy father's wife
(c) Nakedness of thy father's wife you shall not uncover
(d) Thy father's nakedness
The Story:
Taking all these metaphors into account, we understand that when we read the "Story of Noah and Ham," it is something a little different than what we have come to know.
The Hebrew word "רָאָה" (ra'ah) for the English word "saw" in Genesis 9:22 can also mean, "enjoy" (whereby we can see 4 other references for it). So one can read it as saying, Ham enjoyed the "nakedness of his father" (i.e. his father's wife).
Saw:
Strong’s H7200
Enjoy:
Strong's H7200
For we can see "his father's nakedness" = "his father's wife" in Leviticus 20:11.
"And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness:"
Here it is in the traditional text in red:
Gen 9:20 "And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
Gen 9:21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
Gen 9:22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
Gen 9:23 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.
Gen 9:24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.
Gen 9:25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren."
And here is the text with the words exchanged using Leviticus 20, and the alternate word "enjoyed" for the word "saw.":
Gen 9:20 "And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
Gen 9:21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
Gen 9:22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, enjoyed his father's wife, and told his two brethren without.
Gen 9:23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered his father's wife; and their faces were backward, and they saw not his father's wife.
Gen 9:24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.
Gen 9:25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren."
So as shocking as this may sound to some, and I know it goes beyond what you have been taught by your good and fun loving pastor, the "Story of Noah and Ham" is sadly about incest between Ham and his mother (i.e. Noah's wife). Whether Ham forced himself upon his own mother is unclear in the text. What we know is that this is what makes the most sense out of the text when Noah curses Ham's son Canaan (in light of applying Biblical metaphors). For Canaan would naturally be cursed by Noah because he is the by-product of an incestuous union. It makes no sense to curse an innocent son (Canaan) for something minor (like looking at the nude body of one's father) that his father (Ham) had done. As for what is traditionally taught on this story: Why would the other brothers care if Ham boasted in seeing his father's naked body? Did they not see their father naked when they were children? Why would they care if Ham said he seen their father naked in his own tent? It makes no sense. On the contrary, with applying Biblical metaphors to our narrative here: It would actually make more sense that Noah's other two sons would try to attempt damage control of a sad event of Ham taking advantage of their own mother.
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