The Curse of Ham (ebook)

Argumento de The Curse of Ham (ebook)

"Goldenberg has produced what may well become the definitive study of race and slavery in the Old Testament texts. . . . In a work particularly valuable for its comprehensiveness and philology, Goldenberg's research is monumental; the writing is clear as a bell; the arguments are not only cogent, but honest. . . . In short, this is a wonderful book and I hope that it finds many readers."--Molly Myerowitz Levine, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"A truly stunning work and a masterpiece of its kind. David Goldenberg goes far beyond anyone else in offering the most comprehensive, convincing, and important analysis I've read on interpretations of the famous Curse and, generally, of blackness and slavery. His research is breathtaking. It yields almost definitive answers to many longstanding debates over early attitudes toward dark skin."--David Brion Davis, Yale University, author of In the Image of God: Religion, Moral Values, and Our Heritage of Slavery

"A great book on a great topic. It is great both for what it does and what it does not do. What it does is to survey, consider, annotate, and analyze every Jewish text that refers to, or can be thought to refer to, black/dark skin or Black Africans. And yet it does not engage in polemics or apologetics."--Shaye J. D. Cohen, Harvard University, author of The Beginnings of Jewishness

"The Curse of Ham will clearly have a significant impact on the perennial debate over the roots of racism and slavery and on the study of early Judaism, Christianity and Islam. My view is that this volume ought to be required reading for all Black scholars. Biblical exegetes, theologians and clergy will all find this a valuable resource."--Michael N. Jagessar,Black Theology

"[A] masterly book. . . . With scrupulously meticulous and erudite scholarship, Goldenberg examines a plethora of source material and is a competent and assured guide through this labyrinth."--Desmond Tutu, Times Higher Education Supplement

"[This] book is the result of thirteen years of steady research and presents what is often highly technical scholarship and linguistic analysis in a readable, cogent manner. . . .The Curse of Ham represents an important step towards increasing the ability of those who view the Bible as scripture to avoid continuing this error."--Stirling Adams, BYU Studies

Winner of the 2005 Meritorious Publication Award, University of Cape Town

"[A] sweeping and ambitious work. . . . [T]he research is meticulous and important."--Publishers Weekly

"For so massively erudite a work this book is remarkably accessible. Goldenberg is sufficiently persuaded of the importance of the case he is making- that the Bible does not measure people's worth by the color of their skin--not to encumber the main body of his book with the kind of extended academic argument in whose thickets most readers would soon be lost. . . . [He has a] conviction that a scholarly work, if it has something important to say, should not be just for scholars."--John Pridmore, Church Times

"Goldenberg has delved into the murky story which forms the focus of Genesis, Chapter 9: Noah's emergence from the flood, his drunken stupor, and his subsequent embarrassment at his son Ham's viewing of his nakedness. This is not only a meticulously documented work but an extraordinarily well-written inquiry...His purpose is to ascertain how this verse was transformed from a curse directed at Ham's son to a blanket condemnation of an entire race."--Arnold Ages, Chicago Jewish Star

"An outstanding and comprehensive study."--Choice

"Goldenberg's study is clearly a work of mature scholarship on an important theme. . . He writes in an accessible style and makes complex matters intelligible to nonspecialists. In fact, I often became so engrossed in his argument that I thought I was reading a detective story."--Daniel J Harrington, America0ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xi
Introduction 1
PART ONE: IMAGES OF BLACKS
ONE
Biblical Israel: The Land of Kush 17
TWO
Biblical Israel: The People of Kush 26
THREE
Postbiblical Israel: Black Africa 41
FOUR
Postbiblical Israel: Black Africans 46
PART TWO: THE COLOR OF SKIN
FIVE
The Color of Women 79
SIX
The Color of Health 93
SEVEN
The Colors of Mankind 95
EIGHT
The Colored Meaning of Kushite in Postbiblical Literature 113
PART THREE: HISTORY
NINE
Evidence for Black Slaves in Israel 131
PART FOUR: AT THE CROSSROADS OF HISTORY AND EXEGESIS
TEN
Was Ham Black? 141
ELEVEN
"Ham Sinned and Canaan was Cursed?!" 157
TWELVE
The Curse of Ham 168
THIRTEEN
The Curse of Cain 178
FOURTEEN
The New World Order: Humanity by Physiognomy 183
Conclusion
Jewish Views of Black Africans and the Development of Anti-Black Sentiment in Western Thought 195
APPENDIX I
When is a Kushite not a Kushite? Cases of Mistaken Identity 201
APPENDIX II
Kush/Ethiopia and India 211
NOTES 213
GLOSSARY OF SOURCES AND TERMS 379
SUBJECT INDEX 395
INDEX OF ANCIENT SOURCES 413
INDEX OF MODERN SCHOLARS 431