Noah and his sons: the curse on Canaan, the blessings upon Shem and Japheth (commentary of Gen. 9:25-27)

The present article is the final part of the cycle of three articles which consider the fragment of Gen. 9:18-27 concerning Noah’s drunkenness, his sons’ actions and the subsequent curse and blessings which Noah pronounced on his children, having predetermined the destiny of their descendants. The present article is focused on the curse that Noah declared on Canaan, and the question connected with it: why Ham’s son Canaan is cursed for his father’s sin. Along with that, we bring up the issue of the emergence of slavery in human society. In addition, the blessing upon Shem is considered as a prophecy about the Old Testament Church. Finally, the blessing upon Japheth is analyzed in detail and its wide problematic is marked: a possibility of reference of the words and let him dwell in the tents of Shem (9:27) both to the God and to Japheth, with a historical as well as a messianic meaning in each of these two variants. As in the previous articles, a special feature of our commentary is wide use of the Holy Fathers’ interpretations as well as traditional Judaic ones