Japheth

Gender: Male

Years: -2448 - -2304

Dictionary Text: Wide spreading: “God shall enlarge Japheth”. Some, however, derive the name from yaphah, “to be beautiful; ” hence white, one of the sons of Noah, mentioned last in order;;, perhaps first by birth. He and his wife were two of the eight saved in the ark. He was the progenitor of many tribes inhabiting the east of Europe and the north of Asia. An act of filial piety was the occasion of Noah’s prophecy of the extension of his posterity. After the Flood the earth was re-peopled by the descendants of Noah, “the sons of Japheth”, “the sons of Ham”, and “the sons of Shem”. It is important to notice that modern ethnological science, reasoning from a careful analysis of facts, has arrived at the conclusion that there is a three-fold division of the human family, corresponding in a remarkable way with the great ethnological chapter of the book of Genesis. The three great races thus distinguished are called the Semitic, Aryan, and Turanian. “Setting aside the cases where the ethnic names employed are of doubtful application, it cannot reasonably be questioned that the author ] has in his account of the sons of Japheth classed together the Cymry or Celts, the Medes, and the Ionians or Greeks, thereby anticipating what has become known in modern times as the ‘Indo-European Theory,’ or the essential unity of the Aryan race with the principal races of Europe, indicated by the Celts and the Ionians. Nor can it be doubted that he has thrown together under the one head of ’children of Shem’ the Assyrians, the Syrians, the Hebrews, and the Joktanian Arabs, four of the principal races which modern ethnology recognizes under the heading of ‘Semitic.’ Again, under the heading of ‘sons of Ham,’ the author has arranged ‘Cush’, i.e., the Ethiopians; ‘Mizraim,’ the people of Egypt; ‘Sheba and Dedan,’ or certain of the Southern Arabs; and ‘Nimrod,’ or the ancient people of Babylon, four races between which the latest linguistic researches have established a close affinity”.

Family Members

• Father: Noah
• Siblings:
  • Ham
  • Shem
• Children:
  • Gomer
  • Meshech
  • Madai
  • Magog
  • Javan
  • Tiras
  • Tubal

Verses

• Genesis 10:21: Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born.
• 1 Chronicles 1:4: Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
• Genesis 9:18: And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.
• Genesis 10:2: The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.
• Genesis 5:32: And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
• Genesis 6:10: And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
• Genesis 7:13: In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;
• Genesis 9:23: And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.
• 1 Chronicles 1:5: The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.
• Genesis 10:1: Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.
• Genesis 9:27: God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.