CANAAN‘S CURSE:IS IT WITH US TODAY?

 

During
the course of Negro slavery and segregation in America throughout the past two
to three hundred years, the Scriptures have often been appealed to in defense
of Negro servitude. By far the most popular verses used in such a defense are
found in Genesis 9 in connection with Canaan’s curse:"And he [Noah] 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" (Gen. 9:25-27).

 

The
linking of Canaan, the grandson of Noah and son of Ham, with the Negro race
dates back to at least the turn of the eighteenth century and seems to have
enjoyed wide acceptance among Christians (at least in the United States) ever
since. But what is the evidence for this link between Canaan and the Negro? After
searching the Bible and other historical records, the writer has been impressed
by the complete lack of evidence of such a link.

 

The
descendants of Canaan inhabited the well-known land of Canaan (Gen. 10:15-20),
or what we know today as Palestine or Israel. It is true that some of the
Canaanites were great merchants who traveled to and settled in all parts of
Europe, Asia, and Africa. But as a whole, the Canaanites have always been
associated primarily with that strip of land east of the Mediterranean Sea and
west of the Jordan River. Historical evidence* indicates that the Canaanites
were swarthy, having brownish skin, but were in no respect Negroid.

 

(*
Blyden, E. W., The Negro in Ancient History, 1869. Buswell, J. O., Slavery,
Segregation and Scripture, 1964.)

 

Canaan,
however, had a brother, Cush by name, whose descendants settled largely in Ethiopia. Ancient monuments typically present the Ethiopians or Cushites as having black
skin. The Bible, too, which in general has very little to say about the skin
color of individuals or nations, nevertheless lends a strong confirmation to
this:"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?"
(Jeremiah 13:23). Thus it is Canaan’s brother Cush who seems to be the
progenitor of the Negro race and not Canaan himself.

 

It has
been claimed by some that the name of Canaan’s father, Ham, means
"black" or "burnt" and the inference has been drawn from
this that Ham as well as all of his children were black. In this regard, five
different Hebrew-English lexicons have been consulted and they have been found
unanimously to give the meaning of the word ham as "warm" or
"hot." This Hebrew word ham is, in fact, used twice in the
Hebrew Old Testament as an adjective and is translated in one place
"hot" (Joshua 9:12) and in the other place "warm" (Job
37:17). On the other hand, there are close to twenty different Hebrew words
used in the Old Testament which are translated "black" or
"burnt" in our King James version and not one of these words is in
any way related to the word ham. Thus, we cannot, on the basis of the
meaning of Ham’s name, conclude that either Ham or his children had black skin.

 

Now if
Canaan’s curse cannot be applied to the Negroes today, how then has the curse
been fulfilled? The answer is clearly given in the Word of God. The children of
Israel, when about to enter into their land of promise, were commanded of the
Lord to destroy utterly the inhabitants of Canaan (Deut. 20:17) that they might
take full possession of the land. That they failed miserably to obey that
commandment we know very well. But the Lord, who knows the end from the
beginning, no doubt had Israel’s failure in mind when he inspired Noah to
pronounce the curse upon Canaan, for the Canaanites, instead of being
destroyed, were first made tributaries to Israel (Judges 1:28,30,33,35) and
later on, during King Solomon’s reign, were made bondservants to Israel (1
Kings 9:20-21). A special fulfillment of the curse is also found in the book of
Joshua where we read how the Gibeonites (a Canaanite tribe) deceived  Joshua
into making a league with them to let them live.  When the deceit was found out
Joshua said to them, “Wherefore ye are cursed , and there shall none of you be
freed from being bondsmen, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the
house of God”(Joshua 9:23).

 

When
secular history is combined with the Biblical history just cited, a most
beautiful and accurate fulfillment of the details of the curse is discovered.
Genesis 9:26 reads, ”Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his
[that is, Shem’s] servant." This is borne out by the verses we have just
referred to in Joshua, Judges, and 1 Kings, for Shem was the progenitor of the
nation of Israel. Now note especially verse 27. It does NOT read, "Blessed
be the Lord God of Japheth; and Canaan shall be his servant." It reads
rather, "God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of
Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant." Thus, Canaan’s servitude to
Japheth is especially linked with Japheth’s dwelling in the tents of Shem.
Secular history fully bears this out.  When the Greeks (a Japhethite nation)
under Alexander the Great conquered the Medo-Persian empire and gained control
of Palestine (thus dwelling in the tents of Shem), we are told by historians
that thousands of Canaanites were carried off to Greece as slaves.*

 

(*
Botsford, G. W. and C. A. Robinson, Jr.. Hellenic History, 1956.)

 

From
that time on the Canaanites gradually lost their identity as a distinct people
and have long since passed entirely off the scene.

 

Despite
the clarity of the Scripture which distinctly states, "Cursed be Canaan," many people somehow feel that since it was Ham’s sin that brought on the
curse, all of Ham’s children must have fallen under the curse. But if this be
true, where is the scriptural evidence? We have seen the details of the curse
fulfilled to the letter with respect to Canaan, but utterly fail to see any
such fulfillment with respect to Canaan’s brothers. In fact, just the contrary
is found. Mizraim, one of Canaan’s brothers, is clearly identified as the
"father" of Egypt (Mizraim is the Hebrew word which is translated
"Egypt" throughout the Old Testament). It is Israel’s two hundred plus years of bondage to Egypt which is the outstanding feature in the annals
of the relationship of these two nations, not Egypt’s bondage to Israel. In addition to this, Babylon, the nation which enslaved Judah for seventy years (2
Chron. 36:20, 21), seems to trace back to the lineage of Ham (through Cush and
Nimrod, Gen. 10:8-10). Never do we read of either Egypt or Babylon being
servants of Israel.

 

In
conclusion, the answer to the question in the title of this article seems
clear:Canaan’s curse had its complete fulfillment in Bible times and is no
longer with us.

          Paul
L. Canner