Chapter XXXI.
The piety of Shem and Japheth is commended, and an explanation is given for why they are said to have walked backwards. Then it is explained how Noah became sober. Finally, it is questioned why the Scripture, after initially placing Ham in the middle, now calls him the youngest.
116. What is it that Shem and Japheth put a garment on their shoulders and went backwards, and covered their naked father, and did not see his nakedness (Gen. IX, 23)? The letter expressed the evident affection of piety, that the good sons took care not to see their father naked, lest the reverence for the father be diminished by the sight itself. Indeed, even with a silent expression, piety is often offended. Hence it is also said to have been an old custom in Rome, that children, especially those of age, would not enter the bathhouse with their parents.
117. However, the higher sense has this, that the foolish person only sees what is present in front of their eyes, and does not consider the future or think of the past. But the wise person both remembers the past and considers the future. Therefore, every wise mind walks backward, that is, it looks at the past; nor is it hindered by a certain use of nature: it allows nothing to be empty, nothing to be naked of its own actions. It covers what has been done differently with a certain garment and the grace either of present work or of the future, so that nothing indecent passes by, nothing unfinished is left behind. And so the Apostle forgot the higher things and sought the lower things; but he forgot in order to hide the errors of persecution, to cover up previous sins, and to overshadow them with good deeds. Blessed are those also whose sins are covered (Psalm 32:1); that is, if they are covered by good deeds and concealed by the disciplines of following virtues.
And Noah, he said, became sober from wine (Gen. IX, 24). It is evident from drunkenness that men become sober through sleep. However, the mind is sober when it knows both the past and the future. Therefore, the mind of the righteous was sober even when it was thought to be drunk. For it is a remarkable cup that sobers the righteous. But he was truly drunk who laughed at his father. For he did not consider the past grace of his birth, the present reverence for his father, or the future punishment for his father's injury. He was truly drunk; and what he thought he saw, he did not see. There was in him a deep blindness, who was not able to see his father. For if he had seen his father, he would not have certainly laughed. For the father is not to be laughed at, but to be revered. Moreover, the mind of the just fool could not see much more. For how could he see, who believed in the error of drunkenness in himself, where there was the perfect vapor of wisdom and other virtues? As it is written: For the vapor of the power of God is wisdom (Wisdom 7:25). For when the mind is more sober, then it considers the nature of all things, of present and future times, such that no temporal stumbling of drunkenness appears in it.
119. I also inquire by what reasoning, after previously stating it was in the middle among the sons of Ham, he now designates him as the youngest. For it is written thus: Noah knew all that his youngest son had done (Gen. IX, 24). Surely, the Scripture did not err in the order of generations beforehand. Not at all. So what then? Are the writings now contradictory? I do not think so. Therefore, how is it resolved, unless you understand 'youngest' not in terms of age or time, but as someone who is inexperienced in understanding and placed in a certain infancy of intellect, who has not acquired the knowledge of older age or discerned the wisdom of the elderly? For dogs have certain human senses. And therefore it says: 'When you go to the council of the elders, close your mouth' (Sirach 32:13). And elsewhere it has the saying: 'You must learn before you speak' (Ibid., 18, 19). Therefore, have your ears ready, so that you may obtain something from the advice of the wise. The tongue must be restrained, the hearing must be prepared.