For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Who was Noah’s youngest son?
Here are the answers which the skeptic believes indicate a Bible contradiction:
Ham
“Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it on both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24 When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him.” (Genesis 9:22-24)
Japheth
“Now after Noah was five hundred years old, Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” (Genesis 5:32)
“And Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Genesis 6:10)
“On this very same day Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark, ” (Genesis 7:13)
“Now the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and Ham was the father of Canaan.” (Genesis 9:18)
“Now these are the records of the generations of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and sons were born to them after the flood. (Genesis 10:1)
“Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” (1 Chronicles 1:4)
(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)
Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:
- When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction. A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time. To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.
- One should be skeptical of whether this is a Bible contradiction given the Skeptic Annotated Bible’s track record of inaccurately handling the Bible. See the many examples of their error which we have responded to in this post: Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions. Of course that does not take away the need to respond to this claim of a contradiction, which is what the remainder of this post will do. But this observation should caution us to slow down and look more closely at the passages cited by the Skeptic Annotated Bible to see if they interpreted the passages properly to support their conclusion that it is a Bible contradiction.
- The skeptic tries to pit Genesis 9:22-24 as affirming the claim “Ham was Noah’s youngest son” against the multiple verses of Genesis 5:32, Genesis 6:10, Genesis 7:13, Genesis 9:18, Genesis 10:1 and 1 Chronicles 1:4 as affirming “Japheth was Noah’s youngest son.”
- We have to ask if all the passages that the skeptic cited actually stated the individual mentioned for each passage was the youngest.
- Genesis 9:24 use the term “youngest.” The next verse in Genesis 9:25 we know this youngest who embarrassed Noah was Ham.
- Genesis 5:32, Genesis 6:10, Genesis 7:13, Genesis 9:18, Genesis 10:1 and 1 Chronicles 1:4 doesn’t seem to be affirming “Japheth was Noah’s youngest son.” Note none of the passages even used the term “youngest.” Nor does the Bible verses said it lists the names of Noah’s son in descending order.
- If Genesis 5:32, Genesis 6:10, Genesis 7:13, Genesis 9:18, Genesis 10:1 and 1 Chronicles 1:4 doesn’t say “Japheth was Noah’s youngest son” then we don’t have a Bible contradiction. Already this alleged Bible contradiction is refuted. But some might ask why did Genesis 5:32, Genesis 6:10, Genesis 7:13, Genesis 9:18, Genesis 10:1 and 1 Chronicles 1:4 listed Japheth last then among his brothers and also do we see any other instances of similar practice of listing names out of temporal order?
- There is precedence elsewhere in Scripture where there are listing of names out of temporal order in order to emphasize certain individuals.
- Genesis 9:21 state “Also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, and the older brother of Japheth, children were born.” Note of Shem’s descendants the first one named is “Eber.” Yet Eber is the grandson of Shem: Arpachshad (Genesis 9:22) then Shelah then Eber (Genes 9:24). But Eber is mentioned first in Genesis 9:21. Why? Eber is the name where we get “Hebrews.” Hebrews of course is what we call the early descendants of Abraham. Thus we understand here why his name is mentioned first.
- Matthew 1:1 states “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Note David was mentioned first before Abraham. Yet David chronologically came after Abraham. This is even more fascinating when we see that the rest of the genealogy in Matthew 1 list the oldest to the youngest generation. Why is Matthew 1:1 mentioning David before Abraham? Don’t forget the Messiah is expected to be the Son of David and the last covenant in effect at that time tied to the Messiah was the Davidic Covenant.
- Seeing there’s a precedence in the convention of listing names out of temporal order in the Bible we ask then why does Genesis 5:32, Genesis 6:10, Genesis 7:13, Genesis 9:18, Genesis 10:1 and 1 Chronicles 1:4 listed Noah’s sons in the order it is listed and why is Japheth listed last.
- If you notice the table of nations that came from Noah’s descendants you will notice the one with the least details are sons of Japheth. The details of the sons of Japheth are listed in Genesis 10:2-5. This is much shorter compared to that of Ham in Genesis 10:6-20 and Shem in Genesis 10:21-31. Shem’s line of course is continued to be the focus into the future generations in Genesis 11:10-32. Since we know the Messiah would come from the line of Shem we are thus not surprised to see Shem’s descendants being focused upon. By chronological order Shem should also be mentioned first since Genesis 10:21 mentioned that Shem is the older brother of Japheth. Still it seems the primary reason Shem is listed first is the importance of his descendants being part of the Genesis story; and of course ultimately because the Messiah comes from the Jews who were Semites (from Shem).
- Japheth was also mentioned last in the listing of the sons of Noah because based upon the listing of his descendants in Genesis 10:2-5 they were settled further away from Shem’s descendants and thus Japheth’s line won’t be as focused as say Ham’s lineage which lived more in the Middle East and interacted and intermingled with the lines of Shem.
- There is no contradiction here. Seems the skeptic needs to learn of How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
- We shouldn’t miss that worldviews are at play even with the skeptic’s objection to Christianity. The worldview of the author of the Skeptic Annotated Bible actually doesn’t even allow for such a thing as the law of non-contradiction to be meaningful and intelligible. In other words for him to try to disprove the Bible by pointing out that there’s a Bible contradiction doesn’t even make sense within his own worldview. Check out our post “Skeptic Annotated Bible Author’s Self-Defeating Worldview.”
[…] Who was Noah’s youngest son? […]
Some of these just seem to easy to refute. Thanks for taking them on. Very helpful to build these out.
“If Genesis 5:32, Genesis 6:10, Genesis 7:13, Genesis 9:18, Genesis 10:1 and 1 Chronicles 1:4 doesn’t say “Japheth was Noah’s youngest son” then we don’t have a Bible contradiction. Already this alleged Bible contradiction is refuted.”
Blessings.
That summary nailed it
Thanks for this thorough rebuttal of another one of Steve/Stephen Wells’ alleged contradictions. Whew! He’s grasping at straws with this one. I appreciate how you point out other Bible passages don’t use strict lineage in their listings of descendants.
You’re welcome! I agree, he’s grasping at straws indeed. Definitely not a Bible contradiction though studying up for this made me learn more about the Scriptures. So good still come out of refuting the list from Steven Wells. You start work if I remember correctly on Friday?
Yup, enjoying my last “weekend” day and it’s back to work tomorrow. How does your day look?
Excellent work refuting yet another non existent contradiction. Lots of Bible references you quote that support the error of the skeptic.
Just a question,( I may not be reading it properly since is late night here, 😊) Genesis 10:21 doesn’t mentioned that Shem is the older brother of Japheth?, I am referring to 7:1 on your outline.
Hey, Crissy. In Jewish traditions and in some English translations like the KJV and NIV they say that Japheth is the older brother, while the ESV, NASB, CSB have Shem as the older brother. I am inclined to take the chronological order as Shem, Japheth and Ham, which as Jim said with Shem having priority.
Mandy thank you for your great comment.and for taking the time to send it to me. I agree . If you can read my comment to brother Jim. I think I am not reading the paragraph correctly .🤔
Hey, Crissy! You are reading this post correctly! Jim, please forgive me for saying this, the question isn’t “who is Noah’s youngest son?” Gen 9:24 answers that. The question in my opinion is “who is Noah’s oldest son?” The Hebrew as to who is older is ambiguous and translators make a decision. The NIV and KJV translate Japheth as the elder while many English Bibles like the NASB and ESV translate Shem as the oldest. There are some who trace the chronology of Shem’s genealogy in Genesis 11 as Japheth being the oldest. They come to this conclusion in that Noah fathered Japheth when he was 500 years old with the flood occurring 100 years later. Then Noah would have fathered Shem roughly two years later being 502 and then Ham some time after that. I will admit, I am not dogmatic as to who is older Shem or Japheth, what I am dogmatic about is that Shem is the chosen, elected son whose offspring will produce the Messiah!
Hi, Crissy. I should have said the question the SKEPTIC should ask isn’t “who was Noah’s youngest son?” But rather “who is Noah’s oldest son?”
Hi Mandy
It was exciting for me to learn that Shem is the line of the Messiah. I didn’t know.
God is amazing !
Mandy response to your comment is helpful and also her comment in my post directly to me. What Bible version do you use?
I use the NASB 😊
This is why maybe I am misunderstanding this part of your post :
“In fact by chronological order Shem shouldn’t even be mentioned first since Genesis 10:21 mentioned that Shem’s older brother was actually Japheth.”
“Also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, and the older brother of Japheth, children were born.”
Genesis 10:21 NASB
Please excuse me if I am not reading properly what you wrote pastor Jim.
I just got to sitting down behind my laptop and fixed the error you pointed out. The sentence you quoted I now fixed: “By chronological order Shem should also be mentioned first since Genesis 10:21 mentioned that Shem is the older brother of Japheth. Still it seems the primary reason Shem is listed first is the importance of his descendants being part of the Genesis story; and of course ultimately because the Messiah comes from the Jews who were Semites (from Shem).” Thanks for pointing this out and doing so graciously! Reading the Bible at 2 and 3 AM in the Morning can have its risks as I have demonstrated in writing this post! But we all need each other for correction! Better to be corrected by a believer in Christ than nonbelievers who slandering Christ, amen? Thank you so much!
Pastor Jim, thank you for being so gracious. I was reading your post in the early hours of the morning so I wasn’t sure if I was reading it right? this is why I asked you.
And Amen to you question!
Thank you for this Jim. This has been a very instructive series to follow. We see it time and again how sceptics twist scripture and ignore plain evidence to fabricate so called contradictions, it all looks so desperate and sad.
Agree with your words here brother. We live in an age of fake news around us online. The worst fake news are those that have a spiritual dimension, attacking Christianity and the Bible. I hope and pray this project I’m doing every week will be allow those looking for answers to see these lies and the posts would “fact check” online atheist list of Bible contradictions. What can I pray for you for today?
The prayers of the brethren are always welcome and appreciated, at present my back in still giving me a bad time. I am popping meds like crazy with little effect.
[…] Bible Contradiction? Who was Noah’s youngest son? […]
10:21 can be confusing in that Jewish tradition and some English translations like the NIV have Japheth as the older brother while the ESV and NASB translate Shem being the oldest. Regardless as you said Ham is definitely the youngest. Shem is the line of the Messiah and rightfully prominent.
I had a hard time reading with my eyes last night writing this. I think you are right Shem should be the oldest brother. Don’t know what I was reading last night! Need to change the post after I finish teaching the kids. Thank you for reading this and sharing your observation and your own research. We all need each other…doing apologetics in community is so important amen?
AMEN AND AMEN!!!
The careless and assuming skeptic had thought of a win here. It takes Bibles scholars and sharp minds to clarify and refute the allegations. Thanks for the hierarchy/pecking order Biblical lesson, Jim! Blessings to you, Nancy, and your kids!
Sometimes it takes a bit more attention to detail to refute some Bible contradictions, by knowing the Word more and remembering observations! I’ll get to your second posting of pictures from the British Museum slowly, don’t want to overstretch my eyes even as I have to use the computer to do sermon prep for Sunday, hope you understand; thank you for sharing them! What do you plan after election sub-series?
After election is a one or two verses that concludes the GOD’s grace series. Followed by the first Parable series to introduce. And then knowing the HOLY SPIRIT series. The rest, I still leave it to GOD for His sovereign control and Lordship of my life as our Savior.
Thank you for demonstrating there’s not an error here with the Bible. The atheist needs to hear the WCF: “The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man, or Church; but wholly upon God (who is truth itself) the author thereof: and therefore it is to be received because it is the Word of God.”
Good refute. Thank you.
You’re welcome and thanks for reading this! Went on a walk with my mom for her to get some time and got to talk to her about Jesus and the Bible. If you can Maw Maw (my spiritual Maw Maw) pray for her salvation!
Prayer in progress.
This is good
Atheist have no excuse
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Thanks!
Can’t believe the skeptic would have a low blow attack
I was wondering about Noah’s kids. Thank you. Appreciate it!
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