Ham, son of Noah - Definition and Overview

Ham (חם, Standard Hebrew Ḥam, Tiberian Hebrew Ḥām: possibly "Warm; hot" or Egyptian "Black") was a son of Noah and the father of Punt (sometimes Put), Mizraim, Canaan and Cush. David Rohl has identified his nation with the Poeni of Punt.

Many associate the Egyptian God, Chem with Ham. Chem is often portrayed as a transvestite. This may be related to the legend that Ham was guilty of violating his father through an unconsenting homosexual act, which derives from an interpretation of a passage in Genesis, describing Ham as witnessing the nakedness of his father, as a euphamism for a sexual act.

The primitive attempts at an ethnology, which is reflected in terms like "Hamites" and "sons" of an eponymous "father" in general, characteristic of Hebrew (and Greek) genealogical explanations of ethnicities, are not supported by modern scholarship.

See

• Sons of Noah