The sons of the gods, the daughters of men, and Noah's nakedness.

Genesis 6:1-8 is a curious passage. The sons of the gods (bene elim) fell in love with human women and had children by them. In those days there were giants (nephilim) on earth who were heroes and men of renown. Humans and done much evil, so Yahweh repented he had created them. Then came the flood.

A superhuman race of gods (divine beings) dates back before monotheism, and matings between gods and humans are found in many mythologies, whether in Greece, Rome or in tribal societies. Indeed, passages like these enabled many peoples to feel comfortable with the Bible, because their own traditional beliefs were similar. Abraham and Adam became their ancestor too, and God their Ultimate Ancestor. Did these coupling produce the heroes and mighty men of legend? Probably, but there is a slight dislocation in the current text, as if the editor wished to muddy the water. The editor was mostly interested in the part that said that Yahweh reduced human life-span to 120 years. His genealogies show ages of up to nine hundred years. The reduction is not linked to evil, or hybridity. It is just a statement of (apparent) fact.

Noah's ark had a primarily sexual function, to preserve breeding pairs (including humans) from the flood. There are three human breeding pairs, Noah's sons Shem, Ham and Japheth and their wives. The link with Semites and Hamites are part of later white racism. Ham's son was not father to a black race, but Canaan, physically little different from the Hebrews. The story itself does not account for white, black and brown races. The cultivation of grapes led to Noah becoming drunk and naked. Ham saw him like that, told his brothers who were able to cover their father up without seeing. So Ham was cursed, but not his brothers. What is going on here? The story curses Canaan, which is understandable in the 6th century exile, as Canaanite religion was blamed by the prophets for the disasters which occurred. The curse was given by the ungrateful Noah, and it declared Canaanites to the fate of slavery. This antipathy also feeds into the conquest and settlement legends. But why was it bad to see a father's nakedness? Shame, maybe, or a breach in etiquette to family leaders? 'Uncover the nakedness' is a euphemism for sex. Perhaps to see uncovered genitals was viewed as incestuous, an invasion of privacy. No blame lies with Noah for getting blind drunk; but every curse fell on his son's family for sorting him out.

There follows the complex genealogy of Shem, Jam and Japheth. It was a genealogy of the known world. Ham is declared ancestor of Cush (Ethiopia?), Egypt (Misraim) but also of Canaan, Akkad, Babylon and the Assyrians. This is not based on skin colour, but rather on the fact that these countries are all enemies of the Hebrews. Why are they enemies? Because their ancestor had shown disrespect to his father.