Noah about to be baptised. In medieval Christianity, Noah's three sons were generally considered as the founders of the populations of the three known continents, Japheth/Europe, Shem/Asia, and Ham/Africa, although a rarer variation held that they represented the three classes of medieval society – the priests (Shem), the warriors (Japheth), and the peasants (Ham). In medieval Christian thought, Ham was considered to be the ancestor of the people of black Africa. So, in racialist arguments, the curse of Ham became a justification for the slavery of the black races. Isaac Newton, in his religious works on the development of religion, wrote
Shinar the Tower of Babel after the Great Flood. After the Flood, the sons of Shem, Ham, and Japheth stayed first in the highlands of Armenia and then migrated to Shinar. In "Genesis" 14:1,9, King Amraphel rules Shinar. Shinar is further mentioned in "Joshua" 7:21; "Isaiah" 11:11; "Daniel" 1:2; and "Zechariah" 5:11, as a general synonym for Babylonia. "Jubilees" 9:3 allots Shinar (or, in the Ethiopic text, "Sadna Sena`or") to Ashur, son of Shem. "Jubilees" 10:20 states that the Tower of Babel was built with bitumen from the sea of Shinar. David Rohl theorized that the Tower was actually located in