Bible Atlas: A Manual of Biblical Geography and History

by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut

I. THE JAPHETIC NATIONS.

These belonged to seven families, who are called "sons of Japheth" in Gen. 10:2; and seven others, who are spoken of as his grandsons in Gen. 10:3, 4. These statements are not necessarily to be understood literally. There may have been other sons and grandsons of Japheth; but these were the ones whose names are remembered as the founders of nations. The peoples descended from Japheth belong to what is called the Aryan or Indo-European race.

1. Gomer is named, in Ezek. 38:2-6, as a race opposed to Israel after the captivity. They were probably the people whom the Assyrians called Gimirrai, and the Greeks Kimmerioi. Their name is perpetuated in the Crimea, their early home. A branch of this race moving westward became the Cimbri, who were formidable enemies of Rome; and probably another, the Cymry, settled in the British Isles, and were the ancestors of the Welsh and the Irish. The Celtic races, to which the French partly belong, are descended from this family.

Three of the families descended from Gomer formed separate tribes, named, in the table of nations in Gen. 10:3, after Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah. All of these had homes around or near the Black Sea.

(1.) Ashkenaz is the name of a people spread out of Mysia and Phrygia in Asia Minor. "Ascanios," a Greek form of the word, occurs in Homer as the name of a Mysian and Phrygian prince. It is, however, true that, in Jer. 51:27, Ashkenaz is located in Western Armenia, whither this people had later migrated. Here, also, the Assyrians located them.

(2.) Riphath was formerly supposed to point to the Riphæn Mountains, north of the Danube and west of the Black Sea, but this is very doubtful.

(3.) Togarmah (Ezek. 27:14; 38:6) is identified with the land of Armenia, whose people have a tradition that they are descended from Targom.

2. Magog (called, in Ezek. 38 and 39, Gog, the prefix Ma being thought to signify "land") is generally understood to designate the Scythians.

3. Madai is everywhere in Scripture the word translated Medes, whose early home was south of the Caspian Sea, whence they marched westward, and conquered the lands as far as the Mediterranean.

4. Javan is the Hebrew term for the Greeks, as is indicated by various references in the Old Testament. It is especially applied to the Ionians (originally called Iafon-es, the descendants of Iafon, or Javan), who were the Grecian people, with whom the Israelites were brought into commercial relations.

Five lands and races are named as subdivisions of the family of Javan in Gen. 10:4, all of which were situated near each other.

(1.) Elishah (or, as in Ezek. 27:7, "the isles of Elishah,") is supposed to refer to the Æolians, inhabiting the isles of the Ægean Sea, from which came the purple dye mentioned in Ezekiel's reference.

(2.) Tarshish was formerly supposed to refer to Tarsus in Cilicia of Asia Minor, on the authority of Josephus, but is now identified with Tartessus in Spain, embracing the coast land from Gibraltar to the Guadalquiver.

(3.) Kittim, or Chittim, was the name applied to the island of Cyprus, of which one of the cities was called Kitium. The name Chittim was also loosely given by the Hebrews to the shores and isles of the Mediterranean.

(4.) Dodanim (or, as in some copies of 1 Chron. 1:7, Rodanim). If the reading Dodanim be preferred, this may point to the Dardanians, a name often applied in the classics to the people of Troy, the famous city of Homer. The other reading, Rodanim, which is preferred by some critics, is supposed to point to the isle of Rhodes, in the Ægean Sea, a home of the ancient Greeks. Thus both Javan and all his sons who founded families were connected with the Greek race.

(5.) The Isles of the Gentiles (Gen. 10:5) in Hebrew refers not only to islands, but all lands bordering upon the sea. Here it refers to the Japhetic colonies on the coasts of the Mediterranean, the Black and the Caspian Seas.

5. Tubal, and 6. Meshech, are generally associated in Scripture. (Ezek. 27:13; 32:26; 38:2, 3; 39:1.) From their associations, they are to be sought near the Caspian and Black Seas, where Herodotus mentions the Tibareni and the Moschi.

7. Tiras (1. Chron. 1:5) was believed by the Jews to refer to the Thracians, southwest of the Black Sea. There is nothing to oppose this view, but no evidence except the similarity of name in its favor.