SHEM, JAPHETH, OR HAM
by
Dr. Gale A. Ragan-Reid (October 10, 2015)
“By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations” (Genesis 10:5, King James Version [God's covenant]).
Greetings In The Name Of Jesus,
My sisters and brothers, Do you know why African-Americans were told by white-Americans [In those days, primarily White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs] that they were---Ham, speaking of Noah's youngest son (Genesis 9:24, KJV)? Did the slave traders happen upon a tribe of Ham's children when they were buying, stealing, and trading slaves from coast-to-coast, from continent-to-continent? Or, was the reason they were called Ham, more in line with the thoughts of Noah's curse upon his grandson, Canaan (Ham's son) because Ham looked upon Noah's nakedness---told his brothers, Shem and Japheth---after Noah drank the wine he made from grapes, became drunk, and was uncovered in his tent (9:20-22, KJV [Noah, the father of wine making, was counted the only righteous God-fearing man of his time [before the flood], also Job was counted righteous, and Daniel during the time Judah was carried into Babylon were counted righteous, later Abraham was counted righteous and God blessed him [for the coming of the manifestation of Jesus---birth of Christ Jesus]). Most importantly, whether the thoughts of those who told African-Americans they were Ham were on the curse, more so or less than on the position of their birth line---for Shem was the chosen line of God, which made them either a Jew or a Gentile, subsequently in Christ Jesus a Jewish-Christian or a Gentile-Christian, leads us to follow Holy Bible (n.d.) stories, to see what the end could be? What was Canaan's curse?
According To The First Book of Moses, Called Genesis (9:24-27):
“And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done
unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto
his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall
be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem;
and Canaan shall be his servant.”
Now, Ham had four sons [“And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.”, Genesis 10:6, KJV] but the curse was upon Canaan and to that, we draw from the bible stories that Abraham in the chosen line of Shem, displaced Canaan from the promised lands, for Canaan was settled on the promised lands [God took the promised lands from Canaan and gave the promised lands to Abraham]. In that regard, however, of acquisition, we know Canaan served Abraham (Shem) even more so, we know Ham's second oldest son Mizraim or Egypt, enslaved the children of Shem (Jacob or Israel) after Joseph's death and Israel served over 400 years in Egypt [“Mizraim is Misr pronounced Masr in Egyptian colloquial Arabic; hence Egypt's official name is Jumhuriyat Misr al-'Arabiyah---The Arab Republic of Egypt---therefore, Ham is known as the ancestor of the Copts of Egypt, the Berbers of North Africa, and unidentified black people---Egypt was also known as the land of Ham”, Wikipedia, 2015; The Readers Digest Association, Inc.,1994].The bible stories continue to show the conquest---acquisition of lands taken from Canaan. Now, Canaan had Sidon (Zidon), his first born, Heth, and the nations: Jebusite, Amorite, Girgasite, Hivite, Arkite, Sinite, Arvadite, Zemarite, Hamathite, and they were spread abroad, from Sidon to Gaza [Genesis 10:15-20; I Chronicles 1:13-16, KJV]. The conquest to take what Canaan had to give to Abraham the chosen line---commenced after the death of Joshua [“Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?”, The Book
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Of Judges 1:1, KJV].
Moreover, Judah and Simeon went up and the LORD delivered the 10 thousand men of the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand, in Bezek; also Judah took Jerusalem, and the Canaanites that dwelt in the mountain, in the south, and in the valley; Judah took the Canaanites in Hebron (known as Kirjatharba); Judah took the inhabitants of Debir, in which Caleb gave his daughter to Othniel, the son of Kenaz for being instrumental in the overtake (known as Kirjathsepher); the children of the
Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah and dwelt in the wilderness of Judah in the south of Arad; Judah and Simeon went up and slew the Canaanites in Zephath (Hormah); Judah took Gaza with the coast; Judah took Askelon with the coast; Judah took Ekron with the coast but the children of Benjamin could not drive out Canaan's children the Jebusites out of Jerusalem because they had chariots of iron; neither did Manasseh drive the Canaanites out of Bethshean, nor Taanach, nor Dor, nor Ibleam, nor Megiddo, so Israel made the Canaanites pay tribute because they could not utterly destroy them; neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites of Gezer, nor did Zebulon drive out the the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol but the Canaanites dwelt among them and also paid tribute [became tributaries] to Israel; neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho, nor the inhabitants of Zidon, nor of Ahlab; nor of Achzib; nor of Helbah; nor of Aphik; nor of Rehob so the children of Ash (Asherites) dwelt among the Canaanites because the tribe of Asher (Israel) could not drive them out; neither did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants of Bethshemesh; nor Bethanath; so Bethshemesh and Bethanath became tributaries to Naphtali; and the Amorites forced the tribe of Dan (Israel) into the mountains and would not let them come down to the valley but the tribe of Joseph prevailed and made the Amorites tributaries” (The Book Of Judges, chapter 1, KJV).
Hence, in following the Holy Bible stories, we find Judah and Simeon successfully drove out the Canaanites from their lands, except Jerusalem where the Canaanites still dwell alongside the tribe of Benjamin and Judah [Judges 1:8,21,KJV]. However, the other tribes of Israel, namely Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulon, Asher, Naphtali, and Joseph did prevail to make the Canaanites their tributaries and dwelt amongst them. Therefore, we see that the son of Ham---Canaan was not the chosen line (Shem) and Canaan did not worship the living God. However, Ham was the same bloodline as Shem, for they were both sons of Noah, two of the three sons of Noah that populated the earth after the flood ['And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread...These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.” Genesis 9:18-19; 10:32, KJV].
Now, let us follow how the Canaanites and the Shemites lived together on the same lands and how the Shemites (the Semitic peoples) married-in the Canaanite nations (the Hamitic people); Japheth is known as the father of the people of Asia Minor and Europe (The World Book Encyclopedia, 1970).
Interestingly enough, the Pharisees found many problems with the marriages of Shem and Canaan, in which the Canaanites did not convert, so the children of the marriage were not Jewish. “David's mother was Ruth, the Moabite, which stood against David's claim to royalty. There were many marriages with the women of Ammon and Moab before and during the time of Nehemiah, for according to I Kings 14:21-31, KJV; II Chronicles 12:13, KJV, “King Solomon's wife Naamah who was the mother of King Rehoboam of Judah, the successor of King Solomon, was an Ammonite---the only wife of King Solomon recorded in the Tanakh.(”And that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons;” Nehemiah 10:30, KJV [Points of the covenant]) Furthermore, King Ahab married Jezebel, a Zidonian---a Canaanite, Zidon was the first born of Canaan [“And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat,
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that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him” (I Kings 16:30-31, KJV)].
Who were the Moabites and the Ammons? Abraham's nephew, Lot after his wife was turned to a pillar of salt during the annihilation of Sodom and Gomorrah, bore children with his two daughters, of which the the Ammonites nation is from Lot and his younger daughter and the Moabites nation is from Lot and his older daughter” (Genesis 19:37-38, KJV). In The First Book Of the Chronicles (1:17, 24-27), “Shem's lineage is recorded to the tenth generation, namely Abraham.” In modern times, “Shem's
son Elam known as “eternity” are the Elamites and Khuzestanis [Elam's sons are Shushan, Marchul, and Harmon], Asshur known as “a step or strong” are the Assyrians (Asshur's sons are Mirus and Mokil), Arphaxad known as the Chaldeans and the Hebrews (Arphaxad's sons are Shelach, Anar, and Ashcol) wherein Abraham is the patriarch of the Hebrews and Arabs in the lineage of the Israelites, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Ishmaelites, and Qahtanites), Ziezi's Turkic and Indo-European linkage to Semitic roots is disputed by modern scholars, Lud known as “strife” are Asia Minor or Indo-European, wherein Lud is the patriarch of the Ludims, Lubims, Ludians, Ludu, and Lydians (Lud's sons are Pethor and Byzayon), Aram known as “exalted” are the Aramaeans (Aram's sons are Uz, Chul, Gather, and Mash)” Wikipedia, 2015. More importantly, the misfortune of Canaan does not give every African-American a foothold in the lineage of Ham nor do the findings deny every African-American a foothold in Ham and likewise, the findings do not give every African-American a foothold in Shem---the chosen line nor do the findings deny their foothold in the lineage of Shem---the chosen line, since so many marriages occurred between Shem and Ham.
In closing, there was just as much a likelihood that white-Americans (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants known as WASPs could be in the line of Ham as African-Americans since Shem married Canaan in the lands of the Arabs, Armaeans, Assyrians, Hebrews, Indo-European, Lydians, Turkey and Canaan married Shem in the lands of Egypt and North Africa, to name a few of their migrations and immigrations, stepping stones while scattered abroad. The opportunity of Christ Jesus' salvation plan for sinners, hearing the good news, was sent out by the sent ones, apostles carrying the good news that whether you were in the bloodline of Shem (Jewish-Christian)---the chosen line or the bloodline of Ham, Shem's brother (Gentile-Christian), not the chosen line who lost his fortune through the curse of Ham his father and became tributaries in many of his lands to the sons of Abraham, there was still inheritance through Christ Jesus. Thank you Christ Jesus. Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy.
Amen.
