Did Noah have more than one wife?

[Pacman]

Genesis 7:13
In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;

So there are 8 people mentioned in this verse. We assume that Noah only had one wife because she is listed as the singular. And that is a fair assumption. However isn't it possible that only one of his wives went with him on the ark?

Genesis 9:21-25
And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

I was thinking about this passage and I believe Ham went in and did something sexual with Noah's wife. We know from other passages that "the nakedness of his father" can refer to his father's wife. And I have a hard time believing that it was a simple looking at her that went on based on the reaction of Noah. I personally cannot imagine any man even wanting to look at his own mother let alone do anything sexual with her and then going and telling his brothers about it. So my hypothesis is that she was not the mother of ham and was a different wife. Perhaps the mother of Ham passed away before the flood? Or perhaps she didn't follow Noah onto the ark? Or perhaps Ham really was that bad of a guy?

What say you?

 

[PeteR]

Plausible theory.... not proveable, but certainly plausible.. similar to Reuben with Bilhsh, Jacob's nakedness, but not his mother...

Interesting thought.. the next thought is, how many other children might Noah have gad that dud not follow crazy dad into the ark? We assume none, but the silence of the text is not sufficient evidence...

 

[Pacman]

Just another thought perhaps Noah's curse being on Canaan is because Ham actually fathered the child with Noah's wife. Otherwise it seems odd that Noah would have cursed the son for his father's transgression...

 

[steve]

What if we are assuming that only eight were in the ark because only eight are mentioned.
What is not all that plausible is that he had three married sons who worked with him for decades ( just going from memory, probably decades of decades) and there were no grandchildren?
Methinks that we don’t have a full accounting, although;
1 Peter 3:20 (KJV)
Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

Maybe there is a different explanation.
But I do find the idea of an additional wife intriguing.

 

[PeteR]

Just another thought perhaps Noah's curse being on Canaan is because Ham actually fathered the child with Noah's wife. Otherwise it seems odd that Noah would have cursed the son for his father's transgression...

Have long believed that Ham fathered Canaan by Noah's wife.

 

[rustywest4]

Have long believed that Ham fathered Canaan by Noah's wife.

Sameziez!

 

[FollowingHim]

I wonder how many other children Lamech and Methuselah had, who chose to be unrighteous and were not saved.

I think it is entirely plausible that God could have slowed the fertility of Noah and his son's wives in order to ensure an active adult workforce to build and run the Ark, unencumbered by young children, followed by a flush of breeding following the flood. That's just sensible strategic planning. So I don't see that having only 8 people necessarily suggests anything else, I'm a big believer that the simplest explanation is most likely correct - it says 8 so there were 8.

Interestingly, the ancient Chinese character for a big boat is a combination of the words "8" and "mouths", meaning people.

An additional wife for Noah would not necessarily suggest polygamy. Ham's mother could have died and Noah could have then remarried prior to the flood. But again this is entirely speculative. Lots of room for historical novel writers to add their own ideas...

 

[Mojo]

Chinese characters and a link to Genesis is a fascinating study.

 

[frederick]

Here's a link to a video by Don Milton that adds some insights into this question.

 

[paterfamilias]

Without getting into the biblical quotes...
We all know the good girls love a prepper with a cool boat and a bunch of animals to start a homestead. Bound to have been a polygamist

 

[frederick]

We all know the good girls love a prepper with a cool boat and a bunch of animals to start a homestead. Bound to have been a polygamist

Not only a cool boat but huge! This guy was the ultimate prepper and the first ever mentioned in the Bible. It's kind of surprising he didn't have more wanting to tag along but then he was preaching a weird and unpopular message about divine judgement. Telling people God is going to destroy their world in still unpopular.

 

[Maddog]

Why didnt she make it onto the boat? Was she one of THOSE people who decided she could swim?

 

[frederick]

Why didnt she make it onto the boat? Was she one of THOSE people who decided she could swim?

I also wonder where the descendants of the other godly men were; men like Methuselah and Lamech, where were their families? Noah was a preacher of righteousness (cf. 2 Peter 2:5) but it seems no one listened.

 

[The Revolting Man]

Why didnt she make it onto the boat? Was she one of THOSE people who decided she could swim?

She could have died before hand. Although that is a trifle convenient.

 

[PeteR]

This video is fascinating! Another amazing detail, a treasure, neatly hidden in Scripture.

A detail we can pursue through genealogies is the possible/probable husband based on ages given... no time right now, but this is a good one.

Also, I LOVE his argument that Uriah is the only proveable monogamist. All other assumed monogamists can only be proved with an argument from silence. Yet, we can prove at least 40 polygynists.... beautiful.

 

[Euripi Dias]

Genesis 7:13
In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;

So there are 8 people mentioned in this verse. We assume that Noah only had one wife because she is listed as the singular. And that is a fair assumption. However isn't it possible that only one of his wives went with him on the ark?

Genesis 9:21-25
And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

I was thinking about this passage and I believe Ham went in and did something sexual with Noah's wife. We know from other passages that "the nakedness of his father" can refer to his father's wife. And I have a hard time believing that it was a simple looking at her that went on based on the reaction of Noah. I personally cannot imagine any man even wanting to look at his own mother let alone do anything sexual with her and then going and telling his brothers about it. So my hypothesis is that she was not the mother of ham and was a different wife. Perhaps the mother of Ham passed away before the flood? Or perhaps she didn't follow Noah onto the ark? Or perhaps Ham really was that bad of a guy?

What say you?

Genesis 7:13
In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;

So there are 8 people mentioned in this verse. We assume that Noah only had one wife because she is listed as the singular. And that is a fair assumption. However isn't it possible that only one of his wives went with him on the ark?

Genesis 9:21-25
And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

I was thinking about this passage and I believe Ham went in and did something sexual with Noah's wife. We know from other passages that "the nakedness of his father" can refer to his father's wife. And I have a hard time believing that it was a simple looking at her that went on based on the reaction of Noah. I personally cannot imagine any man even wanting to look at his own mother let alone do anything sexual with her and then going and telling his brothers about it. So my hypothesis is that she was not the mother of ham and was a different wife. Perhaps the mother of Ham passed away before the flood? Or perhaps she didn't follow Noah onto the ark? Or perhaps Ham really was that bad of a guy?

What say you?

Although we know that the descendants of Cain were evil, this does not apply to Lamech or the sons of Lamech, since the biblical texts indicate that Lamech had knowledge of the word of the Most High Genesis 4 24. The sons of Lamech created three arts, Jabal the father those who dwell in tents and children, Jubal, the father of all musicians, and Tubal-cain, the master of those who handle and smelt metals.

Here are some important observations about Noah's sons:

Biblical texts point out that Shem son of Noah and from the maternal lineage of one of the daughters of Jabal son of Lameque Genesis 4 20, Genesis 9 27, Genesis 10 21 the word "Eber - derives the word He-ber-ew" Hebrews 11 9 if If Jabal did not exist, there would be no Shem, son of Noah. The expression father of those who dwell in tents can be understood as the grandfather or maternal ancestor of Shem because Shem is the one who always lived in tents.
Well, nowadays all peoples have people with musical talent (something that tends to be hereditary). This means that musically gifted people in all peoples trace their maternal ancestry back to the daughter of Jubal, son of Lamech, the lineage of Jubal (the father of all musicians), and also enter the patrilineal line of Noah. All the men in Noah's ancestry were previously named, so the only possible way to get into Noah's ancestry was through the matrilineal lineage. This is how we know that the daughter of Jubal (the father of all musicians), or another female descendant of Jubal, married one of Noah's male ancestors. We also have to mention Tubalcain master of those who handle and smelt metal Genesis 4 22. So one might say, "So what?" Why is it important?.
The fact is that all the biblical facts presented here conclusively point out that Noah had at least two wives at the same time (before the flood) or he married one and was widowed and remarried in an extremely short time (less than 1 year). year something very unlikely to have happened), or even Noah may have had three wives at the same time before the flood, the maternal lineages of Noah's sons are different, as Shem's mother could not have given birth to all three sons of Noah who were born in the exact same year that Noah was 500 years old. When Noah spawned Shem, Cam and Japheth. Noah was exactly five hundred years old when he begat the three Genesis 5 32. And we know that there was no way to be triplets because we have already seen that Shem has a lineage of maternal grandfather or great-grandfather different from that of his brothers Ham and Jafé. Shem comes from a maternal lineage of Jabal and the other two Ham and Japheth from just another maternal lineage of the daughters of Jubal and Tubalcain descended from Lamech.
It is no coincidence that the bible mentions Lameque and his sons Jubal, Jabal and Tubalcain.

These were text notes based on studies presented by Pastor Don Milton. Thank you all.

 

[Euripi Dias]

Have long believed that Ham fathered Canaan by Noah's wife.

Your reasoning is correct. The expression knowing nakedness refers to having sex Leviticus 18: Ham seems to have raped Noah's mother or wife. That is why the child generated from this abomination committed by Ham, Noah's grandson, was cursed Genesis 9:25 Cursed be Canaan!.
Why would a grandfather curse his grandson? only by the power of prophecy given by the Divine to punish a sin of abomination. Ham did something horrible so he and his begotten son Canaan were cursed