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[QQfffttt]

My understanding of why Noah cursed his own grandson Canaan to become a slave

“So he said, “Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brothers.” He also said, “Blessed be the LORD, The God of Shem; And let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, And let him dwell in the tents of Shem; And let Canaan be his servant.””

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭9:25-27‬ ‭NASB‬‬

In genesis Noah cursed his own grandson Canaan to be a servant. In some translations, Noah cursed his own son to become a slave to his brother.
Why Noah the chosen one to survive in the flood cursed his own grandson. Noah should be a good man as he was chosen as the one have the right to survive in the end of the world.

Let us find out why Noah cursed Canaan in the first place.

“Then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. So he said, “Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brothers.””

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭9:20-25‬ ‭NASB‬‬

In genesis Noah cursed Canaan be a slave. Canaan his father saw his naked body. Canaan did nothing. Canaan’s father did nothing but saw Noah his naked body. Canaan’s father come back told his brother, his brother came to tend and covered Noah with garment. Should Canaan blamed as well for what his father do? Be a slave? Bible did not mention if God came to Noah and full filled his curse.

Why Noah decided let Canaan be a slave? it indicated the destroyed world was a slave society. Slave is common so that Noah can let his grandson be a slave. Noah did not think curse Canaan was a big deal, society need slave and he think Canaan was the one to be slave. It indicated how evil the destroyed human world, what a brilliant idea for god to destroy it by flood.

Why Noah upset with Canaan, Canaan did nothing, Canaan’s father did not harm Anyone as well, he just saw his father’s naked body and asked his brother come to see. Noah undressed himself, why he is upset with Canaan. My understanding is the good and evil fruit. What is good and evil fruit?

“And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭2:16-17‬ ‭ASV‬‬

The knowledge of good and evil, bring human ability to recognize good and evil. If you do not compare between Canaan and other child of his own, you do not see Canaan is evil, if you compare Canaan and his other child, Canaan is evil. Beautiful and ugly not exists, good and evil are not exist. Unless you judge people compare them. Noah has the knowledge of good and evil, he judged Canaan. Canaan is the son of ham who saw his naked body, the other children are the son of whom covered him with garment, so Canaan is evil and need to become a slave.

My understanding of this chapter is god do not want human has the recognition of good and evil, not judge people, or human society will be evil. God did not came to full fill Noah’s curse was because he didn’t agree Canaan should be a slave. God did not punish Noah was because Adam ate the good and evil fruit, it was not Noah’s fault to have the ability to judge his own grandson. Adam and his offsprings already punished by god.

“Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy pain and thy conception; in pain thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭3:16-19‬ ‭ASV‬‬

Thank you this is my understanding of why Noah cursed Canaan.

[jimwalton]

I have many problems with your exegesis and your interpretation. Let's go through them.

First, it's interesting that Ham was the offender, but Canaan was the one cursed. Some possibilities here: (1) Canaan was the real perpetrator and Ham an accessory. [Note that Canaan was cursed, but Ham had no share in the blessing.]; (2) Ham was punished in one of his sons because he had sinned against his father, and he was punished in that particular son because Canaan most strongly reproduced Ham’s sensual character; (3) Ham had committed a sin against his family, therefore his family is cursed. [similar to David after the Bathsheba adultery.]; (4) Ham had already been blessed by God (9.1), so Noah passed the curse down to his son, Canaan.

No one really knows. But your point is really that Canaan was cursed to be a slave. The Hebrew word 'eved means "servant" as often as it means slave, so it's impossible to know. The Canaanites were never slaves to the Israelites, so it makes more sense to see it as "servant," meaning that the Canaanites would never have social or political dominance over the Israelites, which they never did.

> Noah should be a good man as he was chosen as the one have the right to survive in the end of the world.

Noah was a good man (Gn. 6.9). He was speaking prophetically here, since we know know was a preacher of righteousness (2 Pet. 2.5).

> Canaan his father saw his naked body.

No he didn't. Ham (Gn. 9.22) saw his father's naked body. Many scholars of ancient texts and words believe it's highly likely that Ham violated his father sexually. And despite Noah's drunkenness, Noah was not responsible for Ham's actions, whatever it was. Each son had a choice as to how they were going to respond (Gn. 9.23).

> Why Noah decided let Canaan be a slave? it indicated the destroyed world was a slave society.

No, it doesn't. It indicates that Canaan would be subservient to the Israelites.

> The knowledge of good and evil, bring human ability to recognize good and evil

No. In the ancient world, God was often associated with the concept of wisdom, and "the knowledge of good and evil" is a idiomatic way that they expressed that concept of wisdom. God was inviting them to acquire wisdom (godliness) in the proper way at the appropriate time by obedience to him. "Good and evil" is a legal idiom meaning "to formulate and articulate a judicial decision (Gn. 24.50; 31.24, 29; Dt. 1.39; 1 Ki. 3.9; 22.18). The idea is that they would seek God's ways instead of their own. The tree corresponds to their ability to decide. What was being forbidden to the humans was the power to decide for themselves what was in their best interests and what was not. They chose, instead, to make themselves instead of God the source of wisdom and the center of order.

> My understanding of this chapter is god do not want human has the recognition of good and evil, not judge people, or human society will be evil

No. God does indeed want us to recognize the difference between good and evil; that's the whole point.

> God did not came to full fill Noah’s curse was because he didn’t agree Canaan should be a slave.

God did fulfill Noah's curse. Canaan became subservient to Israel, who conquered them partially under Joshua and then completely under David.

> Thank you this is my understanding of why Noah cursed Canaan.

So what is really going on in the cursing of Canaan is prophetically showing that Israel will one day be given the land possessed by the Canaanites, and they will subdue the Canaanites as they possess the land. It is showing that from time immemorial the Canaanites were cursed, and we see it played out again and again in history until their subjugation under David and Solomon becomes complete.

[QQfffttt]

I disagree you mentioned wisdom. Bible said knowledge of good and evil fruit, I think is right. Not everyone brith with the wisdom but people all come with the ability to judge good and not good. The other part you were mentioning was quite similar as I described. I didn’t see we have completely different ideas, I think you were repeat my idea. Like Noah should be a good man, your word is Noah definitely a good man. We talking a lot about same things but why you act as we completely different.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge.