Israelites came from which son of noah

Ham tells his brothers and his brothers put a robe over their shoulders and walk backwards into the tent, so that they won't actually see their father naked, and they cover him with the robe. But when Noah wakes up and finds out what Ham did, he is furious, and he curses Canaan--Ham's son. Also, why does Noah then go further and say that he hopes his sone Jephath will end up taking all the land and all the bounty over Shem even and that Canaan as part of this will then be his slave?

Why the favoritism here? And why such wrath as Ham it wasn't his fault that his dad drank too much and passed out! And all he did was tell his brothers, probably so they could help and cover him up, which is what they did--very respectfully I might add, walking backwards and covering him up in such a way that they didn't even see his naked body. And what's the big deal about seeing someone naked anyway? We are like this today in our culture as well, and it all started when Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge.

That's when they started to feel shame. The answers below are specifically related to this question about the cultural issues surrounding nakedness and sexuality. If you are interested in the way Genesis 9 has been used to justify racism and slavery, you can find those responses under a related question here.

Well, this is a complex narrative about which many articles and books have been written. To try to summarize these findings would be impossible here so a short answer is in order.

First, beware of the legendary- ideological nature of the narrative. This foundational tale would then explain to the readers the reason why the Canaanites had to be subjugated: it was because Noah had already cursed them through their ancestor Ham, whom the narrative describes twice as the father of Canaan.

It is a map, a blueprint to humanity as these ancient writers understood it. Second, beware of the cultural-symbolic nature of the narrative. All of these things may be implicit in the narrative, though the text is not clear about any of them.

Still, the text mentions that Ham had done something to Noah and here is where the reader can find room for speculation alongside some of the ideas proposed above. In the first place, let us say that modesty, even prudery, and shame at nakedness were very much part of ancient Israelite morality. No doubt this was partly to distinguish ancient Israel sharply from the surrounding peoples and their pagan idolatrous religions, which probably involved a good deal of nakedness and sexual licence, at least in the eyes of the Israelites.

But that prudery applied, not to pre-pubescent children, but especially to adults of a certain social standing, for whom any kind of public nudity gravely compromised their dignity and honor. This can be seen in Exodus , where the priest must not climb up on the stone altar, lest his nakedness be exposed in so doing.

It can also be seen by the many rules and concerns about nakedness in Leviticus 18 and 20, Ezekiel 16 and , etc. In the second place, many Old Testament stories are told in large part to explain why we do and feel certain things today. They are called "aetiological" stories.

To take just one of many examples, a child might ask, "Why do we wear clothes? Finally, how does all this apply to Noah and his sons? And so he took his anger out on the son who had actually seen him naked. So to explain why both the Hamite Egyptians and the Canaanites were accursed as they obviously were, being Israel's sometime enemies , and how the Canaanites were allowed to survive but only as the slaves of the Israelites "hewers of wood and drawers of water" [Joshua , 23, 27] , the ancient author had to tell how the patriarch Noah had cursed both Canaan directly and his father Ham indirectly.

Thus we see how, in very many of these stories, it is not very useful to insist too much on the question of whether or not they are literally true. Rather, we must make allowances for the storyteller's art. For without the great poetic art of those who shaped and re-shaped, told and re-told these stories, generation after generation, these stories would not have survived to our day, no matter how literally true they might have been.

This story is an etiology an origin story that explains why the Israelites were able to take over the land and suppress the Canaanites. Instead, he tells his brothers thereby shaming him. Likely the story was told in two versions, one where Canaan is the one who sees his grandfather naked or does something to him and one where Ham sees his father naked. The story conflates the two and is inconsistent in carrying forth the name of the guilty party.

The reason for the story, however, is to state that the Canaanites are a cursed people because their eponymous ancestor, Canaan, was cursed. He is taking out his anger at himself on someone else.

This is a psychological explanation, not a theological one. But it reflects how a lot of us react. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content.

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Updated March 02, After the flood, Noah's sons and their wives and offspring repopulated the earth. The offspring of Shem inherited the Promised Land, displacing the Canaanites, the descendants of Ham. Shem and Japheth received Noah's blessing because they had covered their father's drunken nakedness, while Ham, on the other hand, violated their father by looking at his nakedness.

As a result, the descendants of Ham were cursed. The tablets found in Cappadocia seem to show that Shemites Assyrians had settled in that district also, but this was apparently an unimportant colony. Though designated sons of Shem, some of his descendants e. Five Sons of Shem see map below : 1. Elam Arabia 2. Asshur Assyria 3. Lud Lydians 4. Aram Aramaic, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Syria 5. Etymologies of Japheth: This name, in Genesis , seems to be explained by the phrase "may God make wide yapht, the American Standard Revised Version "enlarge" for Japheth," where yapht and Japheth are represented by the same consonants, but with different vowel-points.

The root of yapht is pathach, "to make wide. Japheth has therefore been explained as meaning "fair," from yaphah, the non-Sem and non-Hamitic races known to the Jews being all more or less whiteskinned. His Place among the Sons of Noah: In Genesis , as in other passages, Japheth occupies the 3rd place in the enumeration of the sons of Noah, but he is really regarded as the 2nd son, Ham being the youngest.

In the genealogical table, however Genesis , the descendants of Japheth are given first, and those of Shem last, in order to set forth Semitic affinities at greater length. Though this would seem to indicate that the fair races were the least known to the Jews, it implies that the latter were well disposed toward them, for Japheth was ultimately to dwell in the tents of Shem, and therefore to take part in Shem's spiritual privileges. Seven Sons of Japheth see map below : 1.

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