Ham and Canaan

Genesis 9 tells us three things:

• Noah gets drunk and naked;
• Ham, not Canaan, plays the voyeur as far as we are directly told;
• Canaan, not Ham, gets cursed.

Now, there is, and I know this thanks to Kent Hovind, another passage in the Bible where drunkenness and a curse are both present. As well as nakedness.

Woe to him that giveth drink to his friend, and presenteth his gall, and maketh him drunk, that he may behold his nakedness Thou art filled with shame instead of glory: drink thou also, and fall fast asleep: the cup of the right hand of the Lord shall compass thee, and shameful vomiting shall be on thy glory For the iniquity of Libanus shall cover thee, and the ravaging of beasts shall terrify them because of the blood of men, and the iniquity of the land, and of the city, and of all that dwell therein
Habacuc (Habakkuk) 2:15-17

I usually cite just verse 15.

Now, that verse is in and of itself enough. "Woe" = equivalent of a curse. "To his friend" = grandfather and grandson tend to be better pals than father and son. "giveth drink, and presenteth his gall, and maketh him drunk, that he may behold his nakedness" ...

Hold on, we weren't told Ham gave Noah to drink!

For Ham seeing the nakedness, we have the witness of the two other brothers who might have told Noah, unless the account is by Shem. They weren't there if and when Canaan saw his grandfather's nakedness. However, it seems that the first thing that comes through Noah's mind, when he wakes up and finds out, is Canaan.

Why?

I would say, Canaan had been Noah's test pilot for drinking wine. Both of them were adults and both of them could drink as much as an adult of their constitution could drink without risk, and after that, they risk drunkenness. Maybe Canaan had only accidentally found out it wasn't just a normal sleep drug, like Valerian. Noah had, if so, either case, obviously covered up for Canaan. No shame for him ... so far.

However, Noah then proceeds to drink, taking advice from Canaan. The grandson then plays a prank on his grandpa.

And Habacuc probably told us.

The reason that I included verse 17 is that it mentions the "iniquity of Libanus" ... Challoner takes this as cypress trees from Lebanon in the temple, and an iniquity perpetrated on it:

"The iniquity of Libanus": That is, the iniquity committed by the Chaldeans against the temple of God, signified here by the name of Libanus.

If I look to Haydock, I see context for this:

Egypt had persuaded the governor of Cœlosyria and the Jews to revolt, and then abandoned them.

Oh, like I think Putin secretly miscounselled Hamas (whether I'm right or wrong, but October 7 is not just Our Lady of the Rosary, it's also his birthday, and he had his hands full with Ukraine, by his own mischief, so his support for Palestinians, Hamas or collaterals, became only nominal)? Well, this explains the comparison between getting a man drunk and then letting a bigger man than oneself watch his drunkenness.

Now, Libanus is in Cœlosyria. At least partly, if not the coastal strip, and partly the other way too, since Cœlosyria includes Damascus. Heliopolis is in Cœlosyria, it's also called Baalbek, and it is in modern Lebanon and in the mountain range Libanus. We can suppose that "the iniquity of Libanus" is either a wickedness committed by Cœlosyrians during the rising, or on them, in the repression.

But there is another connection here. You see, the Canaaneans who accepted to go away as Joshua told them on God's behalf, went to modern Lebanon. Partly, no doubt, to Tyre, which is outside Cœlosyria and also outside the mountainrange called Libanus. But probably also to Libanus. The descendants of Noah's grandson are here concerned.

So, Canaan got cursed for doing "for" himself and Ham, what Ham tried to do "for" his brothers, namely watch drunkenness as a spectacle, and that in a person otherwise very respected.

The problem wasn't that Canaan served his grandfather wine. The problem was he served too much. So, check out what he's condemned to do:

He said: Cursed be Chanaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren
Genesis 9:25

Let's translate. To other sons of Ham, not to uncles Shem and Japheth, but perhaps to their sons, as "cousins" can be considered "brethren", Canaan is to be a janitor (cleaning up in case of vomit, for instance) and a sommelier (serving appropriate quantities, as opposed to the one he had served his grandfather).

It seems that Jewish tradition partly agrees with me, for I just noticed a note by Challoner I had forgot about:

"Cursed be Chanaan": The curses, as well as the blessings, of the patriarchs, were prophetical: And this in particular is here recorded by Moses, for the children of Israel, who were to possess the land of Chanaan. But why should Chanaan be cursed for his father's faults? The Hebrews answer, that he being then a boy, was the first that saw his grandfather's nakedness, and told his father Cham of it; and joined with him in laughing at it: which drew upon him, rather than upon the rest of the children of Cham, this prophetical curse.

Let me repeat one phrase:

The Hebrews answer, that he being then a boy, was the first that saw his grandfather's nakedness, and told his father Cham of it; and joined with him in laughing at it:

Only differs from my own assessment in how old Canaan was.

Or maybe not even that, if "boy" means immature teen in context. Like Ishmael when laughing at Isaac (14 years old when Isaac was born, and this is later, even so an angel calls him a "boy"*).

But if we should take "boy" really literally, like school boy age, one could imagine Noah thought that if it was not too much for him, it wouldn't be too much for himself either. But instead of halving the quantity that had made him drunk, Canaan doubled it for his grandfather.

Some would consider that this was just a small family matter if there happened nothing worse than voyeurism. Not so. Alive were Noah, possibly his wife (another theory of his drunkenness is he was wasted by grief by being a widower, but this doesn't fit the Habacuc clue about Canaan all that much), 1 or 2, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and there wives, 7 or 8, but also "Chus [Kush], and Mesram, and Phuth, and Chanaan" and their wives, or for Canaan future such, 15 or 16, and so presumably also at least "Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan," and their wives, 23 or 24, and "Elam and Assur, and Arphaxad, and Lud," and their wives, so 31 or 32. It's even possible Aram on Shem's side and Thubal, and Mosoch, and Thiras on Japheth's and also their wives or future such were born, which would make 39 or 40.

If Japheth's and Shem's sons, like their fathers, didn't watch, at least they heard of it. Noah's credibility was punctured. He was not going to be a leader, like when building the Ark, he was just going to be a modest ruler.

If this didn't happen just before he died (in which case many more would have heard of it) but early on, this would have delayed the advent of agriculture (mistrusted because of the drunkenness) and meant that the remaining lifespan of Noah was a time of hunter-gatherers.

2958 BC,

1.6277 pmC, dated as 37 000 BC

2608 BC

43.443 pmC, [dated as] 9500 BC

This is from beginning of my table I—I/II and end of my table I/II—II, and that divided table originally was one table, going between these points. Flood, when Noah's 600, Babel starts 350 years later.

Newer Tables, Flood to Joseph in Egypt

The carbon date 37 000 BC, as in 39 000 BP (translation not quite accurate, 50 years off), is that of Campi Flegrei super-eruption, early stages of the Flood. Volcanos don't just put lots of lava into the air, but also ashes of things that burn up because of the lava. Including ashes retaining coal fragments, carbon. The carbon date 9500 BC is from charcoal in the lowest relevant layer of Göbekli Tepe. Because that's what I consider that Babel was. Beginning of Babel, when Noah dies, beginning of Göbekli Tepe. End of Babel, when Peleg is born, end of Göbekli Tepe.

If my chronology is right, this means 350 years of hunting and gathering, and for mighty hunters before the Lord (like Nimrod ben Kush) to gather a bit more prestige than they would have if farming had provided. And of Nimrod not being sidestepped in favour of Heber, whom Noah would have favoured as next chief of a still unified humanity. These 350 years are called "Upper Palaeolithic" or rather, they are the part of the Upper Palaeolithic which happened after Neanderthals and Denisovans drowned in the Flood.

Being a janitor and a sommelier in punishment for a prank with such dire consequences, is that really disproportionate? I don't think so. But meanwhile, trust a Christian Lebanese to be a good sommelier, if you need one!

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
Pope St. Martin I
12.XI.2026

16 Septembris: Natalis sancti Martini Primi, Papae et Martyris, qui, cum Sergium ac Paulum et Pyrrhum haereticos, Romae coacta Synodo, condemnasset, ideo, jussu Constantis, Imperatoris haeretici, per fraudem captus et Constantinopolim perductus, in Chersonesum relegatus est, ibique, ob catholicam fidem aerumnis confectus, vitam finivit, multisque miraculis claruit. Ejus corpus, postea Romam translatum, in Ecclesia sanctorum Silvestri et Martini conditum fuit. Ipsius tamen festivitas pridie Idus Novembris celebratur.
12 Novembris: Sancti Martini Primi, Papae et Martyris, cujus dies natalis sextodecimo Kalendas Octobris recensetur.

* Perhaps a point to recall with a bald prophet, 42 boys and a bearess. Yes, Ishmael at past 14 and the 42 in IV Kings 2:23 have the same noun, naar, Strong's 5288. However, the 42 are also described as qə·ṭan·nîm, 6996. qatan = Small, little, insignificant, young, least. Challoner takes it as actual children.