The Curse on Canaan (Q&A)

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Q: What was the curse God put on Canaan? Was it related to him becoming a black person, and if so, did all black peoples descend from him?

A: Thanks for your questions. I believe it is always good to ponder any Bible-related topic, but this pondering should first start with understanding exactly what is written in The Bible about the topic, and then researching what is written about related topics. Otherwise, we would simply be ‘shooting from the hip’, or going on hearsay, which is always ill advised.

God did not curse Canaan, the grandson of Noah. Noah, himself, cursed his grandson. Also, the curse had nothing to do with skin pigmentation. Skin pigmentation is closely related to the geographical location of people and their descendants. See: Tropics

This story of this curse is found in Genesis 9. After the global flood, God blessed Noah and his 3 sons.(verse 9:1) From these 4 men and their wives, all post-flood humans would descend. Noah became a farmer, planted a vineyard and drank the wine therefrom. One day, Ham discovered his father drunk and naked in his (Noah’s) tent, and he looked upon his father’s nakedness, then told his brothers about the ordeal. The brothers honored their father by going into the tent backwards, covering their father, and refusing to look upon his nakedness. When Noah sobered up and learned of what happened, he cursed Canaan, Ham’s youngest son, saying:

Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants he shall be to his brethren. Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem; and may Canaan be his servant.

The curse was expressly on Canaan, to debase him in the lowest of servanthood terms (servant of servants), with no clear or implied mention of his descendants. The notion that this curse applies to relationships between the descendants of Noah’s sons is not expressly indicated in the wording of the curse. Nevertheless, the unsubstantiated, popular notion is that this curse on Canaan implicitly sets the stage for conflicts between his descendants and the descendants of his uncles, including between the descendants of Jacob, Esau and Ishmael. The Bible does not support such a link. Rather, history in general reveals this ole familiar poetic pattern among people groups:

Millennia of history bespeak,
Of ebbing flows of the strong and the weak.
Victors’ conquests over the vanquished.
Lives that in hopelessness are languished.

This dance of oppressors and the oppressed,
Turns when the oppressed grow, and then protest.
As they grow in strength, their future successors,
Eventually become ...the oppressors!

So over protracted periods of time, various peoples groups have typically exchanged roles regarding who is strong versus weak, who are the victors versus the vanquished, and who are the oppressors versus the oppressed. This will likely continue to unfold until the end.

That said, it is both interesting and curious how The Bible describes Noah’s grandsons. (Genesis 10) It names the sons of Shem, Ham and Japheth, but it takes an interesting turn or unique approach in describing the sons of Ham by their Canaanite descendant sub-groups: the Jebusite, the Amorite, and the Girgashite; the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite; the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. (Genesis 11:10-32) This may well have been Moses’ (and God’s) way of signaling to readers of Genesis to ‘keep an eye on these highlighted people groups as stories across The Bible unfold!’ Some of these Canaanites (their collective group name) settled in lands that God later promised to Abraham and his descendants through Jacob. This promise of a major land transfer helped to set the stage for the troubled history between these groups, including conflicts that continue today.

It is also noteworthy that: 

o The Lord affirms, ‘In that day (The Millennial Reign) there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.’ (Zechariah 14:21) Some versions of The Bible interpret the word, Canaanite, in this verse as a merchant, trader, or spiritually unclean person, Jew or Gentile.

o Ancient Jews mixed with Canaanites, including Judah (Jesus’ ancestor, not by blood) who married and had children by a Canaanite woman. (1 Chronicles 2:3)