Curse of Ham the street; this, said Eleazar, "did not take to mind the commandment to honour one's father." Another interpretation was that Noah's "youngest son" could not be Ham, who was the middle son: "for this reason they say that this youngest son was in fact Canaan." In the past, some people have claimed the "curse of Ham" as a biblical justification for imposing slavery or racism on black people, although this concept is essentially an ideologically driven misconception. Regarding this matter, the Christian leader Martin Luther King Jr. called such attempt "a blasphemy" that "is against everything that the Christian religion
The Gospel According to the Son Times", pointed to a "lack of inventiveness", based upon the fact that Mailer took so few liberties with the biblical text. David Gelernter, writing for the "National Review", cited the "sheer arrogance" of the very premise of Mailer's book. Yet he went on to agree with Miles that much of the criticism of the book had been "unfair." Gelernter called the book "strikingly orthodox" in its basic view of the character of Christ. Mailer had largely anticipated some of the savage reviews he would receive for the book. He noted in an interview with Bruce Weber of "The New York