Seder 25: A Chronological Question in Genesis 27

 As Gen 27 opens, we read that  "Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see."  How old was Isaac at this point?

From numbers given later in the book of Genesis, it appears that Isaac's son Jacob was 77 when he left home in Gen 28.  Since Isaac was 60 when Jacob was born (Gen 25:26), Isaac was no older than 137 when he blessed Jacob in Gen 27.  Although Isaac talked in Gen 27:1-4 as if he were on his deathbed, he lived another 43 years after that to die at the ripe old age of 180.

So what prompted Isaac to impart his blessing at that particular time?   The text of Genesis does not say, but the age 137 will ring a bell for careful readers of Genesis.  Isaac's father Abraham was 137 when his mother Sarah died at age 127 (Gen 23:1).  Also, Isaac's brother Ishmael was 137 at his death (Gen 25:17).  So perhaps Isaac was thinking of these previous events when he reached age 137.  He may have been feeling old because Ishmael had died at that age.  

Some Jewish commentators wondered if perhaps Isaac was feeling old because Ishmael had just died.  They reckoned Ishmael was 14 years older than Isaac, so there is a tradition that Isaac was only 123 when he blessed Jacob.  That tradition raised a question:  If that was the case, what did Jacob do for 14 years after receiving his blessing and before leaving home?

The traditional answer is that Jacob studied for 14 years at the school originally founded by Shem and later carried on by Shem's descendant Eber.  The Bible says nothing about such a school, but there are legends about Abraham and Isaac having studied there.  In Jewish tradition this hypothetical school is pressed into service to provide answers to certain perplexing questions raised by details in Genesis.  

One such question was about the identity of Melchizedek.  A tradition arose that Melchizedek was actually Shem, and one reason Abraham respected him was that he had studied under him.  

Another question was about what Isaac might have done right after the events of Gen 22, since Isaac isn't mentioned returning from Mt Moriah with Abraham in Gen 22:19.  Perhaps he spent some time at the school of Shem and Eber.

A third question involves the means by which Rebekah "inquired of God" during her troubling pregnancy (Gen 25:22).  That kind of language is usually used in the Bible when a person seeks answers from some authorized representative of God----e.g., a priest.   But what representatives of God were around then?  Perhaps Rebekah consulted with a descendant of Shem.  

There is a further tradition that during her pregnancy, Jacob would kick whenever she passed this school, while Esau would kick whenever she passed a pagan temple.  This tradition is an example of attempts to provide a rationale for the fact that the futures of Jacob and Esau seem to have been to some extent predetermined (Gen 25:23).   

Seder 8: Gen 9:27---Watch your Antecedents

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.

Seder 8: Genesis 9-10---Ham and the Curse on Canaan

In Genesis 9 God stated his commitment to bless the whole earth, for all time, as symbolized by the sign of the rainbow.  He gave Noah and his family the task of repopulating the earth.  They carried out this task, as recorded in the table of nations in Gen 10.

The process of "replenishing the earth" was not an entirely smooth one, though.  Human sinfulness continued to be an impediment to human progress, and we see one example in Gen 9.

Genesis 9:18 reminds us of the names of Noah's sons:  "The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth.  (Ham was the father of Canaan.)"

Israelite readers would have taken note of the parenthetical mention of Canaan here.  The Israelites would later be charged with driving out the Canaanites from the Promised Land, and they were cautioned not to follow the practices of the Canaanites.  What was the background of these people?

We go on to read that Noah at one point drank too much wine and was passed out, naked, in his tent. Ham disrespectfully advertised this fact to Shem and Japheth, who were careful to cover up their father.  Noah later invoked a curse upon Canaan:  "Cursed be Canaan:  a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.''(v 25).

Two questions arise from this passage:  (1) What sin did Ham commit? (2) Why was Canaan singled out for a curse?

One possible answer is simply that Ham had disrespect for his father.  Noah had prophetic insight that Canaan was the son of Ham who would especially exhibit the sins of his father, and so he invoked a curse upon Canaan.

A second answer, popular among Jews and Christians in the early centuries AD, is that Ham castrated his father.  The rabbis, ever on the lookout for possibilities of measure for measure justice in the Bible, described it this way:  Ham prevented Noah from having a fourth son, so Noah invoked a curse upon Ham's fourth son (see Gen 10:4 for the sons of Ham). 

A weakness of this view is that there is nothing about castration in Genesis 9.  What the text does say is that Ham "saw the nakedness of his father'' (v 22). Elsewhere, in Lev 18 and 20, to "see the nakedness" of someone or to "uncover the nakedness" of someone refers to a sexual act---see Lev 20:17, which indicates these phrases are synonymous.  Significantly, the discussion of forbidden sexual unions in Lev 18 and 20 is prefaced with an admonition to avoid the sins of Egypt and Canaan (Lev 18:3).

Based on the connection with Lev18, 20, a number of interpreters propose that Ham's sin was a sexual act, either with Noah or with Noah's wife.  The latter possibility would give the best explanation of why Canaan was singled out.  If Ham committed incest with his mother, and Canaan was the product of that union, this could explain why Canaan was singled out for a curse.

This possibility fits with Lev 20:20-21, which refer to having sex with a man's wife as uncovering that man's nakedness (which, in turn, is synonymous with seeing the man's nakedness).  In this scenario, Ham is a precursor of Reuben (Gen 35:22).  Also, the Canaanites, like the Moabites and Ammonites, would have originated from an act of incest. 

In Ancient Near Eastern cultures, one way to assert dominance within a clan was to sleep with the clan leader's wife or wives.  Think, for example, of Absalom's behavior with the concubines of David (2 Sam 16).  Ham and Reuben may have had similar motives.  In this case, Noah invokes a curse upon Canaan because he does not want Ham's line through Canaan to be dominant.

For further discussion, listen to episode 158 of the Naked Bible Podcast and see the paper "Noah's Nakedness and the Curse on Canaan (Genesis 9:20-27) by  John Sietze Bergsma and  Scott Walker Hahn, Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 124, No. 1 (Spring, 2005), pp. 25-40.