Cultural anthropologists, who study people groups and societies, speak broadly of three types of cultures: fear-power cultures, guilt-innocence cultures, and honour-shame cultures.¹ Many modern societies are guilt-innocence cultures, being governed by laws and regulations. In the Old Testament, however, honour-shame was the predominant cultural value. This will help us to understand the final part of Noah’s story—the incident with his son Ham in Genesis 9:18–28.

One of the Ten Commandments that would be given to God’s people makes clear how they were to treat their parents: “Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12). This command is not based on any condition that is, parents do not need to do anything to deserve such honour. It would thus have been easier for people living in an honour-shame culture to understand how seriously Ham’s actions violated the established norms. Noah was both the elder and the parent, and his culture gave undiluted honour to people like him. But what exactly did Ham do wrong?

Immediately after the exhilarating account of the first family of the new world exiting the ark and receiving God’s blessing to repopulate and manage the earth again, we come to another “fall” in Genesis 9:18–28. Noah gets himself drunk and lies naked in his tent. His youngest son Ham sees his father’s shameful condition and decides to publicise this to his brothers—without doing anything to safeguard Noah’s honour (vv. 20–22). We get a sense of Ham’s disrespect for his father when we compare his behaviour to that of his brothers—they take great care to cover their father’s nakedness, even walking into Noah’s tent backwards and looking away “so that they would not see their father naked” (v. 23).

Ham’s action has serious, long-term ramifications. The new phase of life that had begun with “God blessed . . .” (v. 1) is sadly ending with Noah’s “Cursed be . . .” (v. 25). Curiously, Noah’s curse is directed at Canaan, his grandson, and not at Ham. Although biblical scholars are not sure why this is so, they note that the curse is limited to only one of Ham’s four sons; Cush, Egypt, and Put are spared (see 10:6). This might hint to us why the descendants of Abraham (who comes from Shem’s line) would eventually overcome the Canaanites and possess their land (see Exodus 6:4). Canaan is cursed to be a slave to his relatives—a curse that is emphasised by repetition (Genesis 9:25–27).

Although the story of Noah’s drunkenness was told mainly to highlight the curse he placed on Canaan, the author of Genesis does not excuse Noah for his behaviour. The brief but vivid description of the drunken Noah depicts him in a moment of dishonourable conduct. It contrasts strongly with the commendation given to him in Genesis 6:9 and 7:1.

¹ “Understanding Guilt, Shame, and Fear Cultures,” HonorShame, last modified November 5, 2014, https://honorshame.com/understanding-guilt-shame-fear-cultures/.