JWTruth.orgRecurso documentado de comparación
Buscar
Español

Esta página en

Solo en inglés

Todos los idiomas

Race, women and health · Claim record

In the same article the magazine said Noah had prophesied that the "degeneracy" of Ham would "mark the posterity of Canaan, degrading him, making him servile", and that although it could not be determined with certainty that the sons of Ham and Canaan were "the negroes", it considered "that general view as probable as any other".

Claim ID claim-attitudes-race-1902-ham-canaan-probableConcerns 15 July 1902Explicit statement
Explicit statement · 15 July 1902 Verified

In the same article the magazine said Noah had prophesied that the "degeneracy" of Ham would "mark the posterity of Canaan, degrading him, making him servile", and that although it could not be determined with certainty that the sons of Ham and Canaan were "the negroes", it considered "that general view as probable as any other". Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence, 15 July 1902

The organisation’s position or later explanation: The Watchtower of 15 October 1956 rejected the argument that Noah’s curse explains the position of black people, saying "the facts show that the colored race sprang not from Ham’s son Canaan but from his son Cush" and that "far from teaching segregation, the Bible condemns it"; Awake! of 8 October 1977 returned to the point and said "blacks are not, and never were, cursed by God".

Show the evidence (1 source)
Primary JW publication Verified

Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence, “The Negro Not a Beast — Noah's Character and His "Curse" Upon Ham”

15 July 1902 · pp.216-217 (Reprints p. 3044) · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“Noah declared, prophetically, that Ham's characteristics which had led him to unseemly conduct disrespectful to his father, would be found cropping out later, inherited by his son,—and prophetically he foretold that this degeneracy would mark the posterity of Canaan, degrading him, making him servile. We are not able to determine to a certainty that the sons of Ham and Canaan are the negroes; but we consider that general view as probable as any other.”

The passage answers a reader's fourth question about Noah's curse. The magazine insists the word "curse" means penalty rather than imprecation, and defends Noah against the charge of drunkenness. It stops short of asserting that black people descend from Canaan, calling that view only "as probable as any other".

Scan of original

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Read in the 1902 Reprints volume on the Internet Archive on 19 September 2026. The section heading falls at the foot of the Reprints page whose running head reads “(215-216)”; the answer itself stands on the next Reprints page, whose running head reads “(216-217) ZION’S WATCH TOWER Allegheny, Pa.” OCR damage repaired.

Scan provenance. Internet Archive item “Magazines: Zion’s watch tower and herald of Christ’s presence, 1902”, the Watch Tower Reprints volume for 1902.

Corroborated by. src-race-ga-1929-0724-origin-of-negro

Notes. The 1902 formulation is hedged (“not able to determine to a certainty … as probable as any other”); the version printed in The Golden Age of 24 July 1929 is not.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-race-zwt-1902-0715-ham-canaan

Claim page Correct or update

A direct link to this claim is https://jwtruth.org/evidence/claim-attitudes-race-1902-ham-canaan-probable/. Every source above opens the original document or the best available copy. If you believe the wording, date or context is wrong, report an error.