The only words of Noah recorded in the Bible are in Gen 9:25-27, when Noah invokes a curse upon Canaan (v 25) and blessings upon Shem and Japheth. Here I want to focus on v 27:
"May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant."
The meaning of Noah's invocation depends upon the the intended antecedents of the pronouns in this verse. One possibility is that "him" refers to Japheth. In that case, "dwelling in the tents of Shem" could mean sharing in the blessing that God promises to Abraham, a descendant of Shem through whom all nations are to be blessed (Gen 12:3).
On the other hand, "him" could refer to God. In that case, God dwelling in the tents of Shem could refer to God dwelling with Israel, a nation that will descend from Shem, in the tabernacle and temple, and ultimately to God coming to "pitch his tent with us" in the person of Jesus the Messiah (John 1:14).
Either interpretation is possible. There are also two possibilities for "his" later in the verse. If "his" means "Japheth's", then Noah is calling for Canaan to be a servant of Japheth. On the other hand, if "his" means "God's", then Noah could be calling for Canaan to ultimately become a servant of God. Some Canaanites--e.g., Rahab--did become servants of God---and God's plan is for all to submit to him ultimately (Isa 45:22-23, Phil 2:9-11).
Gen 9:27 is one of several examples of pronoun ambiguity in the Bible. When there is more than one possibility for the antecedent of a pronoun, it can be fruitful to explore all the possibilities and see what we can learn from them. In some cases the ambiguity may be deliberate and may be a way of communicating the multiple possibilities in a succinct manner.
No comments:
Post a Comment