The Old Testament story of Noah's family, in particular the reprehensible act of one of his sons, Ham (Genesis 9:18-28), has been interpreted in many ways, both theologically and from an anthropological and cultural perspective. Questions about the causes of cultural diversity, (cf. Hodgen 2010: 2007), are increasingly being addressed not only in terms of cultural and ethnicity, but also those related to the consequences of deliberately ideologised interpretations of the passage about Ham's sin, which were used 'to justify slavery and segregation right up to the 1960s' (cf. e.g. Whitford 2009, Freedman 1999). I focus on the interpretation of the biblical story of Noah's sons in old Polish chronicles, which the Polish nobility used to justify class distinctions, particularly the position of peasants. According to Janusz Tazbir (1979: 56), 'In addition to Noah's sons, Eve's children and grandchildren were also supposed to confirm the validity of social differences existing on earth, thus negating dreams of a 'land of universal social equality.' Cham - also in Polish - eventually became synonymous with a peasant condemned to serfdom (this difference between cham and pan is also exploited by contemporary authors writing about the history of Polish peasants, cf. Chwalba, Harpula, 2021). This was how the causes of inequality in the world were explained: the story of Noah's sons would thus serve to reinforce a certain social order (cf., e.g., Kruczkowski 1932). It is worth noting, however, that in reality both the nobility and the peasantry were internally diverse, and despite official forms promoting equality, there was a clear hierarchy among the nobility. In this paper, I outline the complex network of these relationships in relation to the 'critique of the egalitarian vision of the world' (Tazbir 1979: 55) supported by the biblical story.