David M. Goldenberg, a historian and a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, spent 13 years investigating every reference to blacks in Jewish literature up to about the seventh century. He is publishing the results of his research next month in ''The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity and Islam'' (Princeton University Press). Among his surprising findings, he said, is evidence that a misreading of Hebrew and other Semitic languages led to the mistaken belief that the word ''Ham'' meant ''dark, black or heat.''

He concludes that in biblical and post-biblical Judaism there are no anti-black or racist sentiments, a finding that some scholars dispute. He also contends that the notion of black inferiority developed later, as blacks were enslaved across cultures. His findings, he said, dovetail with those of other scholars who have not found anti-black sentiment in ancient Greece, Rome or Arabia.

''The main methodological point of the book is to see the nexus between history and biblical interpretation,'' Mr. Goldenberg said. ''Biblical interpretation is not static.''

Stephen R. Haynes, a professor of religion at Rhodes College in Memphis, is less interested in the origins of Ham's supposed blackness than in why certain cultures have found the story so alluring.

''It appealed to racial slavery because Ham acted like you expected a black man to act,'' said Mr. Haynes, who published ''Noah's Curse: The Biblical Justification of American Slavery'' (Oxford University Press) last year. ''Slavery was necessary in the white Southern mind to control the ungovernable black. Slavery is the response to Ham's rebellious behavior.''

In the Bible, Ham finds Noah drunk and naked in Noah's tent. He tells his brothers, Shem and Japheth, who proceed to cover their father without gazing at him. When Noah finds out what happened, he curses Ham's son Canaan, saying he shall be ''a servant of servants.'' Among the many questions attached to this tale are what Ham did wrong. Was it looking at his father or telling his brothers or some implied sexual transgression? And why was Canaan cursed for Ham's actions?