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| Noah’s Fall
In Genesis 9, the parallels between Noah and Adam continue, but in all the wrong ways. After the flood, Noah settles down and builds a vineyard. He takes the fruit of the vine, gets drunk, and ends up naked in his tent, a scene echoing Adam’s eating of the forbidden fruit and recognizing his nakedness. The narrative’s next events quickly become confusing, for Noah’s son Ham p 26 comes in, sees his father’s nakedness, and then goes out and tells his two brothers, Shem and Japheth. They, in turn, back into Noah’s tent and cover their father’s nakedness. When Noah awakes and realizes what Ham had done, he curses Canaan—a man who has not yet been born but who will be the son of Ham. The first step in understanding this passage is to recognize that to “look upon the nakedness of your father” is a Hebrew expression with a meaning quite different from and more sinister than literally seeing one’s father naked. To look upon, or uncover, the nakedness of your father means to sleep with your father’s wife (which likely meant incest; see Lv 18:6–7; 20:11). In other words, while Noah is passed out drunk, Ham sleeps with Noah’s wife, who is also Ham’s mother. When Shem and Japheth hear this, they go carefully into the tent and cover their mother, who has most likely been raped. When Noah awakens, he cannot curse p 27 Ham because God had already given his three sons a blessing, so Noah curses the fruit of the incest, who will be Canaan. p 26 Hearing the New in the Old The Catechism reminds us that “the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New” (No. 129). Thus, if we have ears to hear, we begin to see the light of Christ and his Church shine out of the Old Testament stories. Jesus Christ, who will take on human flesh in the gospels, is also the very Word who was “in the beginning with God” (Jn 1:2) and by whom God spoke all things into being. Jesus, the New Adam, is prefigured already in the opening chapters of Genesis by the first Adam. So, too, we see hints of the Church and her sacraments. St. Peter tells us that the waters of the flood and the ark prefigure baptism (1 Pt 3:20– 21). In the flood, all that remained under the waters died, just as our going under the water in baptism symbolizes our dying to the life of sin and our burial into Christ’s death. All those in the ark during the flood were saved for new life, just as all those who enter the ark of the Church through baptism are given the new life of grace and raised up a new creature in Christ’s resurrection. Indeed, even the baptism of infants is prefigured as Noah’s three sons enter the ark on the strength of Noah’s faith, just as children receive the grace of baptism on the strength of their parents’ faith. Thus, we begin to understand St. Paul’s exhortation that the stories of the Old Testament are “written down for our instruction” (1 Cor 10:11) and that Jesus is squarely in the center of the story of revelation beginning with Genesis. p 27 That Canaan is the fruit of the incest makes sense in the narrative. The story began by naming Noah’s three sons, with special note made of the fact that Ham is the father of Canaan. Then, in the middle of the story, when Ham enters his father’s tent, we are told once again that Ham is the father of Canaan. This narrative detail would be out of place, given that Canaan has not yet been born and that Ham has many other sons besides Canaan, unless the narrative at hand pertains in a special way to Canaan. That Canaan is the fruit of Ham’s incest also makes sense given the larger story of Israel. When Israel enters the land of Canaan, the first thing God warns Israel about is the infamous sexual perversity, particularly incest, of the Canaanites. Indeed, the first command about sexual purity, given to Israel in view of their entering the land of the Canaanites, is that “you shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness” (Lv 18:7; Lv 18:1–6 shows that the context of the laws against incest is Israel’s coming into the land of Canaan). Ham’s motivation for committing such an act may have been more than just perverted lust. Ham’s ultimate purpose may have been a power play to lay claim to the leadership of the family. The family position of authority, which included the roles of kingship and priesthood, was typically passed down from father to firstborn son. In a solemn, unrepeatable act, the father laid his hand on his son and pronounced “the blessing” that bestowed and passed on the family authority, typically to the firstborn son. Ham may have been seeking to hijack this head position before it could be handed down to his older brother, Shem. His choice of actions to accomplish such an ambition is in keeping with ancient Canaanite and Greek mythology, where the head of the pantheon of gods is overthrown and the usurping god legitimizes his rule by sleeping with the previous god’s wives. In a similar move later in Israel’s history, King David’s son Absalom sleeps with David’s concubines in the sight of all of Israel to solidify his claim to the throne (2 Sm 16:21–22). Thus, Ham’s sexual relations with his mother may have been a calculated act of rebellion and a grasp at family power. p 28 Ham’s exploitation of Noah’s drunkenness leaves the human family once again in turmoil as a result of sin. Noah, having followed Adam by eating the fruit and becoming naked and ashamed, likewise starts a domino effect of sin that leads to a curse. This new cycle of sin will once again plunge humanity into great peril. The second creation is followed by a second fall. Yet there is hope because Shem, Noah’s faithful firstborn son, receives the blessing from Noah (Gn 9:26). Perhaps through the line of Shem, a “seed” will arise who will crush the serpent and redirect man’s increasing wickedness. A CT 4: T OWER OF B ABEL tải về 6.33 Mb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
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