The Bible story of Noah and his sons is found in the first book of the Old Testament. Like many other stories in Genesis, it holds themes and purposes that echo out through the whole larger narrative of the Bible. This post will reflect on Noah’s relationship with his sons and some of the events that happened between them. We will cover the Bible events starting in the book of Genesis chapter 6 and stretching to chapter 12.
The Biblical Context: Understanding the Story of Noah and his sons
The whole Bible story begins in the Garden of Eden with God, Yahweh, creating the whole world. He did this magnificent act of creating by the words from His mouth – He spoke things into existence! He created Adam and Eve as the first human beings and they walked closely with God in the garden. That was what life was like until sin entered the scene. Suddenly, Adam and Eve were banished from the garden and from knowing such intimacy with God.
Adam and Eve suffered outside the Garden and they procreated (See sons of Adam and Eve in Bible), but the wickedness of sin had tainted their whole lives. Their children murdered each other out of jealousy. This sinful living continued for about a thousand years, with ten generations from Adam to Noah. The one more evil than the previous. God was deeply hurt and disappointed by His creation that had turned against Him.
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“The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” – Genesis 6:1-7
The Ark: A Symbol of Salvation and Obedience in the Bible
“But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.” – Genesis 6:8-10
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The story of the flood is probably one of the most popular Biblical stories. At the warning of a coming great flood, Noah followed God’s instructions for survival. (Genesis 6:11 onwards) He built a massive wooden Ark. Interestingly, historians have found that many ancient cultures have accounts of a massive flood like this one.
“By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.” – Hebrews 11:7
Photo by Jason W
“The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.” – Genesis 7:1-3
When the flood came, only the living creatures and human beings on board the Ark survived. Noah and his family were righteous before God because they listened to His warnings about the flood. They played a big role so that life on Earth could begin again.
Noah’s Righteousness and God’s Covenant
“The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth.” – Genesis 9:18-19
Shem was the middle child
Ham was the youngest (Genesis 9:24)
Japheth was the oldest brother (Genesis 10:21)
There is nothing in the Biblical text that suggests that Noah’s sons did not help him to construct the Ark
What did Noah’s sons’ names mean?
Shem means “fame” or “name”.
Ham means “hot” or “sunburnt”
Japheth means “may he have space” or “may God enlarge”
This is how the story of the Great Flood ends
Once the floodwaters had subsided and they walked on dry land, God made a covenant with Noah because of his righteousness. This is what God said:
“I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” – Genesis 8:9-11
In His great faithfulness and character as Creator of Earth, God made a sign of their covenant that would always serve as a reminder of their promise. The sign was the first rainbow! Noah’s family became God’s covenant people because they did what was right when all of humankind had turned evil. God had great mercy on them and He saved them from the rising waters of the flood.
The Blessings and Curses: The Fate of Shem, Ham, and Japheth
But then, in an unexpected plot twist “the text moves from the rainbows into the shadows” (as Richard Sipes put it). There is only one event from Noah’s life after the flood that the Bible tells us about, and this is it:
“Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.” – Genesis 9:20-23
It is not clear from the text whether Noah’s youngest son had done something to him in his drunken state or if he simply made fun of his father’s nakedness. What is clear is that Noah’s sons who were older handled the situation of Noah’s nakedness with more respect than Ham did.
The closely intertwined issue of Noah’s nakedness and shame
If you read this and you think: “So what? Noah was naked in the privacy of his own tent. What’s the big problem?” You are not the first modern person to reason this way. Robert Deffinbaugh sheds some light on the question:
“We are a part of a society that senses no shame and no shock at moral and sexual indecency. Virtually every kind of sexual intimacy is portrayed upon the movie and television screen. Even abnormal and perverted conduct has become routine to us.”
According to the Bible, shame about nakedness is an awareness that followed the first sin of Adam and Eve. This is the first echo of God’s bigger narrative that we find in the Bible story of Noah and his sons.
“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” – Genesis 3:6-10
The story continues with Noah waking up from his slumber.
Back to the story of Noah who got drunk and lay naked in his tent: When Noah heard what had happened, he cursed the son Canaan (Ham’s descendants) and spoke God’s blessing over the other two brothers. So, the son Ham received Noah’s curse but Shem and Japheth were honored. Bible scholars disagree about why the curse was given to Canaan – He may have been with his father and part of Noah’s humiliation or perhaps he was just an innocent bystander. Either way, Noah was furious…
““Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem.May God extend Japheth’s territory; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”
– Genesis 9:25-27
Photo by Maximilien T’Scharner
It is noteworthy that:
Shem is not really praised, but God is – Living near to God leads to blessing.
Japheth is not really blessed, but by remaining close to Shem, blessing falls on them.
God blessed all three sons of Noah (Genesis 9:1), but it was Noah who cursed two of them.
Noah and his Sons: Key Figures in the Post-Flood World
As we saw earlier, there were eight people inside the ark. Noah, his wife, and the three sons with their wives were the only people who were spared in the great flood. So, the descendants of Noah repopulated the whole Earth. Therefore, the Bible story of Noah and his sons is seen in Christianity as the history of all of humankind.
The descendants of Noah’s sons in the Bible
The descendants of Shem became the Semites (Jews). God’s covenant was fulfilled and the Bible tells us in Genesis 11 that Shem’s bloodline led all the way to Abram, the ancestor of the Semitic peoples. The Israelites, the people of God, came from Shem’s bloodline. There were ten generations between Noah and Abram, just like there were ten generations between Adam and Noah.
Then, in Genesis 12, we read that God gave Abram a covenant that sounds very similar to the one He made to Noah: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:2-3)
For a while in history, scholars taught that black people are descendants of Ham, but this prophecy spoken by Noah had nothing to do with race or skin color. But from Ham’s bloodline came the Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites. Later in the Bible’s narrative, we learn how the Israelites (from Shem) defeat and enslave the Canaanites (the descendants of Ham). Therefore, Noah’s curse came true! (See Joshua 9:23 and 1 Kings 9:20-21)
Bible scholars believe that the ancient powerful nation of Ethiopia comes from Japheth‘s descendants.
Lessons for Today: What Can We Learn from Noah and His Sons’ Bible Story?
Many of the themes in Adam and Eve’s action of sin are echoed in the story of Noah cursing his sons.
Adam and Noah were both farmers who tended to the soil.
Both Adam and Noah’s sins came from misusing the fruit from the land (the apple versus wine from the grape).
Shame is represented in both stories with nakedness.
In both cases, sin has consequences that lead to curses/prophecies being spoken.
Furthermore,
Noah’s drunkenness and shame indicate that sin survived the flood.
God’s saving action in providing the Ark shows that He still wants to save humanity.
The sons who covered their father’s nakedness, echo God offering covering to Adam and Eve.
Some have argued that the wooden Ark is echoed in the wooden cross of Christ.
Others have seen the flood as symbolism for baptism which is also being submersed in water to bring about new life.
The dove that flew out of the Ark is echoed in the dove that lands on Christ at His baptism scene.
Photo by Kristijan Arsov
What does all of this tell us?
God has been writing the same story since the very beginning.
The Bible story of Noah and his sons He loves the human beings that He created in His own image, yet they keep twisting good things into bad. Humans cannot seem to keep out of trouble! They sin, leading them into shame, which causes them to turn their backs on God.
Even though God tried to make a way to set it all right (with the flood), sin survived the flood. It became clear that people were unable to save themselves. They needed a Savior! That is why God made a promise that He will make a plan to make all things right. He promised to make a way to fix all that was broken.
“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” – Matthew 24:37-39
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Resources:
– An article on biblestudytools.com was read to ensure the facts given here are correct
– A Richard Sipes sermon on the topic was studied as well
– Learnreligions.com post on the Bible story of Noah and his sons was advised
Eljoh Hartzer is combining theology and art to nurture faith journeys across generations. She is a Masters-level Practical Theologian with the University of Stellenbosch. She is also a writer and editor in the niche of Christianity and children's content and she illustrates children's books. Eljoh resides in the Swartland area in the Western Cape province of South Africa.
You can follow Eljoh on LinkedIn or Instagram.
