The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 224

EXPOSITION. Ver. 18.-And the sons of Noah, that ,vent began and planted n vineyard," i. e. cmpil forth of the ark, were Shem, and Kam, and plantai·e (cf. ~senius, 'Gram.,'§ 142, 3; Japheth, who are here again mentioned as the Glass,' Sacrre Philologire,' lib. iii. tr. iii. can. !Jcnds of the nations into which the family 34). Neither intertiretation presupposes the.t of man de,eloped, the writer ha,ing described husband,·y and vmo cultivntion wcro now the important modifications made upon the practised for tho first time. That Armenia is 11 law of nature nnd the co,ennnt of grace, nnd \\ine-grow:ingcountryis testified by Xenophon being now about to proceed with the onward ('Ana b.,' iv. 4, 9). That the vino was abund- course of human history. The present sec- antly cultivated in Egypt is evident from tion, extending to ,er. 2i, is usually assigned represent.'ltions on the monuments o.s well to the Jehonstic author (Tuch, Bleek, Ka- ns from Scriptural allusions. The Eiprptians lisch, Colenso, E:uenen), though by David- say that Osuis, the Greeks that D10nysus, son it is ascribed to a so-called redactor, with the Romans that Satum, first tauo-ht men the exception of the present clause, which is the cultivation of the tree and the :Se of its recognised as the Jehovist's contribution to fruit. the story. The ground of this apportionment Ver. 21. - And he drank of the wine. is the introduction of the name Jehovah in P.1.; "perhaps so called from bubbling up ,er. 26 (q. v.), and certain traces throughout and fermenting;" connected with 11.! (Gese- the paragraph of the style of writing sup- posed to be peculiar to the supplementer. nius). Though the first mention of wine in And Ram is the fe.ther of Cana.an. Kena' an, Scripture, it is scarcely probable that the the depressed or low one ; either the Low- natural process of fermentation for so many lander or inhabitant of a low coast country, centuries escaped the notice of the enterpris- as opposed to the loftier regions (Aram); ing Cainites, or even of the Sethites ; that, from kana ', to be low, depressed, in situation, " though grapes had been in use before this, as of land (Gesenius) ; or more probably the wine had not been extracted from them" semi.le one in spirit (Furst, Murphy, Keil, (Murphy); or that Noah was unacquainted Lange). The reason for the insertion of this with the nature and effects of this intoxicat- notice here, and of the similiir one in ver. ing liquor (Chrysostom, Theodoret, Keil, 22, was obviously to draw attention to the Lange). The article before )!! indicates that circumstance, not "that the origin of Israel's the patriarch was "familiar with the use ascendancy and of Canaan's degradation dates and treatment" of the grape (Kalisch) ; and so far back as the family of the second Moses does not say this was the first occasion founder of the human race," as ;f the on which the patriarch tasted the fermented ,mter's standpoint were long subsequent to liquor (Calvin, Wordsworth). And was the conquest (Kalisch), but that, "as Israel drunken. The verb i;,~ (whence shechar, was now going to possess the land of Canaan, strong drink, Num. xxvi.ii. 7), to drink to they might know that now was the time the full, very often signifies to make onesel1 when the curse of Canaan RDd his posterity d.rnnken, or simply to be intoxicated ns the should take place" (Willet). result of drinking ; a.nd tha.t which the Holy Ver. 19.-These are the three so!lll of Spirit here reprobates is not the partaking of l!i oah; and of them was the whole earth the fruit of the vine, but the drinking so as -i,. e. the earth's population (cf. eh. xL 1 ; to be intoxicated thereby. Since the sin of xiL 31)-overspread. More correctly, dis- Noah cannot be ascribed to ignorance, it is persed themadves abroad. f:.<E<r1r~pTJua11 i1ri perhaps right, as well as charitable, to at- ,riiuav TTJII -yijv (LXX.); duser11,inatum eat tribute it to age and inadvertence. Six omne gen?J,8 hominum (Vulgate). hundred years old at the time of the Flood, he Yer. 20.-And Noah began to be an hus- must have been considerably beyond this when bandman. Literally, a man of the ground. Ham saw him overtaken in his fault, since Vvr terrcr, (Vulgate); avflpw,ror; -yEwp-yor; rii, Canaan was Ham's fourth son (eh. x. 6), and (LXX.) ; Chald., t(lfi:~f n?~ = .,,f vir CO· the first was not born till after the exit from the ark (eh. viii. 18). But from whatever lens terrain; (VJricultwrre dedi.tu'l'U8. Cf. cause induced, the drunkenness of Noah was Josh. v. 4, "a man of war ; " 2 Sam. xvL not entirely guiltless; it was sinful in itself, i, "a man of 1lood;" ~en. xlvi. 32, "a and led to further shame. And he was un• man of cattle ; " Exod. 1v. 10, "a man covered. Literally, he uncovered himself. of words." .And he ulanted a vineyard. So Murphy, Wordsworth, Kalisch. Keil, Hithpael of n2J, to ma.ke naked, which more Delitzsch, and Lange regard i.sh hd A dam.a!,,, correctly indicates the personal guilt of the with the a.rt., as in apposition to Noah, patriarch than the _A. y., or the LXX., !"Y!'µ.• and read, "And Noah, the hqsbandman, vw9q. That into:111cat1on tends to sensuality on. 1x. 18-29.] THE BOOK OF GENESlS.