THE ORIGIN OF THE ARMENIANS—THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY INTO ARMENIA—DECLINE & GRAND REVIVAL.
“God shall enlarge Japhet and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant.”
For the interpretation of this blessing of Noah’s to his eldest son, and of how it may or may not have met with its fulfilment, I shall leave to theologians to discuss, and only record it here as a quotation from Genesis. Beyond the story of his connection with the flood, and this blessing with which his father blessed him, and the genealogy of his sons, we read nothing more in Genesis, of Japhet, this mighty father of the Caucasian race.
The genealogy in Genesis runs thus:
“The sons of Japhet, Gomer and Magog and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meschech, and Tiras.
“And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz and Riphath and Togarmah.
“And the sons of Javan; Elishah and Tarshish, Kittim and Dodamin.
“By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.”
Only the names of the three sons of Gomer, and the four sons of Javan are given in Genesis, and by these we are told were the isles of the Gentiles divided. So much for Genesis.
Later history records that these Gentiles spread themselves over part of that stretch of terra firma which now goes by the name of Europe, developing their own families, and their own nations, and originating their own tongues, and also they spread themselves over other parts of the surface of the globe, populating where they could, ruling where they could.