And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of
servants shall he be unto his brethren (Gen 9:25)
After the doings of the land of Egypt,
wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan,
whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their
ordinances. (Lev 18:3)
Commenting
on Lev 18:3, Jacob Milgrom wrote:
That Canaan was cursed (Gen 9:25) instead of
his father, Ham, the real perpetrator of the sexual crime against Noah (Gen
9:22), has been a conundrum that has vexed the ages. Now, however, a likely explanation
is at hand. According to the recently discovered Pesher Genesis 4Q252, col. 2
(Wacholder and Abegg 1992: 2.212-15; Eisenman and Wise 1992: 86-89), as
analyzed by Frōhlich (1994), Canaan was cursed instead of his father, Ham (Gen
9:20-22), because the sons of Noah were blessed by God (Gen 9:1); thus Ham’s
curse was passed down to his son Canaan (confirming R. Judah, Gen. Rab. 36:7). (Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 17-22 [AB 3A; New York:
Doubleday, 2000], 1519)
Column II of
4Q252 reads thusly:
1 in the year six-hundred and one of Noah’s life. On
the seventeenth day of the second month 3 the land dried up, on
the first (day) of the week. On that day, Noah went out of the ark, at the end
of a complete 3 year
of three-hundred and sixty-four days, on the first (day) of the week. On the
seventh 4
Blank one and six Blank Noah from the ark, at
the appointed time of a complete 5 year. Blank
Gen 9:24-27 And Noah awoke from his wine and knew what 6 his
youngest son had done. And he said: «Cursed be Canaan; he will be, for his
brothers, a slave of slaves! » But he did not 7 curse Ham, but only his
son, for God had blessed the sons of Noah. And in the tents of Shem he may
dwell. 8 He
gave the land to Abraham, his beloved. Blank Terah was one hundred
and fo[r]ty years old when he left 9 Ur of the Chaldees and
came to Haran, and Ab[ram was se]venty years old. Abram lived five years 10 in Haran,
and afterwards [Abram] went [to] the land of Canaan. Six[ty five years (?).] 11 The
heifer, the ram and the he-g[oat …] Abram … […] 12 the
fire when it passed […] … he took for him […] 13 for Ab[ram] to go [to
the land of] Canaan […] 14 Blank […] (The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, eds. Florentino García Martínez
and Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar [Leiden: Brill, 1997], 503)
Genesis Rabbah 36:7 reads as follows:
"And Noah awoke from his wine (Gen
9:24)": he was sobered from his wine. 'And knew what his youngest [qatan]
son had done to him.' Here [youngest] means, his worthless son, as you
read, 'Because the brazen altar that was before Ad-nai was too small [qatan]
to receive the bunt-offering, etc.' (I Kings 8:64). And He said: Cursed be
Canaan (Genesis 9:25): Ham disagreed. Rabbi Yehudah said: Since it is
written, 'And God blessed Noah and his sons' (Gen. 9:1), while there
cannot be a curse where a blessing has been given, consequently. He said: Cursed
be Canaan. Rabbi Nehemiah explained: It was Canaan who saw it [in the first
place] and informed them, therefore the curse is attached to him who did wrong.
Rabbi Berekiah said: Noah grieved very much in the Ark that he had no young son
to wait on him, and declared, ‘When I go out I will beget a young son to do
this for me.’ But when Ham acted thus to him, he exclaimed, ‘You have prevented
me from begetting a young son to serve me, therefore that man [your son] will
be a servant to his brethren!’ Rabbi Huna said in Rabbi Yosef’s name: [Noah
declared], ‘You have prevented me from begetting a fourth son, therefore I
curse your fourth son,’ Rabbi Huna also said in Rabbi Yosef’s name: You have
prevented me from doing something that is done in the dark, therefore your seed
will be ugly and dark-skinned. Rabbi Hiya said: Ham and the dog copulated in
the ark, therefore Ham came forth black-skinned while the dog publicly exposes
its copulation. Rabbi Levi said: This may be compared to one who minted his own
coinage in the very palace of the king, whereupon the king ordered: I decree
that his effigy be defaced and his coinage cancelled. Similarly, Ham and the
dog copulated in the Ark and were punished. (Source)