From the desk of the pastor for October 4, 2026

The Lord be with you! Before moving on from Noah, we must go over what happened after the Flood. At the end of Genesis 9 is a rather puzzling story that will have significant ramifications later on.

In Genesis 9:20 Noah gets back to farming and plants a vineyard. Noah has too much wine and lays intoxicated and naked in his tent. Ham, one of Noah’s three sons, then takes advantage of Noah’s drunkenness and then tells his brothers, Shem and Japheth. The two good sons do not cooperate with their brother but carefully and respectfully cover Noah back up. When Noah wakes up, he then curses Canaan, the son of Ham, making Canaan and his descendants slaves to Shem, the good son.

Why punish Canaan for Ham’s misdeeds? For that part what did Ham do that was so bad? The Hebrew here is likely using a euphemism for sexual assault. Moreover, the assault was likely not against Noah but against his wife. The likeliest interpretation is that Ham committed incest to dishonor his father and steal authority from him. His brothers, however, supported their father. Canaan is punished as a mercy to his father - God will also delay punishment a generation - and potentially to indicate that Canaan was illegitimate.

Moreover, the curse against Canaan has huge consequences for Abraham’s descendants, the Israelites. Since Abraham descends from Shem, Abraham’s descendants get to take whatever they want from the slaves of Shem, the Canaanites. The Promised Land is not land that God arbitrarily takes from the Canaanites but just retribution for Ham’s crime.

At the same time this incident reveals that humanity cannot escape sin by itself. The moment that Noah improves things materially is the same moment that one of his sons wrecks things spiritually. Much as Cain’s killing of Abel set humanity against itself, Ham’s work against his father recapitulates the pattern of sin.

It is in this context of rancor and infighting that the Tower of Babel is presented. Instead of seeking God’s assistance in unifying the human race, people instead try to build a tower to heaven to lift man up. The story actually implies that they failed in their attempt since God has to come down to punish them.

The confusion of languages mirrors the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden. The different ancestries and peoples must be separated from each other lest they sin in worse ways. God is not merely punishing humanity but doing what must be done to keep the human family alive.

The patterns of sin will change with Abraham. With the patriarchs God creates a new way of life with mankind. The people of Israel will become what their name implies: true children of God.

In His Sacred Heart,

Fr. John