The First Book of Moses: Genesis
⭑ Catholic Public Domain Version 2009 ⭑
- Chapter 9 -
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
Noah’s Shame and Canaan’s Curse
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Shem’s Blessing and Noah’s Death
26
27
28
29
Footnotes
(a)9:3 As a phrase, ‘olera virentia’ refers to edible plants.(Conte)
(b)9:5 The word ‘requiram’ has more the sense of ‘examine,’ than of ‘require,’ especially in this context. The repetition of the word man, using both ‘hominis’ and ‘viri,’ indicates that the first usage applies to mankind.(Conte)
(c)9:7 God tells mankind not only to ‘replete’ (fill) the earth, as the animals do, but also to ‘implete’ (fulfill or complete) the earth, as only mankind can do.(Conte)
(d)9:13 This reference to rainbows as arcs in the sky calls to mind the ark of Noah. And it calls to mind the subsequent ark of the Covenant, which held the tablets of the Ten Commandments. And it calls to mind the Virgin Mary, who is the ark of the New Covenant. She will appear in the sky, just as the Book of Revelation says, in the last days, as a further sign of the covenant between God and man.(Conte)
(e)9:20 Here is an interesting use of the word ‘vir.’ The word ‘vir’ usually is translated as ‘man,’ or in some contexts as ‘husband.’ However, it is derived from the word meaning virtuous or powerful, so it often has a further connotation: not any man, but a good man or a powerful man. In the context of the phrase ‘vir agricola,’ the word vir, though a noun, has more of the effect of an adjective: ‘a good farmer.’(Conte)
(f)9:21
Drunk: Noe by the judgment of the fathers was not guilty of sin, in being overcome by wine: because he knew not the strength of it.(Challoner)
(g)9:23
Covered the nakedness: Thus, as St. Gregory takes notice L. 35; Moral. c. 22, we ought to cover the nakedness, that is, the sins, of our spiritual parents and superiors.(Challoner)
(h)9:24 What Ham, the father of Canaan, did was symbolic of the sins of Canaan, various sins beginning with immodesty, which began with Ham, and extending on to the much more serious sexual sins and idolatrous practices of Canaan. This passages marks the beginning of those later and more serious sins.(Conte)
(i)9:25
Cursed be Chanaan: The curses, as well as the blessings, of the patriarchs, were prophetical: And this in particular is here recorded by Moses, for the children of Israel, who were to possess the land of Chanaan. But why should Chanaan be cursed for his father’s faults? The Hebrews answer, that he being then a boy, was the first that saw his grandfather’s nakedness, and told his father Cham of it; and joined with him in laughing at it: which drew upon him, rather than upon the rest of the children of Cham, this prophetical curse.(Challoner)