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Noah’s Inebriated Curse (Gen 9:20–27)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 July 2025
Abstract
Genesis 9:20–27 raises difficult exegetical questions, such as why Noah curses Canaan rather than Ham in 9:25–27. Additionally, the text has an infamous history of providing a popular defense of slavery in Africa and the United States. Some African American interpreters have argued that Noah’s curse should not be understood as divinely sanctioned words because Noah is still under the influence of alcohol when he speaks. Linking Noah’s actions in Gen 9:20–24 with his words in 9:25–27, these interpreters attend to the literary context of Noah’s speech while also combatting one of the most noxious uses of the Bible in recent centuries. This article adds exegetical support to this approach, demonstrating how this interpretation avoids the pitfalls of other treatments while working exceptionally well on a literary level with the passage itself. All of Noah’s behaviors in 9:21–27 align with clinical descriptions of alcohol intoxication.
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- © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the President and Fellows of Harvard College
Footnotes
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The author thanks Justin Reed, Jeremy Schipper, Mark Brett, and the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable feedback on earlier drafts of this article. Any remaining errors belong to the author. Unless otherwise noted, biblical translations also belong to the author.
References
1 On the use of Noah’s curse in Africa, see Mohamed Adhikari, “The Sons of Ham: Slavery and the Making of Colored Identity,” South African Historical Journal 27 (1992) 95–112, esp. 112; David M. Goldenberg, Black and Slave: The Origin and History of the Curse of Ham (Studies of the Bible and Its Reception; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2017), esp. 176–78 n. 18; Stephen R. Haynes, Noah’s Curse: The Biblical Justification of American Slavery (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) 171–73; Emmanuel Katongole with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Mirror to the Church: Resurrecting Faith after Genocide in Rwanda (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009) 56–59; Colin Kidd, The Forging of Races: Race and Scripture in the Protestant Atlantic World, 1600–2000 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006) 23; Jacob Meiring, “Shem, Ham, Japheth and Zuma—Genesis 9:25–27 and Masculinities in South Africa,” Stellenbosch Theological Journal 2 (2016) 223–40; James Chukwuma Okoye, Genesis 1–11: A Narrative-Theological Commentary (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2018) 116; Gerald West, Genesis (The People’s Bible Commentary; Oxford: Bible Reading Fellowship, 2006) 71; Gunther Wittenberg, “ ‘… Let Canaan Be His Slave’ (Gen 9:26): Is Ham Also Cursed?,” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 74 (1991) 46–56, esp. 46, 55–56; Edwin Yamauchi, “The Curse of Ham,” CTR 6 (2009) 45–60, at 56–58; cf. Temba T. Rugwiji, “Conceptualizing the Biblical View of Curse (Gen. 9:25–27) as a Metaphor for Natural Resource Curse in Zimbabwe: An Indigenous Knowledge Systems Perspective,” OTE 31 (2018) 363–88. For treatments of this curse in American history, see David M. Goldenberg, The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003); idem, Black, esp. 146–59, 218–37, appendix II; Haynes, Curse; Stacy Davis, This Strange Story: Jewish and Christian Interpretation of the Curse of Canaan from Antiquity to 1865 (Lanham: University Press of America, 2008); Sylvester A. Johnson, The Myth of Ham in Nineteenth-Century American Christianity: Race, Heathens, and the People of God (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004); Thomas Virgil Peterson, Ham and Japheth: The Mythic World of Whites in the Antebellum South (ATLA Monograph Series 12; Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1978). Many scholars have blamed Jewish communities for the advent of racist interpretations of Genesis 9:20–27, which has significant problems of its own. See David H. Aaron, “Early Rabbinic Exegesis on Noah’s Son Ham and the So-Called ‘Hamitic Myth,’ JAAR 63 (1995) 721–59; David M. Goldenberg, “The Curse of Ham: A Case of Rabbinic Racism?,” in Struggles in the Promised Land: Towards a History of Black-Jewish Relations in the United States (ed. Jack Salzman and Cornel West; New York: Oxford University Press, 1997) 21–51; Jennifer Knust, “Who’s Afraid of Canaan’s Curse? Genesis 9:18–29 and the Challenge of Reparative Reading,” BibInt 22 (2014) 388–413, at 404–6; Jonathan Schorsch, Jews and Blacks in the Early Modern World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004) 135–65; Yamauchi, “Curse,” 49–52. To understand the historic origins of racist interpretations of this text, readers do well to consult David M. Whitford, The Curse of Ham in the Early Modern Era: The Bible and the Justifications for Slavery (Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2009). See also the sources mentioned in Justin M. Reed, “The Injustice of Noah’s Curse and the Presumption of Canaanite Guilt: A New Reading of Genesis 9:18–29,” (PhD diss., Princeton Theological Seminary, 2020) 38–48.
2 Jacob Neusner, The Babylonian Talmud: A Translation and Commentary (22 vols.; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2005) 16:369; Yisrael Isser Zvi Herczeg et al., Torah with Rashi’s Commentary Translated, Annotated, and Elucidated (ArtScroll Series; 5 vols.; Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah, 1999) 1:96.
3 Robert Graves and Raphael Patai believe castration is “plausibl[e]” (Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis [New York: Greenwich House, 1964] 121–24). There are, however, problems with Graves and Patai’s treatment, as explained in Aaron, “Exegesis,” 735–39. According to Gen. Rab. 36.7 and b. Sanh. 70a, castration is suspected because Noah curses Ham’s fourth son. The logic is that Noah does so in retaliation for being unable to have a fourth son.
4 Knust, “Afraid,” 394–95. See also how non-Israelites are presented in Gen 19:30–38; 34:1–31 (Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary [New York: W. W. Norton, 2004] 52–53; cf. Randall C. Bailey, “They’re Nothing But Incestuous Bastards: The Polemical Use of Sex and Sexuality in Hebrew Canon Narratives,” in Reading from This Place, Volume 1: Social Location and Biblical Interpretation in the United States [ed. Fernando F. Segovia and Mary Ann Tolbert; Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1995] 121–38, at 137).
5 Frederick W. Bassett believes that this story originally spoke of incest before 9:23 was added by a redactor (“Noah’s Nakedness and the Curse of Canaan: A Case of Incest?,” VT 21 [1971] 232–37, at 232–34). David Frankel makes a similar point (“Noah’s Drunkenness and the Curse of Canaan: A New Approach,” JBL 140 [2021] 49–68, esp. 65–66). John Sietze Bergsma and Scott Walker Hahn argue that the present narrative, though possibly truncated from a longer one, speaks of maternal incest (“Noah’s Nakedness and the Curse on Canaan [Genesis 9:20–27],” JBL 124 [2005] 25–40; see also Charles David Isbell, “The Curse of Ham: Biblical Justification for Racial Inequality?,” Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry 2.2 [2020] 1–11, esp. 2–8). See also the sources mentioned in Reed, “Injustice,” 101–2.
6 Bergsma and Hahn also mention Lev 18:14, 16; 20:20–21 (“Nakedness,” 34, although this text mistakenly refers to 20:20 as 20:30); Deut 23:1; 27:20.
7 A better interpretation of these Levitical texts is offered by Brian Rainey, “Indecent Exposure: Social Shame, ʿerwâ and the Interpretation of Gen 9:20–27,” VT 70 (2020) 674–95, at 685.
8 Bassett, “Nakedness,” 235; Bergsma and Hahn, “Nakedness,” 26.
9 H. A. J. Kruger, “Creation-Uncreation Reflection of Reversal Motifs in Genesis 9:18–24 (25–29),” in Proceedings of the Twelfth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, July 29–August 5, 1997, Division A: The Bible and Its World (Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies, 1999) 129*–40*, at 137*.
10 Bassett, “Nakedness,” 236; Bergsma and Hahn, “Nakedness,” 30–31; Isbell, “Curse,” 5–6.
11 The hithpael stem primarily conveys a reflexive-reciprocal sense of the piel; only secondarily is its sense passive (Paul Joüon, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew [trans. and rev. T. Muraoka; 2 vols.; SubBi 14; Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1991] 1:159 [§53i]; Bruce K. Waltke and Michael O’Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax [Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1990] 426–32 [§26]). While it thus is within the realm of possibility that Noah “was uncovered” (and not that he “uncovered himself”), this passive rendering would not be the primary sense of a hithpael verb, especially when גלה is attested in the pual stem (Nah 2:8 [7]; Prov 27:5). So Luis Alonso Schökel, ¿Dónde está tu hermano? Textos de fraternidad en el libro del Génesis (Asociación Bíblica Española 19; Estella [Navarra], España: Editorial Verbo Divino, 1997) 49–50; Brad Embry, “The ‘Naked Narrative’ from Noah to Leviticus: Reassessing Voyeurism in the Account of Noah’s Nakedness in Genesis 9.22–24,” JSOT 35.4 (2011) 417–33, at 431–32; Kenneth A. Mathews, Genesis 1–11:26 (NAC; Nashville, TN: B&H, 1996) 417; Notes on the New Translation of the Torah (ed. Harry M. Orlinsky; Philadelphia: JPS, 1969) 80; Nicholas Odhiambo, “The Nature of Ham’s Sin,” BSac 170 (2013) 154–65, at 158; Rainey, “Exposure,” 690–91; Reed, “Injustice,” 93–94, 116; Gene Rice, “The Curse That Never Was (Genesis 9:18–27),” JRT 29 (1972) 5–27, at 12; Andrew E. Steinmann, Genesis (TOTC; Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2019) 116. Moreover, readers would not be inclined to give the verb a passive rendering when 9:20–21 sets the stage with Noah as the story’s only active character.
12 Some interpreters have argued that Noah’s wife is alluded to in 9:21 when the text uses the suffixed noun אהלה, maintaining it refers to “her tent.” However, Genesis uses אהלה multiple times, always in reference to “his tent,” not “her tent” (12:8; 13:3; 35:21). For more on the third masculine singular suffix –ה, see Joüon, Grammar, 1:289 (§94h).
13 Rainey, “Exposure,” 688.
14 Alter, Moses, 52–53; Bassett, “Nakedness,” 233; Frankel, “Drunkenness,” 64; Robert A. J. Gagnon, The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics (Nashville: Abingdon, 2001) 64–71; Gershon Hepner, “The Depravity of Ham and the Tower of Babel Echo Contiguous Laws of the Holiness Code,” Estudios Bíblicos 61 (2003) 85–131, at 95–97; Seth Daniel Kunin, The Logic of Incest: A Structuralist Analysis of Hebrew Mythology (JSOTSS 185; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1995) 174; Christoph Levin, Der Jahwist (FRLANT 157; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1993) 119; Martti Nissinen, Homoeroticism in the Biblical World: A Historical Perspective (trans. Kirsi Stjerna; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1998) 52–53; O. Palmer Robertson, “Current Critical Questions Concerning the ‘Curse of Ham’ (Gen 9:20–27),” JETS 41 (1998) 177–88, 178–80; Donald J. Wold, Out of Order: Homosexuality in the Bible and the Ancient Near East (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998) 65–76. See also the sources mentioned in Reed, “Injustice,” 98–100.
15 Rainey, “Exposure,” 676–79, 694; Reed, “Injustice,” 115, 117; Walter Vogels, “Cham découvre les limites de son père Noé (Gn 9,20–27),” NRTh 109 (1987) 554–73, at 560.
16 Interpreters debate whether Dinah was raped (as argued, e.g., by Susanne Scholz, “Was It Really Rape in Genesis 34? Biblical Scholarship as a Reflection of Cultural Assumptions,” in Escaping Eden: New Feminist Perspectives on the Bible [ed. Harold C. Washington, Susan Lochrie Graham, and Pamela Thimes; Washington Square, NY: New York University Press, 1999] 182–98) or instead humiliated because an uncircumcised outsider has sex with her (see, e.g., Lyn M. Bechtel, “What If Dinah Is Not Raped? [Genesis 34],” JSOT 19.62 [1994] 19–36). Regarding Genesis 38, early audiences may not have understood incest to be in view (despite Lev 18:16; 20:21), given the practice of levirate marriage (Deut 25:5–10). Genesis 29:23, 30 is mentioned above because of Lev 18:18.
17 Cf. Thomas L. Brodie, Genesis as Dialogue: A Literary, Historical, and Theological Commentary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001) 192; John Day, From Creation to Babel: Studies in Genesis 1–11 (LHBOTS 592; London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015) 137–53, esp. 139. Given that Genesis was likely composed by many writers, it is possible that the book uses different language at different points to talk about the same subject matters. However, there is more likely to be continuity between Gen 9:22–23 and the rest of Genesis than Gen 9:22–23 and Leviticus (see Knust, “Afraid,” 395; cf. Reed, “Injustice,” 69).
18 Although the spies of Num 21:32 appear to engage in violence (cf. 2 Sam 10:3 // 1 Chr 19:3), the verb רגל most frequently refers to visual reconnaissance: Deut 1:24; Josh 2:1; 6:22–23, 25; 7:2; 14:7; Judg 18:2, 14, 17; 1 Sam 26:4.
19 Reed, “Injustice,” 115; Rice, “Curse,” 11; E. A. Speiser, Genesis: Introduction, Translation, and Notes (AB; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964) 61.
20 Jan Christian Gertz, “Hams Südenfall und Kanaans Erbfluch: Anmerkungen zur kompositionsgeschichtlichen Stellung von Gen 9,18–29,” in ‘Gerechtigkeit und Recht zu üben’ (Gen 18,19): Studien zur altorientalischen und biblischen Rechtsgeschichte, zur Religionsgeschichte Israels und zur Religionssoziologie; Festschrift für Eckart Otto zum 65. Geburtstag (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2009) 81–95, at 91; John Goldingay, Genesis (Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Pentateuch; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020) 169; Victor P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis: Chapters 1–17 (NICOT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990) 323; Rainey, “Exposure,” 687, 690; Vogels, “Cham,” 560–61. Cf. Bailey, “Nothing,” 134.
21 Bassett, “Nakedness,” 233–34. For a useful critique, see Reed, “Injustice,” 117. Other explanations of 9:23 have been offered, though they have not gained great popularity. See Bergsma and Hahn, “Nakedness,” 33, 39; Isbell, “Curse,” 5; cf. Gagnon, Homosexual, 67; Robertson, “Questions,” 180.
22 Bergsma and Hahn claim that “the existence of a taboo against the accidental sight of a naked parent … is otherwise unattested in biblical or ancient Near Eastern literature” (“Nakedness,” 27). The biblical evidence here points to reasons why Noah would not take kindly to his nakedness being seen and publicized. Additionally, Mesopotamian sex omens suggest negative associations with a man’s penis being stared at even in sexual situations (David M. Goldenberg, “What Did Ham Do to Noah?,” in “The Words of a Wise Man’s Mouth Are Gracious” [Qoh 10,12]: Festschrift for Günther Stemberger on the Occasion of His 65 th Birthday [ed. Mauro Perani; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2005] 257–65; Ann Kessler Guinan, “Auguries of Hegemony: The Sex Omens of Mesopotamia,” Gender & History 9 [1997] 462–79, esp. 466). Furthermore, the humiliating way in which ancient iconography depicts conquered people as naked further suggests stigmas around nakedness (see Cynthia R. Chapman, The Gendered Language of Warfare in the Israelite-Assyrian Encounter [HSM; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2004] 160–63). For additional arguments against Bergsma and Hahn’s position, see Rainey, “Exposure,” 692.
23 Some commentators translate 9:24b as, “[Noah] knew (ידע) what his … son had done to him (עשה־לו).” They then maintain that Ham must have done more than merely look at his father: otherwise, Noah would not have known what was done (e.g., Robertson, “Questions,” 179). However, an equally plausible translation is, “[Noah] learned what his … son had done to him” (HALOT, s.v. ידע; cf. Esth 2:11; 4:1, 5). Presumably, Shem or Japheth informed Noah of Ham’s disrespectful behavior, causing him to learn what had happened. Some have also suggested that the phrase “had done to him” (עשה־לו) refers to a bodily act (e.g., Gagnon, Homosexual, 65; Anthony Phillips, Essays on Biblical Law [JSOTSS 344; London: Sheffield Academic, 2002] 248; Marc Vervenne, “What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor? A Critical Re-Examination of Genesis 9.20–27,” JSOT 20.68 [1995] 33–55, at 50). However, Odhiambo points to several cases where this construction is present and there is no physical contact: Gen 12:18; 27:45; 29:25; Judg 8:1 (“Nature,” 160; cf. Rainey, “Exposure,” 693).
24 I was initially persuaded of this position by Jordan Brown, “Usurping Noah’s Masculinity: A Reexamination of Genesis 9:20–27” (paper presented at the Genesis Section of the Annual Meeting of the SBL, San Diego, CA, 23 November 2019). Other proponents of this sort of approach include: Bill T. Arnold, Genesis (New Cambridge Bible Commentary; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009) 112; Assohoto and Ngewa, “Genesis,” 24–25; Joseph Blenkinsopp, Creation, Un-creation, Re-creation: A Discursive Commentary on Genesis 1–11 (London: T&T Clark International, 2011) 152–53; U. Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Genesis (trans. Israel Abrahams; Jerusalem: Magnes, 1992) 2:151; Day, Creation, 139; Cain Hope Felder, “Race, Racism, and the Biblical Narratives,” in Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation (ed. Cain Hope Felder; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991) 127–45, esp. 131; idem, “Racial Motifs in the Biblical Narratives,” in Voices from the Margins: Interpreting the Bible in the Third World (ed. R. S. Sugirtharajah; Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1991) 172–88, at 175; Julie Galambush, Reading Genesis: A Literary and Theological Commentary (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2018) 48–49; P. J. Harland, The Value of Human Life: A Study of the Story of the Flood (Genesis 6–9) (VTSup; Leiden: Brill, 1996) 56–57; Kruger, “Creation-Uncreation,” 135*–37*; T. M. Lemos, “Shame and Mutilation of Enemies in the Hebrew Bible,” JBL 125 (2006) 225–41, at 233–34; Tremper Longman III, Genesis (Story of God Bible Commentary; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016) 134; Mathews, Genesis 1–11:26, 419–20; Odhiambo, “Nature,” 160–65; Rainey, “Exposure,” esp. 685–87; Ramban (Nachmanides), Commentary on the Torah: Genesis (trans. and annot. Charles B. Chavel; New York: Shiloh, 1971) 140–41; Reed, “Injustice,” 120, 235–38; Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (JPS Torah Commentary; Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989) 66; Steinmann, Genesis, 51; Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1–15 (WBC; Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1987) 199; Claus Westermann, Genesis 1–11 (trans. John J. Scullion; CC; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1984) 488; Vogels, “Cham,” 562–70; Yamauchi, “Curse,” 47. Cf. the sources mentioned in Reed, “Injustice,” 102–8.
25 “ʾIlu on a Toot,” The Context of Scripture (ed. William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger, Jr.; 4 vols.; Leiden: Brill, 1997–2017) 1.97.304 (18–19); “The ʾAqhatu Legend,” COS 1.103.344 (1.31).
26 Similarly, it is held that 9:18 originally lacked וחם הוא אבי כנען (“and Ham was the father of Canaan”).
27 Representatives of this sort of approach include Day, Creation, 140–41; S. R. Driver, The Book of Genesis with Introduction and Notes (10th ed., London: Methuen, 1916) 111; Terence E. Fretheim, “The Book of Genesis: Introduction Commentary, and Reflections,” in New Interpreter’s Bible (ed. Leander E. Keck; 12 vols. Nashville: Abingdon, 1994–2004) 1:319–674, esp. 403; Graves and Patai, Myths, 122; Hermann Gunkel, Genesis (trans. Mark E. Biddle; Mercer Library of Biblical Studies; Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1997) 79; Thierry Murcia, “L’ivresse de Noé et la malédiction de Canaan: Status quaestionis et nouvelles investigations,” Judaïsme Ancien 7 (2019) 119–32, esp. 131–32; Rice, “Curse,” 6–8; John Van Seters, Prologue to History: The Yahwist as Historian in Genesis (Louisville: WJK, 1992) 179; Gerhard von Rad, Genesis (rev. ed.; OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1972) 135–36. See also the sources supporting this position listed in Rice, “Curse,” 8–9; Reed, “Injustice,” 13 n. 24. Frankel argues that the story originally involved Canaan seeing Ham naked and lacked 9:22b–23, 26–27 (“Drunkenness,” 49–68). While the author does excellent work making individual arguments, in the end, he proposes an original story that is rather far removed from the received text—and therefore much more speculative than other proposals.
28 Ham is always mentioned second in the lists of Noah’s sons (5:32; 6:10; 7:13; 9:18; 10:1). If Ham’s position in these lists aligns with his birth order, and if הקטן means “the youngest,” then Ham must not be the perpetrator in 9:24. However, names can be listed in ways other than birth order (e.g., Gen 25:9; see Cassuto, Genesis, 2:164–65). Furthermore, הקטן could refer to size as in Genesis’s first use of the word in 1:16. See also J. Hoftijzer, “Some Remarks to the Tale of Noah’s Drunkenness,” in Studies on the Book of Genesis (OtSt 12; Leiden: Brill, 1958) 22–27, at 23–24; cf. Reed, “Injustice,” 122–25.
29 Wenham, Genesis 1–15, 197.
30 Jason Bembry, “Justifying Slavery via Genesis 9:20–27: The Vicious Legacy of Racist Interpretation of the Bible,” Stone-Campbell Journal 23 (2020) 69–82, at 71; Felder, “Motifs,” 175; Fretheim, “Genesis,” 403. See also the sources listed in Reed, “Injustice,” 16 n. 34.
31 See texts mentioned in Reed, “Injustice,” 34.
32 Rice, “Curse,” 10.
33 Cf. Wenham, Genesis 1–15, 201.
34 A less convincing explanation is that Noah could not curse Ham because God blessed Ham in 9:1 (4Q252 II, 7; Gen. Rab. 36.7; Bruce K. Waltke with Cathi J. Fredricks, Genesis: A Commentary [Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2001] 150; see also the sources mentioned in Reed, “Injustice,” 126 n. 149). Genesis 12:2–3 makes clear that people can curse those whom God blesses. Another suggestion is that Canaan was present with his father as an accessory to the crime (Gen. Rab. 36.7; Longman, Genesis, 134–35; Sarna, Genesis, 66). The narrator, however, never tells readers that Canaan is present in 9:22.
35 Goldingay, Genesis, 170; Robertson, “Questions,” 181; see also the sources mentioned in Reed, “Injustice,” 126 n. 146. Similar proposals are made by: Yitzhak Avishur, “Noah’s Drunkenness and the Behavior of His Sons (Genesis 9: 18–27),” in Studies in Biblical Narrative: Style, Structure, and the Ancient Near Eastern Literary Background (Tel Aviv: Archaeological Center, 1999) 41–56, at 50; Lloyd R. Bailey, Noah: The Person and the Story in History and Tradition (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1989) 161; Cassuto, Genesis, 2:154–55; Peter Enns and Jared Byas, Genesis for Normal People (2nd ed.; n.p.: The Bible for Normal People, 2019) 84–86; Fretheim, “Genesis,” 404; Galambush, Genesis, 48–49; Leon R. Kass, “Seeing the Nakedness of His Father,” Commentary 93.6 (1992) 41–47, at 45; Derek Kidner, Genesis (Kidner Classic Commentaries; Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2008) 111; Knust, “Afraid,” 396–97; Mathews, Genesis 1–11:26, 417–18, 421–22; Rainey, “Exposure,” 688; Reed, “Injustice,” 128–30; Ross, “Curse,” 233–35; Wenham, Genesis 1–15, 201; Westermann, Genesis 1–11, 484; Yamauchi, “Curse,” 48.
36 Enns and Byas, Genesis, 84; William McKee Evans, “From the Land of Canaan to the Land of Guinea: The Strange Odyssey of the ‘Sons of Ham,’ ” The American Historical Review 85 (1980) 15–43, at 15–16; Fretheim, “Genesis,” 404; Reed, “Injustice,” e.g., 111, 120, 258–61, 268, 274; West, Genesis, 71; John H. Walton, Genesis (NIV Application Commentary; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001) 350.
37 Benno Jacob, The First Book of the Bible, Genesis (trans. Ernest I. Jacob and Walter Jacob; augm. ed.; Brooklyn, NY: KTAV, 2007) 68.
38 Some interpreters outside of African American traditions have also entertained the idea that Noah is under alcohol’s influence when speaking. However, when this idea is mentioned, it is not typically developed as a solution to all of the passage’s interpretive difficulties. See Julian Barnes, A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters (New York: Vintage International, 1989) 17; Roland Boer and Ibrahim Abraham, “Noah’s Nakedness: Islam, Race, and the Fantasy of the Christian West,” in Sacred Tropes: Tanakh, New Testament, and Qurʾan as Literature and Culture (ed. Roberta Sterman Sabbath; Leiden: Brill, 2009) 461–73, esp. 463; Henry St. John Bolingbroke, The Works of Lord Bolingbroke (4 vols.; Philadelphia: Carey and Hart, 1841) 2:209; Chas. Carroll, “The Negro a Beast” … or … “In the Image of God” (St. Louis: American Book and Bible, 1900) 77, 80 (beware that this work is filled with racist thinking); Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, “Genesis,” in The Torah: A Women’s Commentary (ed. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Andrea L. Weiss; New York: Women of Reform Judaism and URJ Press, 2008) 1–302, at 46; Jack Finegan, In the Beginning: A Journey through Genesis (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1962) 58; Goldingay, Genesis, 171; Haynes, Curse, 217 (cf. 196–200); Knust, “Afraid,” 409 n. 66; Alicia Ostriker, The Nakedness of the Fathers: Biblical Visions and Revisions (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997) 44; Wongi Park, “The Blessing of Whiteness in the Curse of Ham: Reading Gen 9:18–29 in the Antebellum South,” Religions 12.11 (2021) 1–18, at 11; Bowman Stephenson, Noah’s Drunkenness: A Sermon (n.p., 1868) 13.
39 Another approach taken by people of African descent is to argue that Noah’s words were fulfilled in ancient times and therefore do not relate to more recent slavery (see Jeremy Schipper, “ ‘If the Scriptures are True’: Thomas Clarkson on Noah’s Curse,” in Guide Me into Your Truth: Essays in Honor of Dennis T. Olson [ed. Rolf A. Jacobson, Jacqueline E. Lapsley, and Kristin J. Wendland; Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2023] 23–31). Perhaps the most popular approach taken by African Americans is to note that Noah’s curse falls on Canaan (who is not associated with Africa), rather than Ham’s other sons (who are associated with Africa). See, e.g., Edward W. Blyden, The Negro in Ancient History (Washington: M’Gill & Witherow, 1869) 23; Alexander Crummell, The Negro Race Not Under a Curse: An Examination of Genesis ix. 25 (London: Wertheim, Macintosh, & Hunt, [1853]) 9, 15; George Alexander McGuire, Universal Negro Catechism: A Course of Instruction in Religious and Historical Knowledge Pertaining to the Race (n.p.: Universal Negro Improvement Association, 1921) 7; James W. C. Pennington, A Text Book of the Origin and History, &c. &c. of the Colored People (Hartford: L. Skinner, 1841) 14–17; Talbert W. Swan, No More Cursing: Destroying the Roots of Religious Racism (Indian Orchard, MA: Trumpet in Zion, 2003) 62–68; B. T. Tanner, The Negro’s Origin: And Is the Negro Cursed? (Philadelphia: Jas. B. Rodgers, 1869) 25–38; H. M. Turner, The Negro in All Ages (Savannah: D. G. Patton, 1873) 18–20. Some of these 19th-cent. sources are helpfully interpreted in Jeremy Schipper, “The Blessing of Ham: Genesis 9:1 in Early African American Biblical Scholarship,” BibInt 30 (2022) 399–414.
40 St. Clair Drake, The Redemption of Africa and Black Religion (Chicago: Third World, 1970) 47–48.
41 Pennington, Text Book, 17–18.
42 Samuel Ringgold Ward, Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro: His Anti-slavery Labours in the United States, Canada, & England (London: John Snow, 1855) 270–71.
43 S. S. N., “Anglo-Saxons, and Anglo-Africans,” The Anglo-African Magazine 1 (1859) 247–59, at 248. A similar treatment of Gen 9:20–27 is found in the abolitionist publication J. L. Stone, Slavery and the Bible; or, Slavery Seen as Its Punishment (San Francisco: B. F. Sterett, 1863) 12.
44 George W. Williams, History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880: Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens; Together with a Preliminary Consideration of the Unity of the Human Family, an Historical Sketch of Africa, and an Account of the Negro Governments of Sierra Leone and Liberia (2 vols.; New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1883) 1:7–8.
45 Ibid., 1:10.
46 Ibid., 1:445.
47 Zora Neale Hurston, “The First One (1927),” in Zora Neale Hurston: Collected Plays (ed. Jean Lee Cole and Charles Mitchell; New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008) 63–74, esp. 69–72.
48 Martin Luther King, Jr., “ ‘Some Things We Must Do,’ Address Delivered at the Second Annual Institute on Nonviolence and Social Change at Holt Street Baptist Church, 5 Dec 1957, Montgomery, Ala.,” in The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. (ed. Clayborne Carson; Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000) 4:328–43, at 335. A year later, Everett Tilson (a Caucasian who advocated for racial justice alongside King) published similar remarks in Segregation and the Bible: A Searching Analysis of the Scriptural Evidence (New York: Abingdon, 1958) 24.
49 Swan, Cursing, 71, cf. 74.
50 Rodney S. Sadler, “Can a Cushite Change His Skin? Cushites, ‘Racial Othering,’ and the Hebrew Bible,” Int 60 (2006) 386–403, at 392; see also idem, “Genesis,” in Fortress Commentary on the Bible: The Old Testament and Apocrypha (ed. Gale A. Yee, Hugh R. Page Jr., and Matthew J. M. Coomber; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2014) 89–136, at 101. Across the Atlantic, Barnabe Assohoto and Samuel Ngewa make similar points (“Genesis,” in Africa Bible Commentary [ed. Tokunboh Adeyemo; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006] 9–84, at 25). Reed and Mbuvi join Sadler and others in faulting Noah’s drunkenness, but do not emphasize the role of alcohol in Noah’s curses (Reed, “Injustice,” 85–90, 274; Mbuvi, Belonging, 65 n. 66).
51 John C. M. Brust, “Alcoholism,” in Current Diagnosis and Treatment: Neurology (3rd ed.; New York: McGraw Hill, 2019), https://accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=2567§ionid=207242254; Kurt M. Dubowski, “Alcohol Determination in the Clinical Laboratory,” American Journal of Clinical Pathology 74 (1980) 747–50, at 749; Peter R. Martin, “Substance Related and Addictive Disorders,” in Current Diagnosis & Treatment: Psychiatry (ed. M. H. Ebert, J. F. Leckman, and I. L. Petrakis; 3rd ed.; New York: McGraw Hill, 2019), https://accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=2509§ionid=200808792; Ernest Murray, Leon Walthall, Kristin R. Wise, “Drug Overdose and Withdrawal,” in Principles and Practice of Hospital Medicine (ed. Sylvia C. McKean et al.; 2nd ed.; New York: McGraw Hill, 2017), https://accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=1872§ionid=146990585; Kristin S. Raj, Nolan Williams, and Charles DeBattista, “Alcohol Use Disorder (Alcoholism),” Current Medical Diagnosis & Treatment 2022 (ed. M. A. Papadakis et al.; New York: McGraw Hill, 2022), https://accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=3081§ionid=258974214; Marc A. Schuckit, “Alcohol and Alcohol Use Disorders,” Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine (ed. J. Loscalzo et al.; 21st ed.; New York: McGraw Hill, 2022), https://accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=3095§ionid=265468497; cf. American Psychiatric Association, “Alcohol Intoxication,” in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-5 (5th ed.; Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing, 2013) 497–99. Ancient Near Eastern sources similarly show alcohol decreasing inhibitions. For example, the Turin Judicial Papyrus talks of a drunken carousal playing a role in officers (including the commander of the army) joining the harem conspiracy against Ramses III (COS 3.8.27–30). In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Enkidu’s mood becomes free, which leads to singing after he drinks seven jugs of ale (The Epic of Gilgamesh [trans. Andrew George; 2nd ed.; Penguin Classics; London: Penguin, 2020] 13, 170 [lines 100–5 of the Old Babylonian Pennsylvania tablet]).
52 American Psychiatric Association, “Intoxication,” 497; Brust, “Alcoholism”; Dubowski, “Alcohol,” 749; Martin, “Addictive Disorders”; Murray, Walthall, and Wise, “Drug Overdose”; James H. Nichols, Nicola J. Rutherford, and Michael Laposata, “Toxicology,” in Laposata’s Laboratory Medicine: Diagnosis of Disease in the Clinical Laboratory (ed. Michael Laposata; 3rd ed.; New York: McGraw Hill: 2019), https://accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=2503§ionid=201362131; Raj, Williams, and DeBattista, “Alcohol”; Schuckit, “Alcohol.” Ancient Near Eastern literature depicts ʾIlu as so drunk that he becomes like one who is dead (“ʾIlu on a Toot,” COS 1.97.304 [21–22]).
53 American Psychiatric Association, “Alcohol Intoxication,” 497; Brust, “Alcoholism”; Dubowski, “Alcohol,” 749; Martin, “Addictive Disorders”; Murray, Walthall, and Wise, “Drug Overdose”; Mayo Clinic Staff, “Alcohol Use Disorder,” Mayo Clinic, 11 July 2018, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/alcohol-use-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20369243; Mayo Clinic Staff, “Hangovers,” Mayo Clinic, 16 December 2017, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hangovers/symptoms-causes/syc-20373012; Raj, Williams, and DeBattista, “Alcohol”; Derek D. Satre et al., “Unhealthy Alcohol & Other Substance Use,” in Behavioral Medicine: A Guide for Clinical Practice (ed. Mitchell D. Feldman et al.; 5th ed.; New York: McGraw Hill, 2019), https://accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=2747§ionid=230250283; Schuckit, “Alcohol.” See also “Alcohol,” in Black’s Medical Dictionary (ed. Harvey Marcovitch; 43rd ed.; London: A&C Black, 2018), https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/blackmed/alcohol/0. One sees alcohol’s influence in the expression of emotion elsewhere in the Bible. For example, in Genesis 21 Sarah likely comes under alcohol’s influence at the celebration of Isaac’s weaning (so Carey Ellen Walsh, “Under the Influence: Trust and Risk in Biblical Family Drinking,” JSOT 25.90 [2000] 13–29, at 22–23). In that context, she becomes upset, which leads to the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael.
54 B. Wiklander, “זעם,” TDOT 4.106–11, at 107.
55 Joseph A. Grassi, “Child, Children,” ABD 1:904–7, at 904.
56 Amanda Beckenstein Mbuvi, Belonging in Genesis: Biblical Israel and the Politics of Identity Formation (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2016) 66.
57 American Psychiatric Association, “Alcohol Intoxication,” 497–98; Brust, “Alcoholism”; Dubowski, “Alcohol,” 749; “Alcohol” (ed. Marcovitch); Martin, “Addictive Disorders”; Mayo Clinic Staff, “Alcohol Use Disorder”; Mayo Clinic Staff, “Hangovers”; Murray, Walthall, and Wise, “Drug Overdose”; Nichols, Rutherford, and Laposata, “Toxicology”; Raj, Williams, and DeBattista, “Alcohol”; Satre et al., “Alcohol”; Schuckit, “Alcohol.” Elsewhere, Genesis portrays Jacob as unable to distinguish between Leah and Rachel on his wedding night, another case where alcohol likely leads to confusion (Gen 29:23–25; Walsh, “Influence,” 26–27). In Egyptian literature, one finds alcohol leading to confusion or at least the inability to carry out a task. In “The Destruction of Mankind,” (part of “The Book of the Cow of Heaven”), a goddess sets out to destroy humanity but instead becomes drunk and fails even to perceive humanity (COS 1.24.37).
58 American Psychiatric Association, “Alcohol Intoxication,” 497; Brust, “Alcoholism”; Dubowski, “Alcohol,” 749; “Alcohol” (ed. Marcovitch); Mayo Clinic Staff, “Alcohol Use Disorder”; Mayo Clinic Staff, “Hangovers”; Murray, Walthall, and Wise, “Drug Overdose”; Raj, Williams, and DeBattista, “Alcohol”; Satre, et al., “Alcohol.”
59 When curses and blessings follow each other in the Bible (e.g., Deut 28), the one making the pronouncement typically curses and blesses different humans, not some humans and God. Some interpreters maintain that by blessing a people’s deity, a person blesses the people (e.g., Gunkel, Genesis, 81). However, evidence is lacking. John Day argues that in Deut 33:20, God is blessed rather than the expected tribe—and that there thus is a precedent for a blessing going to a party’s deity rather than the party itself (Creation, 142). However, Deut 33:20 is open to different interpretations. It blesses one who enlarges Gad (ברוך מרחיב גד), which could include God but does not need to. Some even translate the verse as, “Blessed be the enlargement of Gad” (ברוך מרחב גד; NRSVUE; cf. CEB). Furthermore, while it is natural to associate YHWH with Israel (the prototypical descendants of Shem), Genesis presents other peoples, many of whom do not worship YHWH, as also descending from Shem (Rice, “Curse,” 14). Some interpreters suspect that Noah actually says, “May Shem be blessed by YHWH my God” (cf. NRSVUE; Alonso Schökel, Hermano, 46–47; for an overview of other emendations, see Gunkel, Genesis, 81). While that rendering is a valid translation of the consonantal text that suggests more coherence in Noah’s words, it does not match the Masoretic pointing and disagrees with ancient versions. (Furthermore, a more common way to talk of someone as blessed by YHWH would be with the ל-particle [ליהוה … ברוך, as in Judg 17:2; 1 Sam 15:13; 23:21; 2 Sam 2:5; Ruth 2:20; 3:10], which is missing from Gen 9:26.)
60 American Psychiatric Association, “Alcohol Intoxication,” 497.
61 Gen. Rab. 36.7; Sarna, Genesis, 66; Westermann, Genesis 1–11, 489.
62 Gen 28:16; 41:4, 7, 21; Judg 16:14, 20; 1 Sam 26:12; 1 Kgs 3:15; 18:27; Isa 29:8; Jer 31:26; Ps 3:6 [5]; 73:20; Prov 6:22. Cf. G. Wallis, “יקץ; קיץ,” TDOT, 6:274–79.
63 Jer 51:39, 57 and Ps 78:65 explicitly mention being asleep (ישׁן). Prov 23:29–35 talks about lying down (שׁכב, 23:34). Joel 1:5 implies that the drunkards have been sleeping or passed out, unaware of the massive locust invasion (1:4). Wallis interprets these verses as referring to regaining consciousness from alcohol-induced sleep, not gaining full sobriety (TDOT, 6:276).
64 Language of etiology is found in Bailey, Noah, 159–61; Felder, “Race,” 130; Fretheim, “Genesis,” 403–5; Gagnon, Homosexual, 67; Goldenberg, Black, e.g., 1; idem, Curse, 98; Kathleen M. O’Connor, Genesis 1–25A (Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary; Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2018) 155; Emerson B. Powery and Rodney S. Sadler Jr., The Genesis of Liberation: Biblical Interpretation in the Antebellum Narratives of the Enslaved (Louisville: WJK, 2016) 84; Rice, “Curse,” 13–14; von Rad, Genesis, 137–38. Sources explicitly linking Noah to prophecy include Driver, Genesis, 111; Fleming, Genesis, 116–19; Kidner, Genesis, 111–12; Robertson, “Questions,” 185; Ross, “Curse,” 224, 231–35; von Rad, Genesis, 137–38; see also sources discussed in Park, “Blessing,” 9–11. In addition to seeing Noah’s words as etiological or prophetic, there is a problematic tendency to presume the guilt of Canaan, Ham, or others seen as related in some way to Canaan or Ham. Justin Reed’s excellent dissertation examines precisely this issue (“Injustice”). Its publication by Oxford University Press will likely transform the way scholars understand this text.
65 See, e.g., Gen 19:37–38; 22:14; 26:33; 32:33 [32]; 35:20; 47:26.
66 Carol A. Newsom, “Spying out the Land: A Report from Genology,” in Bakhtin and Genre Theory in Biblical Studies (ed. Roland Boer; SemeiaSt; Atlanta: SBL Press, 2007) 19–30, at 21.
67 Robert L. Cohn, “Negotiating [with] the Natives: Ancestors and Identity in Genesis,” HTR 96 (2003) 147–66, at 166; Fredrick Carlson Holmgren, “Looking Back on Abraham’s Encounter with a Canaanite King: A Reversal of Expectations (Genesis 20:1–18),” Currents in Theology and Mission 37 (2010) 366–77; Joel S. Kaminsky, “Did Election Imply the Mistreatment of Non-Israelites?,” HTR 96 (2003) 397–425, esp. 402; Reed, “Injustice,” esp. 33–35; A. van Selms, “The Canaanites in the Book of Genesis,” in Studies on the Book of Genesis (OtSt 12; Leiden: Brill, 1958) 182–213, esp. 204–12; Gerald West, Genesis, 71. See also Mark G. Brett, Genesis: Procreation and the Politics of Identity (Old Testament Readings; London: Routledge, 2000), which argues that Genesis has been edited to include inclusive views toward foreigners that undermine exclusivist views.
68 Cassuto, Genesis, 2:168; Iain Provan, Discovering Genesis: Content, Interpretation, Reception (Discovering Biblical Texts; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015) 165; Devora Steinmetz, From Father to Son: Kinship, Conflict, and Continuity in Genesis (Literary Currents in Biblical Interpretation; Louisville: WJK, 1991) 146.
69 Westermann, Genesis 1–11, 493. See also Assohoto and Ngewa, “Genesis,” 25; Katell Berthelot, “The Original Sin of the Canaanites,” in The ‘Other’ in Second Temple Judaism: Essays in Honor of John J. Collins (ed. Daniel C. Harlow et al.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011) 49–66, esp. 50–51. Cf. Williams, History, 1:10, 445. Obviously, there are differences in how pentateuchal sources understand the fate of the Canaanites (see, e.g., Baruch J. Schwartz, “Reexamining the Fate of the ‘Canaanites’ in the Torah Traditions,” Sefer Moshe: The Moshe Weinfeld Jubilee Volume: Studies in the Bible and the Ancient Near East, Qumran, and Post-Biblical Judaism [ed. Chaim Cohen, Avi M. Hurvitz, and Shalom M. Paul; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2004] 151–70). However, in none of these sources is wholesale enslavement of Canaanites a prominent idea or theme.
70 Similarly, Joshua 9 takes pains to describe the Gibeonites as quite exceptional among the Canaanites: they are not like the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites who gather to fight against Joshua and Israel (9:1–3).
71 Furthermore, as Benno Jacob observes, “this curse is never later quoted as justification for hatred against Canaanites” (Genesis, 70).
72 As Shemaryahu Talmon (“The ‘Comparative Method’ in Biblical Interpretation—Principles and Problems,” in Congress Volume: Göttingen 1977 [eds. J. A. Emerton et al.; Vetus Testamentum, Supplements 29; Leiden: Brill, 1978] 320–55) points out, texts in the Hebrew Bible are closer to each other than to other ancient Near Eastern texts, given their linguistic, geographical, and temporal proximity.
73 Steven L. McKenzie, All God’s Children: A Biblical Critique of Racism (Louisville: WJK, 1997) 10.
74 Rather than seeing Noah’s curses and blessings as unleashing magical powers that must come to fulfillment in the future, one can understand his speech as having an optative and jussive force, expressing what he wants to see happen in the future (Hamilton, Genesis 1–17, 324; Jacob, Genesis, 69; Mathews, Genesis 1–11:26, 422).
75 Genesis 6:11–13 uses the Hebrew word חמס. Some have objected to translating this word as “violence,” arguing that it refers more generally to a lack of righteousness (e.g., Cassuto, Genesis, 2:52). However, bloodshed is certainly a common type of “unrighteousness” encompassed within the word (Judg 9:24; Jer 22:3; 51:35; Ezek 7:23; Joel 4:19 [3:19]; Hab 2:8, 17; Ps 72:14).
76 See Carol Ochs’s “Contemporary Reflection” on Gen 6:9–11:32, in The Torah: A Women’s Commentary (ed. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Andrea L. Weiss; New York: Women of Reform Judaism and URJ Press, 2008) 55–56, at 55; Reed, “Injustice,” 265–66.
77 Noah’s ability to construct a pun and poetry does not necessarily indicate his sobriety. The medieval Chinese poet Li Bai, for example, is remembered for excellent poetry that revels in drunkenness.
78 Sarna, Genesis, 67.
79 Cf. Williams, History, 1:10, 445.
80 For reviews of scholarship, see Rice, “Curse,” 14–15 and esp. Reed, “Injustice,” 142–45.
81 Naturally, if one takes a diachronic approach and assigns different authors to 9:25–27 and 10:14–20, then this inconsistency is less important (assuming the redactor who merged the texts together was content with allowing discrepancies to stand). Thus, von Rad acknowledges the tensions between these texts but assigns the former to J and the latter to P (Genesis, 138; cf. Day, Creation, 144–47, esp. 145). Nevertheless, a problem with approaches like von Rad’s remains: as Westermann writes, “it is difficult to imagine that the Philistines received a blessing together with Israel which promised them that they would expand into the tents of Shem (Israel)” (Genesis 1–11, 493).
82 Walter Brueggemann, Genesis (IBC; Atlanta: John Knox, 1982) 89; Gunkel, Genesis, 83; John Skinner, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis (ICC; 2nd ed.; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1963) 187; Wenham, Genesis 1–15, 203; Westermann, Genesis 1–11, 493.
83 Some interpreters have even argued that because Noah is depicted as righteous, his curse must be seen as trustworthy. See Walter E. Brown, “Noah: Sot or Saint? Genesis 9:20–27,” in The Way of Wisdom: Essays in Honor of Bruce K. Waltke (ed. James I. Packer and Sven Soderlund; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000) 36–60, as well as a refutation in Waltke, Genesis, 148. It is more likely that Genesis 1–11 depicts even the supposedly righteous Noah as fallible as well, particularly when under alcohol’s influence.
84 Scholars have challenged the traditional notion that Genesis 1–11 is solely about a “fall.” For example, after pointing to Abel, Enoch, and Noah, Mark S. Smith writes, “in the end, ‘original goodness’ parallels the unfolding of original sin or primordial sin in the story of Genesis 1–11” (The Genesis of Good and Evil: The Fall(out) and Original Sin in the Bible [Louisville: WJK, 2019] 85). While Smith’s conclusion deserves careful consideration, Abel and Enoch play very minor roles in Genesis, and Noah—as argued in this article—fails to embody goodness in the final episode before his death. So, even if traditional interpretations of Genesis do not get everything correct, one can still make a strong case for Genesis 1–11 displaying a fairly negative view of humanity.
85 Mari Jørstad, “The Ground that Opened Its Mouth: The Ground’s Response to Human Violence in Genesis 4,” JBL 135 (2016) 705–15, at 706.
86 Alonso Schökel, Hermano, 51, see also 45, translation mine with help from Manuel Ramos. See also Ross, “Curse,” 225–26; John H. Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative: A Biblical-Theological Commentary (Library of Biblical Interpretation; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992) 129–30; Steinmann, Genesis, 114; Esteban Voth and Milton Acosta Benítez, “Génesis,” in Comentario bíblico contemporáneo. Estudio de toda la Biblia desde América Latina (ed. C. René Padilla; San Sebastián, Costa Rica: Comité Latinoamericano de Literatura Bíblica, 2019) 29–91, at 51; Westermann, Genesis 1–11, 483, 485.
87 Cf. Joseph Blenkinsopp, The Pentateuch: An Introduction to the First Five Books of the Bible (Anchor Bible Reference Library; New York: Doubleday, 1992) 86–87; idem, Creation, 154; J. Kruger, “Creation-Uncreation, 129*–40*; Mathews, Genesis 1–11:26, 414–15; Devora Steinmetz, “Vineyard, Farm, and Garden: The Drunkenness of Noah in the Context of Primeval History,” JBL 113 (1994) 193–207; Anthony J. Tomasino, “History Repeats Itself: The ‘Fall’ and Noah’s Drunkenness,” VT 42 (1992) 128–30; Vogels, “Cham,” 571–73. For the most comprehensive treatment of how Gen 9:18–27 relates to Genesis 1–11, see Reed, “Injustice,” 188–267, esp. 234–38. For an excellent account of how alcohol impacts individuals elsewhere in Genesis, see Walsh, “Influence,” esp. 20–23, 26–29.