Week 1 Genesis 9
Sometime after the flood Noah got drunk and lay down naked in his tent. One of his sons saw him and went and told his brothers. For that he (Ham) was cursed.
I think there’s a bible-reader’s caution here related to stories like this that don’t give complete information. The problem with incomplete stories is that readers are tempted to start playing The Bible-Reader’s Guessing Game. For example:
Q: Why Ham was Cursed?
A: I don’t know (but I’m willing to guess).
I checked several other bible versions of Genesis 9:22. They all said that a) Ham saw Noah naked and that b) he told his brothers. That’s it. Nothing else. Something’s missing. So I’m wondering: should I guess?
I don’t know how many guesses have been made about Ham’s curse. Likely several. If I’m going to guess I should likely:
a) find out all the answers that have been floated
b) evaluate them
c) decide which one makes the best sense
d) choose that one.
So at that point I’d have my answer. Or more correctly I’d have a guess-answer since the fact is I still don’t know what Ham did (I only have my made-up answer).
A guess-answer is likely harmless enough. It probably only gets to be a problem if I decide my guess-answer is The Answer.
So I think a simple (but helpful) bible-reader’s principle is to remember that a guess is just what it says it is.
Note: the story is in Genesis 9:20-27