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by Steve Risner

Last week we finished up discussing the descendants of Japheth. Japheth is mentioned in numerous unrelated lineages of people groups who either had no contact with each other or hated each other, yet they independently hold Japheth (or Noah) as their ancestor. These include many royal lines in Europe. The history is there if we are willing to accept it. Today I'd like to move on to Ham, another son of Noah.

Before we get into Ham and his descendants, I wanted to point out that it has been commonly understood that civilization began in the area known as Mesopotamia, aka the Cradle of Civilization. Wouldn't you know, the Bible just happens to mention that this is where civilization began, i.e. somewhere in the Near East. Moses, who likely wrote the book of Genesis, was either divinely inspired to write such a thing or he just happened to get very lucky in the area he chose to write about. He describes for us the Tower of Babel and the events that took place leading up to the confusion of languages by God as a result of man determining he would disobey God's orders and “make a name for himself” by building a great tower to heaven. This was just about 100-200 years after the Flood that wiped out all of mankind except Noah, his wife, their 3 sons, and their wives. We've discussed Japheth, the son that was father to most of Europe, India, and some of China. He traditionally had a fairer skin tone. Ham was known as the brother with a darker skin tone. These traits are also indicated by their meanings of their names.

Ham is the father of most, if not all, of Africa. His son Cush became the father of the Cushites who are known as Ethiopians today. Josephus tells us this about the son of Ham “...time has not at all hurt the name of Cush; for the Ethiopians, over whom he reigned, are even at this day, both by themselves and by all men in Asia, called Cushites.” During the 5th century AD, Syrian writers described the Himyarites of South Arabia as Cushaeans and Ethiopians. Explorers of the 1770's indicated that the people of Ethiopia claimed to have descended from Cush, Ham, and Noah after the Flood. It’s interesting that this people was known by everyone as descendants of Cush. The Yoruba, located in Nigeria and other parts of Africa, trace their heritage back to Ham, as do the Beja people. According to Wikipedia, “The Beja are traditionally Cushitic-speaking pastoral nomads native to northeast Africa.” They primarily inhabit Sudan. Hebrews and many others have continually referred to Ethiopians as Cushites. This is found in the Bible quite a lot. The Hebrews also referred to Libya as Phut. Phut was another son of Ham.

Probably the most commonly associated son of Ham to the Bible is Canaan. The Bible indicates in Genesis 10 that Canaan's descendants liked to spread out. They eventually would inhabit much of Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas. The Hittites (mentioned numerous times in the Bible as well) are from the line of Canaan as descendants of Heth. They amassed a fairly powerful empire early on (about 2000 BC or so) and were known to the Egyptians and Chinese as well as other peoples. Their nation's ruling city was in Turkey.

Sin (the person, not the act) is likely the father of the Chinese people. The Chinese have a story that goes like this, according to Tom Osterholm: “The Chinese have a tradition that their first king, Fu-hi or Fohi (Chinese Noah), made his appearance on the Mountains of Chin, was surrounded by a rainbow after the world had been covered with water, and sacrificed animals to God (corresponding to the Genesis record). Sin himself was the third generation from Noah (Ham--Canaan--Sin), a circumstance which would provide the right time interval for the formation of early Chinese culture.” Much of Chinese ancient history has resemblances to the Biblical accounts of creation and the Flood including the sign of the rainbow afterwords. This indicated God promised to never flood the entire earth again with water. In fact, the name ascribed to their “Heavenly Ruler” in Chinese is the phonetic equivalent to El Shaddai, the name given to the Hebrew God. There is even strong evidence that the Chinese written language holds many truths about the creation account and Flood as well as God's requirement for sin atonement and much more. It's remarkable, really. You can read more about that here, but there are books on the topic that are more detailed, I believe.

The Greek astronomer Ptolemy referred to China as the land of Sinim after Sin, the ancient ancestor of the Chinese. The Greek and Latin words for China are “Kina” and “Sina” respectively. The striking similarity to the Biblical ancestor Sin is hopefully obvious to the reader. The word sinology even refers to the study of Chinese history. Evidence also strongly seems to indicate that Ham's sons, Sin and Heth, were the ancestors of most of the people of Asian characteristics—sometimes referred to as Mongoloid. These include the vast majority of peoples from Asia, the Arctic, and the Americas. In other words, most people from Asia are descendants of these 2 men. There is a great deal of evidence suggesting these people made their way to the Pacific Islands and over the Bering Strait to Alaska and then down all the way to South America. Again, Canaan's descendants liked to spread out. However, it is likely that not all of the Native Americans came here over the land bridge between Russia and Alaska (exposed because of the Ice Age after the Flood). Some seem to have come from the Middle East, North Africa, and/or Europe.

This is just the beginning of the record of the sons of Ham. We'll talk more about them next week when we discuss the Native Americans/American Indians (Amerindians) as well as Egypt. Again, the connections that seem fairly commonplace are amazing. I hope you, the reader, are enjoying this series as much as I am. I find this stuff amazing. It's a perfect blend of science (which I love) and history (which I love) and confirms the Bible (which I love). This, like so many other things I've written on over the last several years, expresses the truth of the Bible and the Biblical worldview, and it demonstrates why the Christian faith is one supported by the evidence, not in spite of it. “Blind faith” sees all of this evidence which seems to me fairly conclusive, and says, “That's all fake or from people we can't trust. There is no God and the Bible is made up to control people” or some other nonsensical drivel. That's the blind faith of the atheist or agnostic. The evidence is overwhelming, in my humble opinion. Thanks for reading and stay tuned!

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