Who's Dwelling In Shem's Tent?

"The structure of Genesis 9:25-27 is a heptastich which is divided into three parts by the repeated refrain of Canaan’s servitude, a son of guilty Ham:

                And he said,      

                   Cursed be Canaan;

                   A servant of servants will he be to his brother.

                                                                -Verse 25

                And he said,

                    Blessed be the Lord God of Shem;

                   Let Canaan be a slave to him.

                                                                -Verse 26

                God will enlarge Japhet,

                   But He will dwell in the tents of Shem;

                  Let Canaan be a slave to him

                                                                -Verse 27

Now the key issue is this: Who is the subject of the verb ‘he will dwell’ in Genesis 9:27? We concur with the judgment of the Targum of Onkelos, Philo, Maimonides, Rashi, Aben Ezra, Theodoret, Baumgarten, and Delitzsch that the subject is 'God.' Our reasons are these: (1) the subject of the previous clause is presumed to continue into the next clause where the subject is unexpressed; (2) the use of the indirect object of the previous line as subject (‘Japhet’) would require strong contextual reasons for doing so; (3) the context of the next several chapters designates Shem as the first in honor of blessing; and (4) the Hebrew phrase weyiškōn be’oh°lê šēm, ‘and he will dwell in the tents of Shem,’ hardly makes sense if attributed to Japhet, for Japhet had already been granted the blessing of expansion.

The plan of the whole prophecy appears to devote the first strophe only to Canaan, the second to Shem and Canaan, and the third to all three brothers. On the balance, then, the best option is to regard God as promising to Shem a special blessing. He would dwell with the Semitic peoples. The word for ‘dwell’ is related to the later concept of Mosaic theology of the Shekinah glory of God wherein the presence of God over the tabernacle was evidenced by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. Hence, the man Shem would be the one through whom the ‘seed’ promised earlier would now come. Had not God said, 'Blessed be the Lord God of Shem’ (Gen. 9:26)? And why did He use this distinctive form of address? Could it not be that the blessing and indwelling were linked? And could it be that they were God’s next provision to earth’s latest crisis?"

-Walter Kaiser, Toward An Old Testament Theology

The Flood Is A Type Of Christian Baptism

Many apologies to the three people who still read my blog for not posting in a while. I am teaching a new class this year and have been quite consumed by the work. One of the things I taught my sophomores earlier this year is that the flood of Noah is a type of Christian baptism, based on St. Peter's acclamation in 1 Peter 3:17-22:

"For it is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be God's will, than for doing wrong. For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him."

We can see this by observing the parallels between the flood and baptism. Before the flood, there was sin in the world. The flood then washes away the sin. Noah is saved through the flood, yet the potential to sin remains in the world.

For baptism, we are born in Original Sin. Baptism washes away Original Sin. We are then saved through the waters of baptism, yet we still have the potential to sin.

After I taught this to my class, I was thinking about it some more and came up with another parallel. After the flood, God promises Noah that he will never destroy the world by a flood again. So the flood is a one time event. This corresponds to baptism which is done once for the forgiveness of sins.