Commentary on Genesis - Luther on Sin and the Flood · Martin Luther

034 - Chapter IX Part V

·32 min·2 clips

Ham is cursed, yet he rules for a time; Shem is blessed, yet he suffers for a time.

1. Commentary on Genesis, Volume 2, Luther on Sin and the Flood, Chapter 9 Part 5, comments on Noah's curse and blessing in Genesis 9:25-27. 2. Gillian Hendry reads the LibriVox public-domain text, translated by John Nicholas Lenker and Conrad Bruno Godis. 3. The section asks why Noah's words over Ham, Shem, and Japheth matter for church life and Christian faith. 4. The reading says irreverence toward parents, rulers, and ministers brings judgment, citing Leviticus 19:32 and Matthew 10:40. 5. It links contempt for authority in the primitive world to the flood, and contempt in Judah to the ruin of Jerusalem. 6. The speaker warns that delayed punishment makes people mock prophecy, as Ham ignored the curse because it did not take effect immediately. 7. The text says divine promises and threats must be believed, because they cannot be measured by sense or experience. 8. It insists that Ham's outward success and Shem's outward poverty do not overturn God's word, which is fulfilled later. 9. The reading applies the same pattern to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the Egyptians, and Israel's servitude. 10. It then compares Ham's apparent dominion with the Pope's power and the oppression of the church. 11. The speaker says believers should comfort themselves with spiritual dominion, forgiveness of sins, and hope for the heavenly kingdom. 12. The text describes Noah's blessing of Shem as thanksgiving to "Jehovah, the God of Shem," not as a merely human blessing. 13. It says that Shem is the stem from which Christ springs, while Japheth represents the Gentiles brought into Shem's tents. 14. The reading links this to Romans 11:11 and John 4:22, saying salvation comes from the Jews and then reaches the nations. 15. It argues that Jews err when they trust carnal descent instead of faith, using Romans 9:6 and Galatians 3:7. 16. The speaker spends time on the Hebrew name "Japheth," discussing whether it means enlarge, persuade, or entice. 17. The text claims the better sense is persuasion, so God gently draws Japheth through the gospel. 18. It says Paul fulfilled this pattern by preaching from Jerusalem to Illyricum and carrying the gospel through Gentile lands. 19. The tone is didactic, combative, and heavily citation-driven, with frequent scriptural references and long doctrinal exposition. 20. Readers interested in Luther, Genesis, and Reformation readings of Israel and the Gentiles will get the most from this section.

As heard by us

A stern, bookish take on Noah that turns genealogy into doctrine.

Genesis is treated here as a hard argument about Shem, Japheth, and Ham, with promise moving by faith rather than bloodline. Luther keeps pressing Noah's blessing and curse into election and Gentile inclusion, and he sets it beside Paul in Romans 9:6 and Galatians 3:7.

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Why you'd press play

Follow Noah's line from Shem to the Gentiles, with Luther tracing the argument.

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