BEMA Episode Link: 5: A Misplaced Curse
Episode Length: 22:59
Published Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2016 01:00:00 -0700
Session 1
About this episode:

Marty Solomon and Brent Billings talk about Noah’s departure from the ark and the tragedy that ensues.

Discussion Video for BEMA 5

Transcript for BEMA 5

Notes

*Note: The following notes are handwritten by me, Adam, and I reserve the right to be wrong.

  • There are problems in this story.
    • The order of the sons are not listed consistently. Oldest is typically listed first.
    • Vinyard (principle of first mention) is mentioned and Noah has already learned how to make win.
    • What is the big deal with Noah being naked in his own tent?
    • There aren’t a lot of people around, how does Noah figure out who does what when he comes out of the tent?
  • Genesis 9:18-28.
    • It’s odd that it mentions Ham being the father of Canaan.
    • Why does Ham tell his brothers when he sees his father’s nakedness?
    • Why would Shem and Jepheth be so hesitant to see his father naked.
    • Why curse his grandchild Canaan when Ham sees his father naken?
      • Ham isn’t even mentioned. Ham did something wrong, not Canaan.
    • How does Ham know that he has done something wrong?
  • If the creation story continues, a garden with fruit should be next.
    • Noah plants a vinyard and tastes its fruit.
    • Then we have this weirdness about nakedness.
    • Then we have a covering of the nakedness.
    • Then we have a curse.
    • We continue to have these parallels to the creation story with Adam and Eve in the garden.
  • Midrash is an ancient Jewish form of commentary on a particular passage in the Text.
    • Westerners will exegete the passage, be deductive and straight forward.
    • Easterners will lead you on a process of discovery. It will be an inductive process of discovery.
      • They will tell a story within the story that will help you find the same journey and discover the same thing the teacher has discovered from the passage.
  • Midrash for this passage:
    • To see means to perceives or to completely understand it. To grok.
      • In this eastern world, this would have been perceived as castration or molestation. Some even teach that this means “to sleep with your mother.” This is found in Dueteronomy. The auther connects the idea of looking upon your father’s nakedness with sleeping with your mother. Ultimately what the author is doing is saying “to sleep with your mother is to molest your father.”
    • We have to determine was it molestation or castration?
      • The midrash tells us that it was castration. It leaves us wondering why castration and not molestation. There must be something in the test to lead us to that understanding.
      • In Gen 2 and 3, the four rivers have an interest set of details.
      • Lineage is also imagined with a river. There were four rivers in Gen 2 and 3.
      • In the story of Noah, he has three sons and Noah is told to be fruitful and multiply.
        • Noah is expected to have a fourth son.
      • Why does Noah curse Canaan? Marty is convicted from teachings of Rabbi Fohrman that Noah is bent on revenge. Ham has robbed Noah of something, a fourth son, and now Noah is bent on robbing Ham of something from him.
    • In the first creation story, G-d knows when to say enough with his creative power. Adam and Eve also have to learn this lesson.
      • In this new creation story, G-d is learning when to say enough with his destructive power.
      • Noah now has to learn this same lesson.
        • Noah’s invitation is to trust G-d and not let his vengence get the best of him.
          • Don’t pass on Ham’s mistake to his children and his children’s children.
          • This word for curse is use only by G-d and one person in the text, Noah.
          • This curse is reserved for G-d alone.
          • Noah is stepping into the role of G-d. He takes this curse and throws it NOT on the one who deserves it but on the one who doesn’t deserve it.
          • This decision will have eternal repercussions.
          • Brent notices that it’s G-d who asks the question, “What have you done?” in Gen. 3. It’s not directly in the text but it’s a seemingly natural question we would expect Noah to ask as he comes out of the tent. This is more assumption though. However, an interesting parallel.
          • This is one of the places we are first introduced to forgiveness.
    • What we keep learning here is how to be like G-d.
      • When to stop creating.
      • When to stop destroying.
      • How to trust the story.
      • Who G-d is.
      • What man is afraid of.
      • The plea over and over again is to just trust the story.
      • Don’t lash out in our insecurity and our shame.
        • This story is all pent up in Noah’s shame.
        • Will Noah take it out on the next guy or is he going to know when to say enough and let the world continue down a redemptive path.
          • Unfortuneately, Noah makes the wrong decision and this story ends in yet another tragedy.

Slack conversation with Josh Bossé

Chad
Any Midrash on the bad blood between Noah and Ham prior to the tent incident? > #session1

AC
Check out sefaria.org. Highlighting any verse shows all related midrash, > Mishnah, Talmud, etc. associated with that verse. Incredibly useful.

AC
Gen 9:1 for instance Image from iOS Image from iOS

Chad
Thanks @AC :ok_hand:

Chris Jackson :man_dancing: :skin-tone-4:
@AC I use safaria and I didn’t even see this WOWEE thanks!!!

Josh Bossé
Not necessarily bad blood, but there are some juicy midrash that outline > pretty clearly how the stage was set for what happens later. Before I dive into the midrashic stuff, Ham’s name means ‘hot’, which would > imply that he has a temper, but less obvious is that it also implies he is > incredibly virile! We see this association most explicitly in the text in 1 > Kings 1, where David’s inability to stay warm (literally the same word as Ham) > is solved by bringing a beautiful young woman to his bedroom. There was a lot > of significance in a King’s virility in ancient times, and whether their > motives were superstitious or more PR-related, the name Ham would have evoked > a sense of someone who is sexually voracious, but with the connotation of > health rather than depravity, much like our modern expression of someone being > ‘red-blooded’. And the big precursor to the castration from the midrash I’ve come across is > entirely about sex. So the Rabbis point out that the order they enter and exit > the ark changes, in 7:7 they enter with the couples ‘split up’, the men enter > first, then the women. In 8:16 & 18, they exit with the couples reunited, and > from this the Rabbis conclude there was a prohibition against sex for the > entire time they were on the ark. This would have also conformed to ancient > cultural norms which would have seen creating life in the midst of such > immense death as totally inappropriate and in violation of natural order. Then > in 9:18, when Noah’s genealogy is given, it emphasizes that Ham was the father > of Canaan. Now, this genealogy is very short, and we might wonder why have a > genealogy at all if it’s only two generations long, but the logic would be > that this is the new creation, a new humanity, the world is starting over, > which means this genealogy should be taken as something immediate to the end > of the flood, not something that isn’t recorded until years later. So there’s > a strong implication that Ham was the father of Canaan while they were exiting > the ark, meaning he broke the prohibition, impregnating his wife on the ark. > Thus we see his virility, which might otherwise be seen as a positive trait, > reframed in this moment as something which Ham uses to violate the fundamental > order of nature. It’s important to emphasize that, because this isn’t just > about Ham lacking self-control, it’s not just an individual choice with > individual consequences. In this tiny communal context, him rushing to sire an > heir implies he is trying to gain an advantage over his brothers, and that > he’s willing to sink to any depth to repopulate & remake the earth in his > image. So to me, it’s not so much about a personal resentment of Noah, but a > breathtaking willingness to commit brutal atrocities for his personal gain. > And particularly as this ‘new humanity’, Ham becomes the clear parallel to > Cain, whose violence also was not born out a personal resentment, but out of a > total lack of regard for Abel’s well-being. In this way they are early > archetypes of proto-Empire in the Biblical narrative. :exploding_head: 4 :heart: 1 :+1: 1

Chris Jackson :man_dancing::skin-tone-4:
@Josh Bossé doesn’t it also talk about Ham’s sons pretty much immediately > taking to worshipping pagan gods in the book of Jubilees? If I recall, they’re > basically responsible for the occult coming back to life.

Josh Bossé
I’m not very familiar with the pseudepigrapha, but I wouldn’t be surprised at > all. I’ve seen in some lexicons that Ham’s name is linked with Egypt and of > course Canaan’s name comes up again in the text. Especially given the wildly > sexual culture of Egypt, so it makes a lot of sense that these characters were > also ways of talking about the roots of their modern pagan neighbors.

Melissa K
Wow, so much juicy midrash! I had thought that Ham’s act of castrating Noah > meant that he wanted Canaan to become the fourth son that Noah was trying to > sire (thinking of the weird mention of the rivers and how it parallels to here)> . Seeing now in the midrash you described how Ham was willing to advance his > empire at any cost (plus also the 4 significance - ALL the earth), it just > seems to go together even more! Ham wanted to dominate, replacing his father’s > line with his own. And was so brazen about it that he ridiculed his father by > speaking about it to his brothers! Wow. :+1: 1

Chris Jackson:man_dancing::skin-tone-4:
@Josh Bossé Jubilees is super interesting in the way it tries to give a > spiritual narrative for what’s going on. Or Assiyah Ruchni. There’s a whole > portion that addresses the issue of: well it’s just Noah and fam on the earth > and ALLL of the demons so Noah basically convinces God to do something so it’s > fair. I couldn’t make it through Enoch until now. I had to get a better grasp on the > idea of how they saw the afterlife. Reading Lancasters elementary principles > made the 4 mountains idea make WAY more sense. But I digress.

Josh Bossé
@Melissa K I would think those two ideas go together well, and in fact the > aspect you’re bringing up shows us another kindof violation of the natural > order in his attempt to replace his father. @Chris Jackson I was readin up on it on wikipedia and it sounds very > interesting! Especially because we’re about to enter a jubilee year! :heart: 1

Chad
@Josh Bossé @Melissa K so If I follow, this theory is that Ham castrates Noah as the next big step in world domination in the the new world order. Step 1 was making sure he would have the first male of the next generation, and step 2 was “removing” the competition? What a Ham! (edited)

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