Understanding the curse of Canaan
In order to better understand the curse of Canaan, it's essential to put things into context.
The name "Canaan" means "humiliated". Following Noah's humiliation, he uttered a curse against Canaan's posterity, and not against Ham, as some people believe.
Genesis 9:21-25 "But when he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside... When Noah awoke from his drunkenness and learned what his youngest son had done to him. he said, “Cursed be Canaan! A servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”
However, if you read this passage carefully, you will realize that it is very ambiguous and raises many questions. Here's why:
1 - In the genealogies, the Bible systematically lists the male children in the order of their birth. In the following verses, we find the birth order of Noah's children as follows:
Genesis 5:32 "After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japhet"
Genesis 9:18 "The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth."
Notice that just like the Bible, the following books, which have been categorized as apocryphal, state that Japheth is the youngest son of Noah, but list Shem as the last in the genealogies.
"And in the twenty-fifth jubilee Noah took to himself a wife, and her name was Emzara, the daughter of Rakeel, the daughter of his father's brother, in the first year in the fifth week: and in the third year thereof she bare him Shem, in the fifth year thereof she bare him Ham, and in the first year in the sixth week she bare him Japheth." |The Book of Jubilees, chap. 4:33|
"And she bare unto him three sons. Sham, Ham, and Japhet." |The Book of Adam and Eve, chap. 3-1:8|
"As to those three sons of Noah, the first of them is Shem; the next is Ham; and the third is Japhet." |The Book of Adam and Eve, chap. 3-3:5|
The Book of Jasher, chapter 7:15-22 and chapter 10:31-37
Genesis 10:21 mentions that Shem is Japheth's elder, therefore Shem cannot be considered the youngest son. Notice how by removing the comma, some Bibles have created confusion in the way this verse should be understood.
And unto Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, to him also were children born. |JPS Tanakh 1917|
And Shem, Japheth’s older brother, also had sons. Shem was the father of all the sons of Eber. |Holman Christian Standard Bible|
And Sheem begot sons also, the father of all children of Eber, the brother of Yapheth the great. |Aramaic Bible in Plain English| - The Aramaic Bible describe Japhet as the great but not the eldest
Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born. |King James Bible| This is Bible seems to imply Japhet is the eldest.
In Genesis 9:24, literally all Bibles indicate that it was Noah's youngest son who humiliated him. And yet, although no Scripture ever mentioned Ham as Noah's youngest son, the title of youngest was attributed to him and not to Japhet. Why was the identity of Noah's youngest son subtly concealed, creating confusion and contradiction? Something is cleary amiss.
2 - When Noah woke up, he learned what his youngest son had done to him. But as previously stated, which younger son is being spoken of? Indeed, if no scripture holds that Ham is Noah's youngest son and all of them point to Japheth, why then was the curse uttered upon Canaan who was to be born of Ham's lineage? There are only two logical explanations:
► Either the exact order of Noah's sons was intentionally concealed, and the truth is far from what everyone thinks.
► Either the expression "his younger son" did not refer to Ham but rather to "Ham's younger son". Which would mean that the one who humiliated Noah was not Ham but Canaan himself. Thus, Canaan would not have been punished for Ham's fault, but only for his own fault.
We can therefore assume that the name "Ham" mentioned in Genesis 9:22 is used to identify the lineage that erred, and of which Ham is the genitor.
Furthermore, according to Scriptures, the notion of "seeing the nakedness of one's father" has a very broad meaning and may imply that Noah's wife had also been compromised. This could suggest that Canaan having perhaps caught his two grandparents in their intimate relations, openly mocked them before Ham. Hence the severity of the curse that was decreed against Canaan?
Leviticus 18:8 "The nakedness of your father’s wife you shall not uncover; it is your father’s nakedness."
3 - Noah declared Canaan to be a servant to the servants of his brothers. The word "servant" used for Canaan is the hebrew word "Ehbed" and indicates ownership. It's often used as a term to describe a bond-servant or a slave who has been set free by the owner but chooses to remain with his owner and serve him out of love and devotion. Servant of servants is Ehbed of Ehbed and shows us that the consequences of the sin of Canaan will be that he is destined to never again serve his true master Yahweh, but instead will be forced to only serve other servants. He will not choose to serve out of love and devotion but will be forced to serve out of duty. He will be the lowest of servants.
Moreover, according to numerous historical evidences, it has been demonstrated that the Canaanites had become polytheists enslaved to idolatry and whose main gods were the Ba'als, Ashtoreth, Molech, Dagon... A sacrificial altar where Canaanite magic, snake worship and child sacrifices were practiced was built before these gods. The Canaanite fertility ritual was characterized by the presence of male and female cult prostitutes in temples and sanctuaries of fertility deities. Lenormand, a scholar, wrote about Canaanite practices: "No other people ever rivaled them in the mixture of bloodshed and debauchery by which they thought to honor their gods." As a result of their moral depravity or slavery to idolatry, ELOHIM subjected them to destruction through the many wars they waged against the sons of Jacob.
He begat Sidon, Heth, Leboussi, Emori, Gigarshi, Hivi, Harqi, Sini, Arvadi, Semari and Hamati.
► Sidon: father of the sidonians or phoenicians, who lived in the present Lebanon.
► Heth: father of the Hittites, they lived in the city of Hebron, one of the most famous cities of Palestine, which was then called Kir-jath-arba.
► Leboussi: father of the Jebusites, who took their name from the city of Jebus, the ancient name of Jerusalem, where they lived.
► Emori: father of the Amorites / Amoreans. They lived in the west of Mesopotamia, present-day Syrian.
► Guigarshi: father of the Girgasites / Guirgasians. They lived in the area known as Gadara in the New Testament. It was in Gadara that Yeshua cast out the legion of demons (Mark 5). When they left their country for Israel, being compelled to do so by Joshua, they went to Gurgestan which was Georgia. They are the descendants of Georgia.
► Hivi: father of the Hivittes or Horite. They lived in the mountainous region of Lebanon, from Lebo Hamath (Judges 3:3) to the foot of Mount Hermon (Joshua 11:3). They also lived in Shechem in the time of Jacob, and it was Shechem the Hivite who raped Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, and blood sister of Simeon and Levi (Genesis 34:1-2). The Gibeonites who made a peace treaty with Joshua were Hivites. The main cities of the Hivites were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth and Kirjath-Jearim
► Harqi: father of the Arkites. They lived either in the city of Irquata, a Phoenician coastal city today in Syria, or in the city of Arce, located at the northwestern foot of Mount Lebanon.
► Sini: father of the Sinites. They lived in the south in the Sinai region.
► Arvadi: father of the Avvites. They lived in Hazerim, or "the villages", at the southwest corner of the sea coast. They were conquered by the Caphtorites who destroyed them and settled in their place (Joshua 13:3).
► Semari: father of the Zemarites / Tsemarians. They lived in Zemar, a city near the coast of present-day Syria.
► Hamati: father of the Hamathites. They lived in the kingdom of Hamath, located in what is today western Syria and northern Lebanon.
In chapter 10:29-30 of the Book of Jubilees, it is written that Canaan had inherited the part of the world west of the territory of Put, west of the sea, that is, the southern part of Africa. However, Canaan's descendants did not migrate to the territory that was rightfully his, but rather took over the current lands of the state of Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan that were part of Shem's territory. According to the Book of Jubilees Chap, 10:30, his father and brothers warned him, saying this:
"You have settled in a land which is not your, and which did not fall to us by lot: do not do so; for if you do so, you and your sons will fall in the land and (be) accursed through sedition; for by sedition you have settled, and by sedition will your children fall, and you shall be rooted out for ever."
To this day, the territory that Canaan had unjustly appropriated is subject to a state of sedition, with two groups claiming the territory as theirs under the name they have chosen. One land, but two names, hence the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which has given rise to countless agitations, uprisings, riots and subversions.
Therefore, the curse of Canaan has nothing to do with the enslavement of the black race.
Association between Seir son of Canaan, Esaü son of Jacob and Rome
Seir is the great-great-grandson of Canaan. The word Seir means hairy and, when applied to a country, it can mean rough or mountainous. The region that bore the name Seir (present-day Saudi Arabia) is the mountainous area east of the great el-Ghor valleys and along the central Wadi Araba (the border between the modern states of Israel and Jordan), from the northern end of the Elanitic Gulf of the Red Sea to the southern end of the Dead Sea.
In the Bible, Mount Seir is closely related to the land of Edom or Idumea. This is because before the Edomites occupied the land, it was called Mount Seir and was inhabited by the Horites. It was in this region that Esau, Jacob's older twin brother, settled during his father's lifetime. There he destroyed the Horites and his descendants gradually took possession of the land. Thus Seir is Edom, the land of the Edomites, the descendants of Esau. Seir and Edom, will be destroyed.
Genesis 36:8 “So Esau lived in the hill country of Seir; Esau is Edom.”
Genesis 36:19 “These are the sons of Esau, who is Edom, and these are their dukes.”
Ezekiel 35:3 “And declare that this is what the Lord God says: Behold, I am against you, O Mount Seir. I will stretch out My hand against you and make you a desolate waste.”
Ezekiel 35:15 “As you rejoiced when the inheritance of the house of Israel became desolate, so will I do to you. You will become a desolation, O Mount Seir, and so will all of Edom. Then they will know that I am the Lord.“
According to the Book of Jasher, after the death of Joseph, Tsepho grandson of Esau, who was the chief commander of the armies of Angeas king of Dinhaba (North Africa), tried to convince Angeas to go and fight the Sons of Israel in Egypt. But when Angeas refused, Tsepho formed an alliance with Kittim / Chittim (Rome) in order to battle against Angeas who was in conflict with Kittim at that time. Tsepho freed Kittim from the invasion of Angeas and also managed to subdue the sons of Tubal and surrounding islands. Thus gaining the confidence of Kittim, he was proclaimed king of Rome and ruled over them for 50 years (Jasher 61:23-24). After the exodus of the Hebrews, a war broke out between Hadad king of Edom and Abianus king of Kittim (Rome). Abianus killed Hadad and subdued Edom, whereby Edom and Rome became one nation (Jasher 90:1-8). In the Book of Daniel, he prophesied in great detail about Edom.
Edom= Kittim = Rome = The Vatican
Daniel 11:30-45 "And the galleys and the Romans shall come upon him, and he shall be struck, and shall return, and shall have indignation against the covenant of the sanctuary, and he shall succeed: and he shall return and shall devise against them that have forsaken the covenant of the sanctuary. And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall defile the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the continual sacrifice, and they shall place there the abomination unto desolation. And such as deal wickedly against the covenant shall deceitfully dissemble: but the people that know their God shall prevail and succeed. And they that are learned among the people shall teach many: and they shall fall by the sword, and by fire, and by captivity, and by spoil for many days. And when they shall have fallen they shall be relieved with a small help: and many shall be joined to them deceitfully. And some of the learned shall fall, that they may be tried, and may be chosen, and made white even to the appointed time, because yet there shall be another time. And the king shall do according to his will, and he shall be lifted up, and shall magnify himself against every god: and he shall speak great things against the God of gods, and shall prosper, till the wrath be accomplished. For the determination is made. And he shall make no account of the God of his fathers: and he shall follow the lust of women, and he shall not regard any gods: for he shall rise up against all things. But he shall worship the god Maozim in his place: and a god whom his fathers knew not, he shall worship with gold, and silver, and precious stones, and things of great price. And he shall do this to fortify Maozim with a strange god, whom he hath acknowledged, and he shall increase glory and shall give them power over many, and shall divide the land gratis. And at the time prefixed the king of the south shall fight against him, and the king of the north shall come against him like a tempest, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with a great navy, and he shall enter into the countries, and shall destroy, and pass through. And he shall enter into the glorious land, and many shall fall: and these only shall be saved out of his hand, Edom, and Moab, and the principality of the children of Ammon. And he shall lay his hand upon the lands: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. And he shall have power over the treasures of gold, and of silver, and all the precious things of Egypt: and he shall pass through Libya, and Ethiopia. And tidings out of the east, and out of the north shall trouble him: and he shall come with a great multitude to destroy and slay many. And he shall fix his tabernacle Apadno between the seas, upon a glorious and holy mountain: and he shall come even to the top thereof, and none shall help him". |Douay-Rheims Bible|