Parashat 2 Portion 8

Beresheet/Genesis 9:18-10:32

Blessing for the Torah:

Baruch atah YHVH, Eloheynu, Melech ha-O’lam, asher bachar banu m’kol ha-amim,

v’natan lanu eht Torah-to. Baruch atah YHVH, noteyn ha-Torah. Ameyn.”

(Blessed are you, YHVH, our Elohim , King of the Universe,

you have selected us from among all the peoples, and have given us your Torah.

Blessed are you, YHVH, giver of the Torah. Ameyn.)

It is impossible to understand the mysteries of the Torah if one does not see Yahshua as the ultimate goal and purpose of all that is written and taught in the Torah.

Truly the Torah is YHVH’s primary revelation to mankind the rest of the scripture are commentary on this revelation.

We see in this section how the seeds of deception were sown to corrupt the true image and ministry of the Messiah.

Shaul addresses this situation in his letter to the Corinthians:

     2Co 11:3  But I am afraid, lest, as the serpent deceived Ḥawwah by his trickery, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Messiah.

2Co 11:4  For, indeed, if he who is coming proclaims another יהושע,¹ (Yahshua) whom we have not proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different Good News which you have not accepted, you put up with it well enough! Footnote: ¹Mt. 24:5 & 23-24, John 5:43.

Portion 8: (sixth aliyah of Parashat 2)

Note: When a “h” has a little line underneath in the transliteration form of the Hebrew letters, it is pronounced as “ch”- a guttural sound like “gaan” in Afrikaans.

Gen 9:18  And the sons of Noaḥ (Noach)who went out of the ark were Shĕm and Ḥam (Cham) and Yepheth. And Ḥam was the father of Kena’an.

Gen 9:19  These three were the sons of Noaḥ, and all the earth was overspread from them.

Note the additional information given about Cham (Ham) in vs 18. Cham had several other sons but the Ruach of YHVH wants to draw our attention to the descendants of Cham for a reason. It would be through the sons of Cham that a devastating plot to obscure and defile YHVH’s redemption would be put into action. Sadly all Cham’s brothers and their descendant bought into this deception in some or the other. When this seed is fully grown it will bring about the rise of the Anti- Messiah and a great and awesome judgment upon mankind who have been deceived by this false Messianic deception.

The whole earth would now be populated by Noach’s three sons.  The sages believe that the descendants of Shem occupied Asia; the descendants of Yephet occupied Europe the descendants of Cham occupied Africa.

The rabbis believe that Shem was the father of Yisrael and excelled in the study of the Torah. Yephet was the father of the Greeks, who excelled in the arts Arts are good and to be sort after, but only when they are constrained by the truth of the Torah. Canaan son of Cham would be a slave. Note how vs 18 repeats the name of Cham emphasizing that the Canaanites were his descendants. YHVH wants to draw our attention in this section to the profound impact the descendants of Cham have had upon mankind.

Gen 9:20  And Noaḥ, a man of the soil, began and planted a vineyard.

Noach was a farmer a man of the soil who lived close to nature and animals. Nimrod a descendant of Cham was a warrior who built cities and ruled over people.

Gen 9:21  And he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent.

Even Noach was human and subject to frailty. Some believe this was not an intentional act as this was the first time vineyards were planted and wine was fermented. Wine which later becomes a symbol of our celebration of the joy of being in covenant with YHVH, when abused brings shame upon man.

“His tent” is incorrectly translated and should read “her tent”. In the Hebrew text there is a feminine possessive form when it mentions the tent that Noach had undressed in. It was obviously not his own tent that he was laying in, but his wife’s.  We assume the term “uncovered” is a euphemism used to describe a sexual relationship. This is a grave oversight in the translation because it obscures what most probably really happened in Noach’s wife’s tent.

Gen 9:22  And Ḥam, the father of Kena’an, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.

“At first sight this does not seem such a serious incident and many have wondered why the punishment for a young man seeing his father in a naked condition was so serious, after all they were both men. Also, this Scripture seems especially odd since the punishment seems rather excessive and is passed directly on to Noach's grandson (rather than his son). We must note that the text of Beresheet/Genesis here is less clear than one might wish so we have to work with various clues, found from other sections of Scripture. Overall, most Bible commentators (not all) feel that something else occurred which the text never specifically spells out.

So there might be much more to this text than immediately meets the eye!

Okay, let us consider this in more detail.

Much of the explanation may be found in the meaning of the Hebrew phrase, 'to look upon his/her nakedness.' Look up Leviticus 18:6-18 and 20:17. It is very clear that this phrase was used by the Hebrews to describe a forbidden sexual relationship. In this case, the sin of incest seems to be the problem. It is possible that Kena’an (Canaan) had a sexual relationship with his grandmother. Some scholars now suggest that such incestuous acts were often all about inner-family power struggles and it was usually an ambitious son who attempted to sexually compromise his mother!

Scott Hahn says this,

'Cham was trying to usurp his father's authority by his son sleeping with his mother. Perhaps that's why he told his brothers what he had instigated, rather than keeping it a secret. This reflects a pattern found elsewhere in the Scriptures, especially where sons resent fathers for showing favor to siblings. For example, Yakov's son Reuben sought to undermine his favored half-brother Yoseph by taking his father's (Yakov's) concubine -for which he received a paternal curse (see Gen 29:32; 35:22; 49:3-4). Likewise, Absalom resented the plans of his father, King David, to give the throne to one of his younger half-brothers, Solomon. In response, Absalom drove King David out of Jerusalem and had intercourse  with his father's concubines - right in public -to signify his seizure of royal power...' end quote.

So there may well have been a bid for leadership over his siblings by Cham in his son’s sexual conquest of his own grandmother (if indeed, it was Noach's wife who was compromised rather than Noach himself) - almost certainly, Cham wanted to be recognised as the leader among Noach's sons! Centuries later his male descendants would often seek the sexual conquest of their mothers as a means of attaining fuller privileges within their families. But in Cham's case, YHVH caused his evil behaviour to backfire, and the greater blessings and honour went to Yephet (Japheth) and, especially, to Shem, from whom the tribes of Israel would spring!
So it should not be entirely surprising that YHVH gave the sons of Shem (Abraham and the Israelites) the right to have authority over the Kena’anites (Canaanites).

It is surely interesting that a state of drunkenness leads to another act of incest in Beresheet/Genesis. This was when Lot's daughters deliberately got their father drunk in order to have sex with him. It is recounted in Genesis 19:30-35. So this was paternal incest.

“The message of the Scripture is that the foul sin of incest can only produce evil results. Canaan became the father of the Canaanites who apparently inherited the sexual morals of their grandfather, with a liking for incest and other forms of sexual perversion. Moses warned the Israelites not to adopt the sexual behaviour and practises of the Canaanites and other tribes within the Promised Land in Leviticus 18:6-18 and Exodus 23:23-24.
The incest of Lot's daughters with their father led to the peoples of Edom, Moab and Ammon (Genesis 19:36-38) and these people too proved to be continual enemies of Israel!”

NIMROD AND BABYLON: THE BIRTH OF IDOLATRY AND CHRISTIANITY  

by Steve and Terri White

Genesis 10:8-12; Genesis 3:15; Genesis 11

After the flood Noah and his family repopulated the earth. Because the deluge did not eradicate sin, man’s sinful nature ran wild once again. At the same time, territories were overrun with wild beasts, turning against the inhabitants of the land. The battle of man against beast was hot and fearful, but in the midst of it, Nimrod, son of Cush, appeared as the 'knight in shining armor'. A "mighty hunter," Nimrod delivered the people from the fear of beasts. Hungry for power, though, he also emancipated man from YHVH.

Until Nimrod, mankind was governed by the patriarchal system where the heads of families heard from YHVH and guided their individual tribes. Nimrod, more accurately a "mighty hunter against YHVH," usurped patriarchal rule, and crowned himself the first human king in all of history. Now man ruled instead of YHVH.

According to Jewish legend, Nimrod feared the prophecy that a child was to be born who would turn the people back to YHVH. In an effort to preserve his kingdom, he slew 70,000 babies in hopes of killing the would-be saviour. The story goes that Abram of Ur was the prophetic baby, the father of Israel from whom the messiah would come.

Nimrod’s greed and ambition led him to sell himself to demonic powers, and he became the high priest of devil worship. During this time Nimrod married the beautiful and cunning, but notoriously immoral, Semiramis. Together they ruled the world.

Plans were made for a grand tower, a massive type of building called a ziggurat, which consisted of a series of terraced platforms, each smaller than the one below it, and all together reaching a great height. At the top would be a shrine to Bel, whom they worshiped as 'the Most High god', the god of the sun and of fire; other 'sky gods' would also be included. Therefore, Genesis 11:4, in speaking of "a tower and his top with the heavens (literal translation)," is not referring to the height of the tower, but instead to the inscriptions of the stars on the walls of the shrine. The constellations were there, but with outlines of the 'sky gods' on them in order to cause people to associate the 'pictures in the sky' that they had known about from childhood, with the images Nimrod wanted them to worship. This is indicative of the occult deception which reigned in Babylon.

The Witness of the Stars by E. W. Bullinger reveals the true meaning of what we call 'the signs of the zodiac'. They were meant to be pictures in the sky representing YHVH’s promise of a coming Deliverer, who, being the Seed of the Woman, would bruise the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15). For this purpose, YHVH gave the stars as "lights . . . for signs and for seasons" (Gen. 1:14 signs, from Hebrew oth means 'evidence'; seasons from Hebrew moed means 'appointed time'). The sky pictures were reminders meant to serve as evidence that all was under YHVH’s divine control, and at His appointed time the events promised (the coming Deliverer, etc.) would happen.

YHVH decided that the perversion of the celestial witness was an attempt to extinguish all hope in man for redemption -- this He would not allow. "This they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do" (Gen. 11:6) indicates that evil was about to be unleashed that would be "unrestrained." YHVH defeated all of their designs by confusing their one language into many and scattering the people across the earth; when they could not communicate, their knowledge became fragmented. Various elements of 'stargazing' by the civilizations that followed (Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, etc,) can be traced back to their common beginnings in Babylon. The 'divine astrology' -- YHVH’s witness in the heavens -- was still intact, while pagan astrology was broken into corrupt pieces, a mockery of the former danger of the tower that had its "top with the heavens."

Meanwhile, in the height of his power, Nimrod died. It was a violent death, shrouded in mystery. Semiramis, pregnant from an adulterous relationship and desperate to keep her position, devised a scheme.  Semiramis covered up the details of Nimrod’s death and

publicly proclaimed that:

      Nimrod’s death was voluntary and self-sacrificial for the benefit of the world.

      Nimrod would rise again by mystical means.

      She was a virgin.

      Nimrod "visited her in a flash of light and the baby was the reincarnated Nimrod".

      Nimrod’s rising in the form of her son was the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy (Gen. 3:15).

The baby, named Tammuz, was taught the lie and was worshiped as god. Semiramis soon claimed that Nimrod had become the "sun god," and was worshiped as such. Not surprisingly, Semiramis was also worshiped as a goddess -- her original goal finally achieved. Thus, the birth of the mystery religion of Babylon: pagan worship of the bogus virgin and child.

Three key figures are prominent in every idolatrous system -- Nimrod, Semiramis, and Tammuz:

      a famous, but sinful king dies or is cut off;

      an immoral queen encourages false worship, bears a child, and is elevated to the status of god;

      a child, worshiped as god, but serving as husband, lover, or son of the mother.

From Babylon the worship of mother/son spread across the whole earth. In Egypt there is Isis and Horus; in India, Isi and Iward; in Asia, Cybele and Deorius; in ancient Rome, Fortuna and Jupiter; and in Greece, Ceres/Irene and Plutus. The demonic counterfeit was long in place before the real mother and child walked the earth – Miriyam and Yahshua the real Messiah -  end quote.

In Genesis 9, we note the curse which Noach pronounced on his grandson’s act of incest; Kena’an’s/Canaan's descendants would now have to serve Shem's descendants which is what happened when the Jews, descended from Shem, inherited the Promised Land! Shem and Yephet /Japheth receive blessings because they reacted with wisdom and concern when Cham apparently foolishly boasted. They entered the tent and covered their father's 'nakedness' (that is, their father and mother). Yephet's blessing is that he would be 'enlarged' - his descendants have indeed become numerous.

Incidentally, it’s worth pointing something else out from Genesis 9:27. The verse says this:

'May Elohim enlarge Yepeth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem...'

We need to remember that the original Hebrew carried no punctuation, and many feel that there should be a full-stop (period) after Yepeth, rather than a comma, because the next part, 'And may He dwell in the tents of Shem' is actually a reference to YHVH (May he (Elohim) dwell in the tents of Shem) - this could be the tented tabernacle in the wilderness and later the Presence of YHVH in the Temple in Yerushalayim.

It is also possible that this text prophetically refers to a redeemed people who will be grafted into Shem or Yisrael.

Gen 9:23  So Shĕm and Yepheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father, but their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.

Gen 9:24  And Noaḥ awoke from his wine, and he knew what his younger son (ben o ha katan) had done to him,

Gen 9:25  and he said, “Cursed is Kena’an, let him become a servant of servants to his brothers.”

Gen 9:26  And he said, “Blessed be יהוה, the Elohim of Shĕm, and let Kena’an become his servant.

Gen 9:27  “Let Elohim enlarge Yepheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shĕm. And let Kena’an become his servant.”

Gen 9:28  And Noaḥ lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.

Gen 9:29  So all the days of Noaḥ were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died.

Gen 10:1  And this is the genealogy of the sons of Noaḥ: Shĕm, Ḥam, and Yepheth. And sons were born to them after the flood. 

According to Wikipedia the Table of Nations in Genesis 10 (verses 15-19), Canaan was the ancestor of the tribes who originally occupied the ancient Land of Canaan: all the territory from Sidon or Hamath in the north to Gaza in the southwest and Lasha in the southeast. This territory is roughly the areas of modern day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, western Jordan, and western Syria. Canaan's firstborn son was Sidon, who shares his name with the Phoenician city of Sidon in present-day Lebanon. His second son was Heth. Canaan's descendants, according to the Hebrew Scriptures, include:

1. Sidonians, i.e. the Phoenicians

2. Hittites, children of Heth

3. Jebusites

4. Amorites

5. Girgashites

6. Hivites

7. Arkites

8. Sinites

9. Arvadites

10. Zemarites

11. Hamathites

According to traditional Ethiopian histories, Canaan's son Arwadi (lit. "the Arvadite") and his wife Entela crossed from Asia into Ethiopia in 2101 BC, and the Qemant tribe were said to be descended from their son, Anayer. There is further an Ethiopian tradition that two other Canaanite tribes, viz. the Sinites and Zemarites, also entered Ethiopia at the time it was ruled by the Kingdom of Kush, and became the Shanqella and Weyto peoples, respectively. 

The Persian historian Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (c. 915) recounted a tradition that the wife of Canaan was named Arsal, a daughter of Batawil son of Tiras, and that she bore him the "Blacks, Nubians, Fezzan, Zanj, Zaghawah, and all the peoples of the Sudan.

The German historian Johannes Aventinus (fl. c. 1525) recorded a legend that Canaan's sons the "Arkite" and the "Hamathite" first settled in the area of Greece, and gave their names to the regions of Arcadia and Emathia.

Modern day Palestians are also believed to be descendants from Kena’an/Canaan.

We need to understand that a great deal of inter marrying has taken place over the past and that no one race can really claim to be a pure race free of any kind of mixture.

There is a true story about how Nazi Germany held a contest in the nation to find out who appeared to be the best example of a pure Arian race. Thousands of baby photos were sent in for selection. Ironically the prize was won by a baby Jewish girl.

Gen 10:2  The sons of Yepheth: Gomer, and Maḡoḡ, and Maḏai, and Yawan, and Tuḇal, and Mesheḵ, and Tiras.

Gen 10:3  And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Toḡarmah.

Gen 10:4  And the sons of Yawan: Elishah and Tarshish, Kittim and Doḏanim.

Gen 10:5  From these the coastland peoples of the nations were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their clans, into their nations.

Gen 10:6  And the sons of Ḥam: Kush, and Mitsrayim, and Put, and Kena’an.

Gen 10:7  And the sons of Kush: Seḇa, and Ḥawilah, and Saḇtah, and Ra’mah, and Saḇteḵa. And the sons of Ra’mah: Sheḇa and Deḏan.

Gen 10:8  And Kush brought forth Nimroḏ, he began to be a mighty one on the earth.

Gen 10:9  He was a mighty hunter before יהוה, therefore it is said, “Like Nimroḏ the mighty hunter before יהוה.”

Gen 10:10  And the beginning of his reign was Baḇel, and Ereḵ, and Akkaḏ, and Kalnĕh, in the land of Shin’ar.

Gen 10:11  From that land he went to Ashshur and built Ninewĕh, and Reḥoḇoth Ir, and Kelaḥ,

Gen 10:12  and Resen between Ninewĕh and Kelaḥ, the great city.

Gen 10:13  And Mitsrayim brought forth Luḏim, and Anamim, and Lehaḇim, and Naphtuḥim,

Gen 10:14  and Pathrusim, and Kasluḥim, from whom came the Philistines and Kaphtorim.

Gen 10:15  And Kena’an brought forth Tsiḏon his first-born, and Ḥĕth,

Gen 10:16  and the Yeḇusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgashite,

Gen 10:17  and the Ḥiwwite, and the Arqite, and the Sinite,

Gen 10:18  and the Arwaḏite, and the Tsemarite, and the Ḥamathite. And afterward the clans of the Kena’anites were spread abroad.

Gen 10:19  And the border of the Kena’anites was from Tsiḏon as you go toward Gerar, as far as Azzah, as you go toward Seḏom, and Amorah, and Aḏmah, and Tseḇoyim, as far as Lasha.