The air hangs heavy as his ending exhalation spirals softly outward. His lungs don't draw another to replace it; his heart beats its last. Father Noah is gone (Genesis 9:29). We've spent so long with the man that it feels nigh impossible. We've walked with him from his birth nearly a millennium ago, or so the Bible pictures, when his father Lamech cradled him with a humble prayer (Genesis 5:29). Noah – may this man of rest bring comfort to the weariness of human hands, struggling against a cursed earth. Noah took his first steps in a hard-scrabble world tainted by evil running out of control, would-be heroes turning tyrant, violence and lawlessness reigning. But Noah, this boy, found favor in the eyes of the LORD God, and faced opposite the world (Genesis 6:1-9). One day, he heard the voice of that God, breaking through the stony heaven to warn of disaster and give him a ridiculous job: to build a boat big enough for the world (Genesis 6:13-21). Setting aside his celibate devotion, he married and raised three sons, who helped him pour all he had into this boat, a shocking and silent witness to the judgment to come (Genesis 6:22). As a herald of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5), Noah held out the prospect of salvation to all and sundry until the rain was falling. And he trusted the LORD to close the door on his kin and their critters (Genesis 7:16).
In all this, Noah presented an advance image of Jesus, building his Church to divine specifications, calling all to enter it, and washing the world with a baptism that drowns sin but ferries the Church to salvation (Genesis 7:1-24). Through the flood, God broke down the first world, unwinding it to its roots; but in remembering Noah, God saw a reason for life to go on. So he blew his Spirit, parted the waters, raised the land with its plants, called forth the birds and beasts and eight straggling souls onto the mountain height. The Lord God had given rest to the ark; now Noah spread a restful aroma heavenward with his worship, and put all to rights, a sabbath to cut the tape on a squeaky-clean creation (Genesis 8:1-22). Like the first people, humanity received again a blessing, against a grant of grace with food to eat, and again a law, one thing withheld: blood (Genesis 9:1-7). God even protected this second world with a covenant and a sign for all to see (Genesis 9:8-17).
Noah's life then wasn't quite two-thirds through yet. At some point in the decades to come, he craved a garden for his new world, so he planted a vineyard. From the grapes he grew, he made a rest-bringing wine – but this fruit, we found, packs a kick to it, and like the Adam before him, it left him naked in his tent (Genesis 9:18-21). Now today, “Noah awoke from his wine” – he sobered up, albeit probably with a hard-won hangover – “and he knew what his young son had done to him” (Genesis 9:24). He had been humiliated by his son Ham, who had infiltrated his tent, gazed at and deconstructed his naked authority, and gone on to spread his shame in the street, as though he were a powerless captive (Genesis 9:22). His other sons, Shem and Japheth, had resisted their brother's tempting song, and had gone out of their way to remedy his indignity by cloaking his nakedness in sightless silence (Genesis 9:23). Yet Noah now needs to reestablish himself as a man of authority.1 And he'll do so by sitting in judgment on his sons for their actions in the aberrant episode of his apparent abdication.
This is the point, after everything we've been through together, when for the first time we hear Noah break his silence; here begin his first spoken words in scripture.2 And it doesn't start out pretty. You have to figure, if we just saw the fall in the garden repeat itself, we're at the part of the replay when God questions Adam and Eve and then starts speaking in curses of judgment. And that's the very first word out of Noah's mouth: “Cursed” (Genesis 9:25). Alas, “the new world is not free from curse.”3 But since Shem and Japheth did what Adam and Eve didn't in resisting temptation, perhaps the curse won't be the last word of the day. “The LORD's curse is on the house of the wicked,” we're told, “but he blesses the dwelling of the righteous” (Proverbs 3:33).
Since Ham played the snakiest of roles, we expect him to get reamed out with the words, “Cursed be Ham.” To our surprise, that's not what Noah says. “Cursed be Canaan,” we hear (Genesis 9:25), having been reminded over and over that “Ham was the father of Canaan” (Genesis 9:18). This surprise twist has been confusing us for two thousand years plus. If Ham's done the crime, why's his kid doing the time? Some readers speculate there was an earlier version of the story with Canaan in Ham's place,4 or read between the lines to find Canaan as “a participant in the offense against Noah” somehow.5 But as we have our Bible, “no clear wrongdoing great or small has been indicated on his part.”6 So why does Noah pick on this baby of the family instead?
Why not Ham directly? Maybe in part “because of the nearness of kin,” because he was just too close to Ham to bear it.7 But it might have more to do with how the chapter started, when “God blessed Noah and his sons” (Genesis 9:1). Even in the garden, God never directly cursed Adam or Eve in their person, since he'd blessed them at the start. God later says, “You shall not curse the people [who] are blessed” (Numbers 22:12). So how could Noah dare? “He did not curse Ham, but his son, because God blessed the sons of Noah.”8
So as not to contravene God's blessing, Noah punishes more indirectly. Last Sunday, we saw the parallels with a story of David's wife Michal who judges him naked in public, despises him in her heart, and berates him when he comes home from celebrating the LORD's goodness (2 Samuel 6:20). There's a reproductive consequence for the crime.9 The last we read of Michal is that “Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death” (2 Samuel 6:23). The curse Noah speaks can't make Ham childless – he's already a dad – but he can be “cursed through his one son.”10 Then “the father is... more deeply saddened at the punishment paid by his son,”11 enduring perhaps “greater anguish” than if the curse had met Ham under his own name.12
Ham should have known better. As a father himself several times over, he challenged his father's fatherhood. Canaan, as the youngest and most impressionable, would see that and be profoundly shaped by it. How could Canaan ever respect Ham's fatherhood for its own sake now? Seeing Ham throw tradition out the window, why would Canaan ever deem him trustworthy? Ham has burned down every support for parenting his own son; it's bound to impact Canaan's future life and behavior. Canaan will struggle to ever understand life as other than self-will versus coercion, license versus slavery. All Canaan knows is that his shame is his dad's fault; Noah's words drive a wedge between Ham and Canaan, putting Ham in a position to be just as resented by his son as Noah has been by Ham.13 By cursing Canaan, Noah gives Ham as close as possible to what he dished out.
Still, even if we see the logic and maybe the inevitability, we can't help but ask how it's fair to Canaan, that his teeth be set on edge by Daddy Ham's sour grapes (Ezekiel 18:2). But if we step back, we realize that Noah is being, not unaccountably cruel, but unaccountably kind. Canaan isn't being cursed as an individual, but as a stand-in for the Canaanite nations said to come from him. Noah utters this curse and leaves it as a possibility in the hands of God, to be unfolded as his justice sees fit in later history.14 Until their “iniquity is complete,” God doesn't let Noah's curse touch their lives at all. If they choose not to walk in Ham's ways, then it will never touch them at all (Ezekiel 18:14-17). Ultimately, it's their own later behavior that earns Noah's curse (Leviticus 18:27). It's Canaanite society as Israel actually saw it that's the target of Noah's curse here.15
Now, that's mighty merciful. Noah could have spoken his curse against Ham – but “had he been cursed, all the sons of Ham... would have been cursed along with Ham,”16 so “the punishment would have passed to the race as a whole.”17 And that's exactly what Noah doesn't want. Noah skips over Ham as well as his three oldest sons, choosing only the youngest one whose descendants would earn it. For the rest of the seed of Ham, there's no sword of fate hanging over their heads; “the other descendants of Ham escaped the curse.”18
And that's really important, because these words of Noah are going to be heavily and heart-breakingly abused to justify horrendous evils – especially here in America, where, through “a single perverseness of interpretation,”19 many people read the words of this curse as an endorsement of racial supremacy and an institution of slavery. It never ceases to dismay how badly we're able to misread the Bible. Every now and then in the early church, somebody would smooth out the story in retelling, saying that not Canaan but “Ham became a servant of servants for both of his brothers.”20 One eccentric book, over five centuries after the apostles, jumbled things further and identified Africans, Egyptians, and Indians as the cursed offspring of Canaan.21 What made things worse is when the story reached the ears of the first Muslims, who – not having Bibles to set the record straight, and getting deeply into slave trading after conquering Africa – pictured all descendants of Ham as black slaves.22 A long season of Islamic rule in Spain left these toxic ideas to leach slowly into Europe in the Middle Ages,23 so once the slave trade took off, Europeans reinterpreted this verse to explain differences in skin color.24 But it was especially here that Noah's curse became crucial to the quest to justify race-based slavery.25 American defenders of slavery wielded this verse as “a charm to spellbind opposition” which they never left home without.26 One critic called it “the oldest bill of rights slaveholders are wont to plead.”27
Oblivious to where their ideas really came from, some tried changing the words in their Bibles to conform to Arabic copies that curse Ham.28 They thought, after all, that Ham's name meant 'black,' and interpreted Noah's three sons racially.29 Even when they admitted Canaan was the one cursed, they lazily identified Canaan with Africa30 or else assumed he should be “considered inclusive of Ham's descendants in the other branches.”31 They pushed their own views into the Bible under the guise of “facts and history,” figuring that since slavery and Africans seemed to go together naturally, it just had to be what Noah meant.32 Reasoning circularly back to what they wanted to believe, they concluded that Noah's words were an eternal decree by the Holy Spirit where “God appointed the race of Ham judicially to slavery,”33 an institution they defended as “a cornerstone of a good society..., essential for producing and maintaining social order.”34 (A ridiculous position, but a sincere one. Sincere, and wicked.)
It's important to hear those voices from our national past, and to know how they got there, as a reminder of just how much damage we can do when we read into the Scriptures what we already want to believe, instead of allowing the goodness of the Scriptures challenge and shape us. Through the power of self-delusion, many American men and women solemnly believed that Scripture told them their obvious evil was good, and they built their society on it and waged war to defend it – even while clearer eyes saw that their tortured readings borrowed “the worst logic the devil ever used,”35 in which, they said, “it is difficult to decide when the monstrous or the ludicrous predominates.”36 These clearer eyes rightly pointed out that the curse was confined to Canaan only,37 that Canaanites weren't black,38 that none of the African nations traced descent from Canaan,39 and that, thanks to generations of sexual abuse of female slaves, a large proportion of African-Americans were no longer legal heirs of Ham anyway.40 They asked how slaveholders could be sure Noah's curse was still in force,41 or that they themselves weren't heirs of Canaan,42 especially since “probably more of the posterity of Shem and Japheth... have been enslaved... than those of Ham have. ”43 They questioned whether Canaan's servitude was to be “individual bondage” rather than “national subjection and tribute,”44 and showed that the Bible could've meant nothing like the crime of American slavery.45 They left the self-deluded without excuse.
No one could deny, though, that Noah's words of curse changed the relationships among his sons, and sorted the world into winners and losers in a way there just hadn't been on the ark. So here Noah turns from the line of Ham to the line of another son, Shem. To balance the curse, we expect here to read a blessing, and we do – but indirectly.46 Noah identifies the LORD as “the God of Shem” (Genesis 9:26). We haven't heard of the LORD as God of Adam, God of Abel, God of Enoch, or even God of Noah, but he's God of Shem. And Noah blesses this God of Shem, giving the LORD credit for Shem's godly kindness. Noah honors Shem in the best way possible: by glorifying God on his account. That's far better than any praise that could attach to my name or your name. So much better than hearing, “What a great job!”, “What a great sermon!”, is to hear, “What a great God!” The gift Noah gives his son is that the LORD should be “recognized and hallowed as the author of Shem's life and victories.”47 And so “in blessing God, he made Shem beneficiary of greater blessing.”48 Wherever Shem settles, Noah hopes there the LORD will be: “May the LORD dwell in the dwelling place of Shem.”49 What's funny in all this is that Shem has the Bible's least creative name. Because that's what the name 'Shem' means: 'Name.'50 “Hi, what's your name?” “Name... just Name.” The God of Name, the God of Renown, is Shem's God. So the psalmists will forever cry, “Sing to the LORD, bless his Shem” (Psalm 96:2), and call out, “For your Shem's sake, O LORD, preserve my life!” (Psalm 143:11). In this, we know we expect Shem to lead to Jesus.
But there's one last brother to mention, Japheth, whose name probably isn't even Hebrew, but it makes for a good Hebrew pun, because it sounds so much like the Hebrew word for 'wide' or 'open,' which is exactly what Noah prays for Japheth.51 It sounds, at first blush, like a prayer for Japheth's territorial stretch and prosperity, and early Christians figured he got just that: “Japheth increased and became powerful in his inheritance in the north and in the west,”52 with “many descendants.”53 And yet, when Noah prays for Shem, he uses God's first name – LORD, Yahweh – but in praying for Japheth, Noah uses only the generic word 'God,' Elohim.54 Japheth may prosper in the world, be big and strong, multiply and fill the earth... but they'll know God more distantly.
So Noah adds a further prayer for Japheth: that he will “dwell in the tents of Shem” (Genesis 9:27). Japheth, so great and vast, will move in to Shem's space. Some have read this as the privilege of conquest, Japheth taking Shem's property away and dispossessing him. Or maybe this reminds us that all Japheth's decency and nobility can only achieve true greatness through Shem's spiritual shepherding.55 So Noah prays that Japheth and his seed will “participate in God's special blessings upon Shem” and, through him, come to know not just a god but the LORD.56 Noah's prayer for God to make Japheth 'wide' is just as much a prayer to make Japheth 'open' – open of heart, open of soul, open to receive, open to respond, open to a share of Shem's blessedness.57
At each of these stages, Noah reiterates the substance of his curse on Canaan, but presents it as a blessing to the other two lines. For Shem and his God, the LORD, “let Canaan be his servant” (Genesis 9:26). And once Japheth comes to share in what's Shem's, “let Canaan be his servant” (Genesis 9:27). Looking ahead, we know that God chooses tribes, the Hebrew offspring of Shem, and that they dwell in a foreign country, Egypt, “the land of Ham” (Psalm 105:23). But the LORD performed “wondrous works in the land of Ham” (Psalm 106:22), striking down “the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham; then he led out his people” (Psalm 78:51-52). And he led them with careful instructions to “not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, nor do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you” (Leviticus 18:3).
And so after this exodus from the land of Ham, the LORD “brought them to his holy land..., he drove out the nations before them... and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents,” the tents of Shem in the land of Canaan (Psalm 78:54-55). Canaan fought that tooth-and-nail, but “the Israelites destroyed the dwelling places of Canaan and pressed their leaders into bondage.”58 But one Canaanite family confessed their faith that “the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath” (Joshua 2:11). “Justified by works” (James 2:25), the Bible says this family was “saved alive” (Joshua 6:25), and later tradition made them, through Rahab, ancestors of King David (Matthew 1:5). Another Canaanite district, Gibeon, chose to outwit Israel by tricking them into a peace treaty (Joshua 9:3-4). Joshua spared them but applied Noah's words to them: “You are cursed, and some of you shall never be anything but servants and cutters of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God” (Joshua 9:23). Obviously, Israel didn't start buying and selling Gibeonites. They had the privilege of carring out essential tasks for God's worship – filling the water basin in which priests purified themselves (Exodus 30:20), chopping the wood that would be burned up with holy sacrifices on the altar (Leviticus 1:7).59 They gave their service at the Tent of the God of Shem, and so “this case of the Gibeonites,” one early Christian said, “fulfilled... the servitude of Canaan” already.60
Centuries passed, and, “after being oppressed by the righteous people for many generations,” gradually the rest of Canaan's remnant “submitted to their control.”61 Yet, far from mistreating the Gibeonites, King David respected their rights and even made them an offering of atonement for Saul's zealous cruelty toward them (2 Samuel 21:1-9). David left the original Tent and Altar at Gibeon (1 Chronicles 16:39-42), where Solomon offered sacrifice and received his great wisdom (1 Kings 3:4-15), after which Solomon began building God a new house, a new tent, a temple (1 Kings 6:1-38). But he relied on the labor of Canaan's remnant: “these Solomon drafted as forced labor, as it is to this day; but of the people of Israel, Solomon made no slaves” (1 Kings 9:21-22). That shining temple where the LORD God condescended to dwell on earth? Canaanite hands carried the stones, Canaanite hands set the beams in place, Canaanite hands continued to bring the wood and water. Canaanites humbly offered these unseen labors as the backbone of the glorification of God! Yes, Noah, Canaan is a servant of the servants of God, that the LORD be exalted!
Isaiah there dreamt a day when the sons of Japheth, “who have not heard [God's] fame or seen [God's glory,” would hear the good news and gather to worship the LORD at that place (Isaiah 66:19-23). But it would have to wait. For the sins of the sons of Shem, they were subjected beneath “the descendants of Japheth who would rob the descendants of Shem.”62 But then the Word of God took on Semite flesh and Semite blood, pitching his tent among us as Jesus Christ (John 1:14), “the son of Shem, the son of Noah” (Luke 3:36). Salvation is from the Semites (John 4:22), and Jesus ministered chiefly to Shem while on earth. But he welcomed and celebrated the faith of a Roman centurion, a son of Japheth, and a Canaanite woman, a daughter of Ham, as even greater still (Matthew 8:10; 15:28). And so it was fulfilled: “Our God turned the curse into a blessing” (Nehemiah 13:2). Both trusted that in Jesus they could find a place in the tents of Shem, that a crumb of mercy there is wider than the world outside, that it's better to labor in the tabernacle of God than to rule where demons roam.
When St. Paul was sent forth, he reached out to his fellow Semites wherever he went, but acknowledge himself chiefly “an apostle to the Gentiles” (Romans 11:13), longing to bring Japheth into the tents of Shem. He'd found “the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations,” not even to Noah, “as it has now been revealed” (Ephesians 3:4-5). The mystery was that in the tents of Shem, Gentiles too taste the promises of God, Gentiles too share an inheritance, Gentiles too can belong to this body (Ephesians 3:6). Shem, who foreshadows Christ, is “the foundation, the root,”63 but Japheth and Ham “were grafted in among the others and now share in the root of richness” (Romans 11:17). Christ “is our peace, who has... broken down the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14), the dividing curse of Noah (Galatians 3:13).
Now “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free..., for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). “The same Lord is the Lord of all” (Romans 10:12), the God of Shem but also God of Japheth and God of Ham (Romans 3:29-30), “bestowing his riches on all who call on him” (Romans 10:12), that Jesus “might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross” (Ephesians 2:16). The apostle's preaching stretched the tent to the world, ushering Japheth in, to the point that Martin Luther thought Ham could only enter by “irregular grace” because he remained barred from “access to the spiritual blessing.”64 But today, more than one in four Christians lives in Africa, on track to be more than one in three in a couple decades – Ham's will become a plurality voice in the global church choir.65
The beautiful truth is that Noah's curses and blessings were prophecies of a salvation history that ends with a tent wide open – wide open for all. It's just like Christians were saying nearly from the beginning: “Therefore, men from every land, whether slaves or free men, who believe in Christ and recognize the truths of his words and those of the prophets, fully realize that they will one day be united with him... to inherit imperishable blessings for all eternity,” in “the true tent that the Lord set up” (Hebrews 8:2), the Lord who bears the Name that is above every 'shem' (Philippians 2:9)!66 For there, in that tent where “no longer will there be anything accursed..., his servants will worship him” as one blessed body, world without end (Revelation 22:3). Amen.
1 Gideon R. Kotzรฉ, “Looking Again at the Nakedness of Noah,” in Renate M. van Dijk-Coombes, Liana C. Swanepoel, and Gideon R. Kotzรฉ, eds., From Stone Age to Stellenbosch: Studies on the Ancient Near East in Honour of Isak (Sakkie) Cornelius (Zaphon, 2021), 205.
2 Victor P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis, Chapters 1-17 (Eerdmans, 1990), 324; Joseph E. Coleson, Genesis 1-11: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition (Beacon Hill Press, 2012), 260.
3 Peter J. Harland, The Value of Human Life: A Study of the Story of the Flood (Genesis 6-9) (Brill, 1996), 118.
4 John Day, From Creation to Babel: Studies in Genesis 1-11 (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), 140-141.
5 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis, JPS Torah Commentary (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 66.
6 Philo of Alexandria, On Sobriety 7 §31, in Loeb Classical Library 247:461.
7 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 1.142, in Loeb Classical Library 242:69.
8 4Q252 ii.6-7, in Emanuel Tov and Donald W. Parry, eds., The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader (Brill, 2004), 2:109; cf. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 139.1, in Thomas B. Falls, Justin Martyr: Dialogue with Trypho (Catholic University of America Press, 2003), 208; John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 29.30, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 82:212.
9 Brian Rainey, “Indecent Exposure: Social Shame, 'erwรข, and the Interpretation of Gen 9:20-27,” Vetus Testamentum 70/4-5 (2020): 688-689.
10 Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Genesis 7.4, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 91:146.
11 Ambrose of Milan, On Noah 32 §120, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 140:101.
12 John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 29.21, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 82:213.
13 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 210-211.
14 Anne Marie Kitz, Cursed Are You! The Phenomenology of Cursing in Cuneiform and Hebrew Texts (Eisenbrauns, 2014), 172.
15 Kenneth A. Mathews, Genesis 1-11, Christian Standard Commentary (Holman Reference, 2023), 402.
16 Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Genesis 7.3.3, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 91:145-146.
17 Theodoret of Cyrus, Questions on Genesis 58, in Library of Early Christianity 1:121.
18 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 1.142, in Loeb Classical Library 242:69.
19 Albert Barnes, An Inquiry into the Scriptural Views of Slavery (Perkins & Purves, 1846), 207.
20 Aphrahat the Persian, Demonstrations 14.40, in Moran 'Eth'o 24:97.
21 Cave of Treasures 21.16, 23, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures 1:555-556; cf. discussion in David M. Goldenberg, Black and Slave: The Origins and History of the Curse of Ham (De Gruyter, 2017), 76-78.
22 David M. Goldenberg, Black and Slave: The Origins and History of the Curse of Ham (De Gruyter, 2017), 96-103.
23 David M. Goldenberg, Black and Slave: The Origins and History of the Curse of Ham (De Gruyter, 2017), 120-124.
24 David M. Goldenberg, Black and Slave: The Origins and History of the Curse of Ham (De Gruyter, 2017), 135-139.
25 David M. Goldenberg, Black and Slave: The Origins and History of the Curse of Ham (De Gruyter, 2017), 153-159.
26 Theodore Dwight Weld, The Bible Against Slavery: An Inquiry into the Patriarchal and Mosaic Systems on the Subject of Human Rights, 4th ed. (American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838), 66.
27 Luther Lee, Slavery Examined in the Light of the Bible (Wesleyan Methodist Book Room, 1855), 52.
28 Thomas Newton, Dissertations on the Prophecies, Which Have Remarkably Been Fulfilled and At This Time Are Fulfilling in the World (J. and R. Tonson, 1759), 1:21; Josiah Priest, Slavery as It Relates to the Negro or African Race, Examined in the Light of Circumstances, History, and the Holy Scriptures (C. Van Benthuysen, 1843), 77.
29 Josiah Priest, Slavery as It Relates to the Negro or African Race, Examined in the Light of Circumstances, History, and the Holy Scriptures (C. Van Benthuysen, 1843), 28.
30 Thornton Stringfellow, A Brief Examination of Scripture Testimony on the Institution of Slavery (Office of the Religious Herald, 1841), 6.
31 James Munston Olmstead, Noah and His Times: Embracing the Consideration of Various Inquiries Relative to the Antediluvian and Earlier Postdiluvian Periods, with Discussions of Several of the Leading Questions of the Present Day (Gould and Lincoln, 1853), 286.
32 John Richter Jones, Slavery Sanctioned by the Bible (J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1861), 30.
33 Josiah Priest, Slavery as It Relates to the Negro or African Race, Examined in the Light of Circumstances, History, and the Holy Scriptures (C. Van Benthuysen, 1843), 86.
34 Stephen R. Haynes, Noah's Curse: The Biblical Justification of American Slavery (Oxford University Press, 2002), 90.
35 Reuben Hatch, Bible Servitude Re-examined, with Special Reference to Pro-Slavery Arguments and Infidel Objections (Applegate & Co., 1862), 64.
36 Jacob L. Stone, Slavery and the Bible; or, Slavery as Seen in its Punishment (B. F. Sterett, 1863), 11.
37 Samuel Sewall, The Selling of Joseph: A Memorial (Bartholomew Green and John Allen, 1700), 3; Cornelius Henry Edgar, The Curse of Canaan Rightly Interpreted, and Kindred Topics (Baker & Godwin, 1862), 13-14.
38 George Bourne, A Condensed Anti-Slavery Bible Argument (S. W. Benedict, 1845), 25; Jacob L. Stone, Slavery and the Bible; or, Slavery as Seen in its Punishment (B. F. Sterett, 1863), 11.
39 G. Buckingham, The Bible Vindicated from the Charge of Sustaining Slavery (Temperance Advocate Office, 1837), 18; Albert Barnes, An Inquiry into the Scriptural Views of Slavery (Perkins & Purves, 1846), 86; Luther Lee, Slavery Examined in the Light of the Bible (Wesleyan Methodist Book Room, 1855), 53.
40 Luther Lee, Slavery Examined in the Light of the Bible (Wesleyan Methodist Book Room, 1855), 57.
41 Cornelius Henry Edgar, The Curse of Canaan Rightly Interpreted, and Kindred Topics (Baker & Godwin, 1862), 15-16.
42 Luther Lee, Slavery Examined in the Light of the Bible (Wesleyan Methodist Book Room, 1855), 55-56.
43 George Bourne, A Condensed Anti-Slavery Bible Argument (S. W. Benedict, 1845), 25.
44 Theodore Dwight Weld, The Bible Against Slavery: An Inquiry into the Patriarchal and Mosaic Systems on the Subject of Human Rights, 4th ed. (American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838), 66.
45 Albert Barnes, An Inquiry into the Scriptural Views of Slavery (Perkins & Purves, 1846), 207-208.
46 Victor P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis, Chapters 1-17 (Eerdmans, 1990), 325.
47 Bruce K. Waltke, Genesis: A Commentary (Zondervan Academic, 2001), 150.
48 John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 29.25, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 82:216.
49 Jubilees 7:13, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 2:69.
50 Richard S. Hess, Studies in the Personal Names of Genesis 1-11 (Eisenbrauns, 2009), 29-30.
51 Richard S. Hess, Studies in the Personal Names of Genesis 1-11 (Eisenbrauns, 2009), 31-32.
52 Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Genesis 7.4, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 91:146.
53 Theodoret of Cyrus, Questions on Genesis 58, in Library of Early Christianity 1:121.
54 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis, JPS Torah Commentary (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 67; Bruce K. Waltke, Genesis: A Commentary (Zondervan Academic, 2001), 151.
55 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 215.
56 Joseph E. Coleson, Genesis 1-11: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition (Beacon Hill Press, 2012), 262.
57 John Goldingay, Genesis (Baker Academic, 2020), 171.
58 Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Genesis 7.4, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 91:146.
59 John Goldingay, Genesis (Baker Academic, 2020), 170.
60 Theodoret of Cyrus, Questions on Genesis 58, in Library of Early Christianity 1:121.
61 Ambrose of Milan, On Noah 28 §105, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 140:93.
62 Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 139.2, in Thomas B. Falls, Justin Martyr: Dialogue with Trypho (Catholic University of America Press, 2003), 208.
63 Philo of Alexandria, On Sobriety 13 §65, in Loeb Classical Library 247:477.
64 Martin Luther, Lectures on Genesis 9:27, in Luther's Works 2:179.
65 “Status of Global Christianity, 2024, in the Context of 1900-2050,” Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. <https://www.gordonconwell.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2024/01/Status-of-Global-Christianity-2024.pdf>. See also Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2002), 3.
66 Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 139.5, in Thomas B. Falls, Justin Martyr: Dialogue with Trypho (Catholic University of America Press, 2003), 209.
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