Japheth

For other uses, see Japheth (disambiguation).
Japheth

"Japheth third son of Noah", as depicted in Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum (c. 1553)
Born 1557 AM
(date disputed)[1]
Children Gomer
Magog
Madai
Javan
Tubal
Meshech
Tiras
Parent(s) Noah

Japheth /ˈdʒeɪfɛθ/ (Hebrew: יָפֶֿתֿ, יֶפֶֿתֿ Yapheth , Modern Hebrew: Yefet ; Greek: Ἰάφεθ Iapheth ; Latin: Iafeth or Iapetus ; Arabic: يافث‎) is one of the sons of Noah in the Abrahamic tradition. In Arabic citations, his name is normally given as Yafeth bin Nuh ("Japheth, son of Noah").

In Biblical as well as Quranic tradition, Japheth is considered to be the progenitor of Eurasian Peoples.[2][3][4] The tribes Gog and Magog are also regarded as descendants of Japheth.[5][6]

Order of birth

Japheth was the youngest son of Noah,(Genesis 10:21) and Ham was the second (Genesis 9:24). They are listed in the order "Shem, Ham, and Japheth" in Genesis 5:32, 9:18 and 10:1.

Genesis 10:21 refers to relative ages of Japheth and his brother Shem, but with sufficient ambiguity to have given rise to different translations. The verse is translated in the King James Version as follows, "Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born". However, the Revised Standard Version reads, "To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born." The differing interpretations depend on whether the Hebrew word ha-gadol ("the elder") is taken as grammatically referring to Japheth, or Shem.

Genesis 5:32 states that Noah had three sons when he was five hundred years old. Genesis 11:10 records that Shem was one hundred years old when his son Arphaxad was born, two years after the Flood. If Noah was six hundred years old (Genesis 7:13), then Shem was ninety-eight years old at the Flood. Ham is further implied to be the middle son in Gen. 9:24 (which says Noah realized what his "younger son" had done to him.)

Place in Noah's family

The world as known to the Hebrews (based on 1854 map.)

For those who take the genealogies of Genesis to be historically accurate, Japheth is commonly believed to be the father of Europeans. The link between Japheth and the Europeans stems from Genesis 10:5, which states:

"By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands."

According to that book, Japheth and his two brothers formed the three major races:

William Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part II contains a wry comment about people who claim to be related to royal families. Prince Hal notes of such people,

...they will be kin to us, or they will fetch it from Japhet. (II.ii 117-18)

Genesis 10:5 was often interpreted to mean that the peoples of Europe were descended from Japheth. Clearly, then, any two Englishmen must have at least this one ancestor in common, and thus any individual could claim kinship with the king.

Descendants

In the Bible, Japheth is ascribed seven sons: Gomer, Magog, Tiras, Javan, Meshech, Tubal, and Madai. According to Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews I.6):

Japhet, the son of Noah, had seven sons: they inhabited so, that, beginning at the mountains Taurus and Amanus, they proceeded along Asia, as far as the river Tanais (Don), and along Europe to Cadiz; and settling themselves on the lands which they light upon, which none had inhabited before, they called the nations by their own names.
Geographic identifications for the Sons of Noah (Flavius Josephus, c. 100 AD); Japheth's sons shown in red

Josephus subsequently detailed the nations supposed to have descended from the seven sons of Japheth.

The "Book of Jasher", published in the 17th century, provides some new names for Japheth's grandchildren not found in the Bible or any other source, and provided a much more detailed genealogy (see Japhetic).

Europeans

In the seventh century, Isidore of Seville published his noted history, in which he traces the origins of most of the nations of Europe back to Japheth.[2] Scholars in almost every European nation continued to repeat and improve upon Saint Isidore's assertion of descent from Noah through Japheth into the nineteenth century.[4]

Ivane Javakhishvili associated Japheth's sons with certain ancient tribes, called Tubals (Tabals, Greek: Tibarenoi) and Meshechs (Meshekhs/Mosokhs, Greek: Moschoi), who they claim represent non-Indo-European and non-Semitic, possibly "Proto-Iberian" tribes of Asia Minor of the 3rd-1st millennia BC.[3]

In the Polish tradition of Sarmatism, the Sarmatians were said to be descended from Japheth, son of Noah, enabling the Polish nobility to imagine themselves able to trace their ancestry directly to Noah.[4]

In Scotland, histories tracing the Scottish people to Japheth were published as late as George Chalmers' well-received Caledonia, published in 3 volumes from 1807 to 1824.[7]

Language

The term "Japhetic" was also applied by William Jones and other early linguists to what became known as the Indo-European language group. In a different sense, it was also used by the Soviet linguist Nikolai Marr in his Japhetic theory.

In Islamic tradition

Japheth is not mentioned by name in the Qur'an but is referred to indirectly in the narrative of Noah (VII: 64, X: 73, XI: 40, XXIII: 27, XXVI: 119). Muslim exegesis, however, names all of Noah's sons, and these include Japheth.[8] In identifying Japheth's descendants, Muslim exegesis more-or-less agrees with the Biblical traditions.[9] He is usually regarded as the ancestor of the Gog and Magog tribes, and, at times, of the Turks, Khazars, and Slavs. Some traditions narrated that 36 languages of the world could be traced back to Japheth.[10]

Proposed correlations with deities

In the 19th century, Biblical syncretists associated the sons of Noah with ancient pagan gods.

Japheth has been identified by some scholars with figures from other religious systems and mythologies, including Iapetus (Japetus), the Greek Titan;[11][12][13] the Indian figures Dyaus Pitar and Pra-Japati , and the Roman Iu-Pater or "Father Jove", which became Jupiter.

Arts and literature

Japheth is a major character in the Madeleine L'Engle novel Many Waters (1986, ISBN 0 374 34796 4). He is characterized as thoughtful and intelligent, a kind-hearted young man who is on good terms with feuding family members Noah and Lamech, with the seraphim, and with visiting time travelers Sandy and Dennys Murry. Depicted in the book as Noah's younger son, Japheth is barely into adulthood, but at Noah's instigation is already married. His equally kind wife is an unusually fair-skinned woman with black hair, who may have been sired by one of the nephilim.

Japheth is a major character in Stephen Schwartz's musical Children of Eden. In this adaptation, Japheth has fallen in love with the family servant girl, Yonah, and wants to bring her onto the Ark to survive the flood, but is forbidden because Yonah is descended from Cain. He manages to sneak her onto the Ark, and stands by her when she is discovered by the family. However, Noah goes against God and marries them. Upon the flood ending, Japheth and Yonah decide that the land they want to settle in will be Eden, even if they have to search their whole lives for it. Noah gives Japheth his blessing by giving him the staff of Adam (which Adam carved from the destroyed Tree of Knowledge and was passed down through his generations) to plant in Eden when they find it. Smaller productions of the American version have the actor cast as Cain doubling as Japheth.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The 1557 Anno Mundi birthdate for Japheth is based on the standard Massoretic text as represented in the Authorized Version. Septuagint and Samaritan texts have different values. See Chronology of the Bible.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Susan Reynolds, "Medieval origines gentium and the community of the realm," History, 68, 1983, pp. 375-90
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ivane Javakhishvili. "Historical-Ethnological problems of Georgia, the Caucasus and the Near East" (a monograph), Tbilisi, 1950, pp. 130–135 (in Georgian)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Colin Kidd, British Identities before Nationalism; Ethnicity and Nationhood in the Atlantic World, 1600-1800, Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 29
  5. ↑ Antiquities of Jews
  6. ↑ Table of nation in Genesis 10
  7. ↑ Colin Kidd, British Identities before Nationalism; Ethnicity and Nationhood in the Atlantic World, 1600-1800, Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 52
  8. ↑ Tabari, Volume I: Prophets and Patriarchs, 222
  9. ↑ Tabari, Volume I: Prophets and Patriarchs, 217
  10. ↑ Encyclopedia of Islam, Yafith, 236
  11. ↑ Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, vol. 1, 146
  12. ↑ John Pairman Brown, Israel and Hellas (1995), 82
  13. ↑ Matthew Poole, Commentary on the Holy Bible (1685), vol.1, 26

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Japheth.