BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

33 Responses:

1. Paul Ballotta says:

   June 7, 2013 at 11:55 pm

   So instead of living in the tents of Shem, Japheth lives in the land of Shem, the Semitic people. Abram originated from Ur of Kasdim (Genesis 11:31), northwest of Haran. Abram is descended from Arpachasad (Genesis 10:22, 11:10-1). Arpachasad is believed (by some) to be the Kassites who migrated into “the land of Shem” from the north, Japheth’s land. In the J.P.S. Commentary on Genesis, the name of Arapachasad seems to be of Hurrian origin; “The first element of the name – Arpa – might be Arip, which is frequently found in Hurrian proper names.” Ur of Kasdim is interpreted as “Light of the Magicians”, according to the kabbalistic code expounded by Carlos Suares in his commentary on the Book of Genesis.

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2. Paul Ballotta says:

   June 9, 2013 at 10:02 pm

   Unfornate that “The Kabala Trilogy” by Carlos Suares is out of print. He interpreted the “Curse of Canaan” as an allusion to Biblical Canon, and how not to gaze on its nakedness with its inconsistancies and not having faith, viewing it merely as a tool of oppression.
   “Ham, identified by a play on words in Psalms CV. 23 and CVI. 22 with Kemi, ‘black’, a name given to Egypt, was according to Genesis X. 6, the father not only of Mizraim (Egypt) but of Put (Punt), the Negroes of the Somalia Coast; and of Cush, the Negros of Ethiopia, imported to Palestine as slaves. That Negroes are doomed to serve men of lighter colour was a view gratefully borrowed by Christians in the Middle Ages: a severe shortage of cheap manual labor, caused by the plague, made the re-institution of slavery attractive.”
   Hebrew Myths, by Robert Graves and Raphael Patai, p.122

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3. Robin says:

   June 10, 2013 at 11:06 am

   I would say, from what I have read so far, that we are dealing with some new “suggestions” and not solid assertions. The word, in the Ha’aretz article, was read by various individuals who all came to different conclusions and then, as a group, compromised on this new possibility. The article above uses the word “may.”

   Any potentially new reading should be held at arm’s length while the debates go back and forth. The commentaries that I have note that we probably, or most certainly, do not have all the information on what went on between Shem, Ham, and Japheth with regard to their drunken father and his situation. “The use of the plural ‘tents of Shem; suggests that a group of people is dwelling among Shem, not a singular God”, per the Word Biblical Commentary analysis which goes on to note that “Even the most righteous and their offspring may fall from grace in an unguarded moment. And such falls do have long-term consequences…..” including “the curse on Ham’s descendants, the Canaanites….”

   This interpretation is good enough for me for the time being. But the article in Haaretz and this website are both interesting.

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4. Bob Enyart says:

   June 10, 2013 at 1:34 pm

   If you Google: why was canaan cursed, not to be immodest, but my article often ranks #1 because we list the passages that show that the text is saying, explicitly via the common idiom, that Ham fathered Canaan by incest with his mother. These relevant passages are Lev. 20:11, 20-21; 18:6-8, 9-15; 1 Cor. 6:19; Ezek. 22:10; Hab. 2:15.

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5. George Brown says:

   June 10, 2013 at 2:55 pm

   It seems to me that popular dismissal of prophetic scripture as ancient superstition requires an unscientific alteration of evidential rules. Like the medieval desire to justify the enslavement of black skinned people based upon the “Hamitic” curse, today’s desire to avoid “racism” strongly motivates our consideration of these scriptures. The history of the Jewish people (Israel) with regard to biblical prophecy, the re-emergence of their nation and Hebrew language provide an excellent example of this phenomena. Similarly, literary and historic attestations to the resurrection of Jesus are ignored or dismissed out of hand to support disbelief by many who will give it no serious consideration yet readily consider any contrary “evidence” regardless how silly it may be. Mankind seems to have a great capacity to create theologies, independent of evidence, to support what he wants.

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6. Paul Ballotta says:

   June 12, 2013 at 12:57 am

   Thank you, Robin, for that quote in which “a group of people is dwelling among Shem.” That would include the Hurrians, the female term that the Egyptians applied to the land of Canaan. According to Forrest Reinhold in his booklet “Hurrian Hebrews”; “Beginning with the Egyptian New Kingdom ca. 1550 B.C., Hurru became their name for Palestine, and at times it even signified all Syria” (p.2). The Egyptian New Kingdom is likely the same as “A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8).
   In the Ugaritic myths of northern Canaan there is “The Legend of King Keret” (ANET p.142), whose throne was being undermined by the death of his household, and with the intention of getting a wife, raises an army and marches several days and attacks Udum (possibly Edom). Udum’s King Pabel sends messengers offering tribute;
   “‘Take it, Keret,
   In peace, in peace.
   And flee, O king, from my house;
   Withdraw, O Keret, from my court.
   Vex not Udum the Great,
   Even Udum the Grand.
   Udum is a gift of El,
   Even a present of the Father of Man.’
   Then send he two messengers back to him:-
   ‘What need have I of silver and yellow-glittering gold;
   Friendship by covenant and vassalage
   for ever;
   One-third of the chariot steeds
   In the stables of a handmaid’s son?
   Nay, what’s not in my house shalt thou give!
   Give me Lady Hurriya (hry),
   The fair, thy first begotten.'”

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7. Paul Ballotta says:

   June 12, 2013 at 4:17 am

   “In the OT is a word horim, ‘nobles,’ virtually the same as hori, ‘Horites.’ They are a part of Hebrew society” (Hurrian Hebrews p.19). In 1 Kings 21:8, Jezebel “wrote letters in Ahab’s name and, having sealed them with his seal, sent them to the elders and to the nobles (horim)…”
   In the Papyrus Anastasi I there is a satirical letter where one Egyptian scribe ridicules another scribe for his lack of knowledge of the land of Canaan, and he describes the perils of benig a “mahir” (Hurrian chariot warrior);
   “You art come into Joppa, and thou findest the meadow blossoming in its season. Thou breakest in to the inside and findest the fair maiden who is watching over the gardens. She takes thee to herself as a companion and gives thee the color of her lap. (But) thou art perceived and makest a confession. Judgement is passed on a mahir: thou must sell thy shirt of good Upper Egyptian linen. Tell (me) how thou sleepest every evening with a piece of wood over thee.”

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8. Eyal Solniki says:

   June 13, 2013 at 5:30 am

   Check out this link about the dead sea scrolls cover up. I though it was very interesting to see. http://www.simchajtv.com/the-dead-sea-scroll-cover-up-continues-to-unfold/

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9. Paul Ballotta says:

   June 14, 2013 at 11:11 pm

   Perhaps we can see the Dead Sea Scrolls as the vine brought from the land of Canaan by the spies;
   “They reached the wadi Eshcol, and there they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes – it had to be born on a carrying frame by two of them – and some pomegranates and figs” (Numbers 13:23).
   Perhaps the tablet written with what may be a Dead Sea Scroll scribe, “Gabriel’s Revelation”, is among the grapevine like a fig.
   There is an anti-Roman sentiment in this corpus of writings, and that’s probably the issue of Canaan being a “servant of servants” (Genesis 9:25). In the Amarna Tablets the Egyptian puppet-ruler of Jerusalem was Abdu Hepa (Servant of Hepa).
   “In the Amarna texts Abdu -Hepa was a ruler of Jerusalem. Since b, p and w can represent the same Hurrian phoneme, I should point out that Heba/Hiba/Hepa/Hipa has been compared to Eve, lit. Hawwah/Havah, “the mother of all living” (Gen. 3:20), and since Hepa was the Hurrian mother goddess, Hivite would be a worshipper of Hepa. This would explain the confusion between Horite and Hivite” (Hurrian Hebrews p.19).
   If you can look past the blinding light of the solar god incarnate in the Pharaoh, you can see ancient beliefs from the east transmitted to the Hebrews from the Hurrians.
   I remember another thing from Carlos Suares’ “Sepher Genesis”, about Joseph, and how it is the hand that is wounded that heals.
   And by the way it is “The Cabala Trilogy”, with a ‘C’. and ‘C’ stands for “Cleopatra”, and “cookie”, as the procession of ancient Egyptians playing musical instruments sang when performing for Oscar the Grouch back in the late 1990s, so that the children who are now eligable to vote can be triggered by a code-word like something out of “The Manchurian Candidate.”

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10. Allan Rchardson says:

    June 15, 2013 at 11:06 am

    2: seems to be a pun on Canaan/Canon, which is irrelevant because “canon” is a Greek word that would have been unknown to ancient Hebrews; besides, the Hebrew pronunciation is closer to “Kah-ah-NAN” while the Greek word is pronounced almost like English, “KAH-nohn.”

    I am wondering why would someone be cursed for ACCIDENTALLY barging in on his DRUNKEN father (especially if he was the first person to discover alcohol) naked? Noah might WANT to curse his son out of embarrassment for his OWN behavior, but neither Jewish nor Christian theology describes a God who would AGREE with such a curse pronounced in pique by an old man with a hangover, then ENFORCE it in subsequent history. The only exception would be if Ham HIMSELF believed the curse and passed it on to his descendants, who continued to believe it, thus bringing it on themselves.

    One must be cautious in seeing puns and homonyms across unrelated languages. At one time it occurred to me, for example, that the presumed pronunciation of the name of the Hebrew God, “Yah-weh,” is quite similar to the vocative, or direct address form, of the Latin name of the Roman god Jupiter: Yoh-weh (spelled JOVE). Do I take this to mean that the Romans originally worshiped the Hebrew god, or vice versa? Of course not, but it makes a good joke!

    Similarly, I once noticed that the usual transliteration of the Hebrew word for “king,” MLK, is coincidentally the same as the initials of Martin Luther KING, Jr. The only way that could have been planned is for his GRANDfather to have known enough Hebrew to name MLK, Sr. so as to make his initials spell their last name in Hebrew, but that seems extremely farfetched. Although this also makes an interesting trivia question.

    As a non-literalist student of the Bible, it seems more likely that oral traditions developed to use the Noah story as a way to explain their contemporary difficulties with other tribes around them. There are some moral points involved, however: if you abuse alcohol, you may embarrass yourself in front of your family and end up cursing an innocent person. And if you receive such a curse and BELIEVE in its power, that belief will GIVE it power over you until you stop believing it (something like the illusory bullets in the alien-imposed recreation of the OK Corral gunfight in one episode of Star Trek).

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