Problem: Genesis records,
[Noah] drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24 When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. 25 So he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants he shall be to his brothers.”
Some interpreters claim that this refers to Ham raping his father. In fact, as early as the Babylonian Talmud, Jewish interpreters held that Ham either raped his father or castrated him (Sanhedrin, 70a). Modern scholars like Hermann Gunkel, Gerhard von Rad, Robert Gagnon, and Martti Nissinen have also held to this view. Is this the case?
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