Japheth (Hebrew יפת, Yafet, Greek Ἰάφεθ, Iapheth, Latin Iafeth or Iapetus, Turk Yafes, Arabic يافث) is one of the sons of Noah in the Hebrew Bible. In Arabic citations, his name is normally given as Yafeth bin Nuh (Japheth son of Noah).
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Japheth is often regarded as the youngest son, though some traditions regard him as the eldest. They are listed in the order Shem, Ham, and Japheth in Genesis 5:32 and 9:18, but treated in the reverse order in chapter 10.
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 KJV 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 his three sons when he was five hundred years old. However, 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), and Shem was ninety-eight years old at the Flood, then Shem was born when Noah was five hundred and two years old. 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.)
The Book of Jubilees indicates in 4:33 that Shem was born in the year of the world (after creation) 1205, Ham in 1209, and Japheth in 1211.
For those who take the genealogies of Genesis to be historically accurate, Japheth is commonly believed to be the father of the Europeans. The link between Japheth and the Europeans stems from Genesis 10:5, which states that the sons of Japheth moved to the "isles of the Gentiles," commonly believed to be the Greek isles. 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,
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.
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):
Josephus subsequently detailed the nations supposed to have descended from the seven sons of Japheth. Among the nations various later writers have attempted to assign to them are as follows:
The "Book of Jasher", published in the 17th century, provides some new names for Japheth's grandchildren not seen in the Bible or any other source, and provided a much more detailed genealogy (see Japhetic).
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.[1] Scholars in almost every European nation continuted to repeat and improve upon Saint Isidore's assertion of descent from Noah through Japheth into the nineteenth century.[2]
Georgian nationalist histories associate Japheth's sons with certain ancient tribes, called Tubals (Tabals, Tibarenoi in Greek) and Meshechs (Meshekhs/Mosokhs, Moschoi in Greek), who they claim represent non-Indo-European and non-Semitic, possibly "Proto-Iberian" tribes of Asia Minor of the 3rd-1st millennia BC.
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.[2]
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.[3]
In the 19th century, Biblical syncretists associated the sons of Noah with ancient pagan gods. Japheth was identified by some scholars with figures from other mythologies, including Iapetus, the Greek Titan; the Indian figures Dyaus Pitar[citation needed] and Pra-Japati[citation needed], and the Roman Iu-Pater or "Father Jove", which became Jupiter.[citation needed]
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.
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.
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JAPHETH (n;), in the Bible, the youngest son of Noah 1 according to the Priestly Code (c. 450 B.C.); but in the earlier tradition 2 the second son, also the "father" of one of the three groups into which the nations of the world are divided. 3 In Gen. ix. 27, Noah pronounces the following blessing on Japheth "God enlarge (Heb. yapht) Japheth (Heb. yepheth), And let him dwell in the tents of Shem; And let Canaan be his servant." This is probably an ancient oracle independent alike of the flood story and the genealogical scheme in Gen. x. Shem is probably Israel; Canaan, of course, the Canaanites; by analogy, Japheth should be some third element of the population of Palestine - the Philistines or 'the Phoenicians have been suggested. The sense of the second line is doubtful, it may be "let God dwell" or "let Japheth dwell"; on the latter view Japheth appears to be in friendly alliance with Shem. The words might mean that Japheth was an intruding invader, but this is not consonant with the tone of the oracle. Possibly Japheth is only present in Gen. ix. 20-27 through corruption of the text, Japheth may be an accidental repetition of yapht "may he enlarge," misread as a proper name.
In Gen. x. Japheth is the northern and western division of the nations; being perhaps used as a convenient title under which to group the more remote peoples who were not thought of as standing in ethnic or political connexion with Israel or Egypt. Thus of his descendants, Gomer, Magog, 4 Tubal, Meshech, Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah are peoples who are located with more or less certainty in N.E. Asia Minor, Armenia and the lands to the N.E. of the Black Sea; Javan is the Ionians, used loosely for the seafaring peoples of the West, including Tarshish (Tartessus in Spain), Kittim (Cyprus), Rodanim 5 (Rhodes). There is no certain identification of Tiras and Elishah.
The similarity of the name Japheth to the Titan Iapetos of Greek mythology is probably a mere accident. A place Japheth is mentioned in Judith ii. 25, but it is quite unknown.
In addition to commentaries and dictionary articles, see E. Meyer, Die Israeliten and ihre Nachbarstamme, pp. 219 sqq. (W. H. BE.)
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A translation of Hebrew יֶפֶת (yépheth).
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Singular |
Plural |
Japheth
Meaning: wide spreading
"God shall enlarge Japheth" (Heb. Yaphat Elohim le-Yephet, Gen 9:27. Some, however, derive the name from yaphah, "to be beautiful;" hence white).
One of the sons of Noah, mentioned last in order (Gen 5:32; Gen 6:10; Gen 7:13), perhaps first by birth (Gen 10:21; comp. Gen 9:24). He and his wife were two of the eight saved in the ark (1 Pet 3:20). He was the progenitor of many tribes inhabiting the east of Europe and the north of Asia (Gen 10:2ff). An act of filial piety (Gen 9:20ff) 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" (Gen 10:2), "the sons of Ham" (Gen 10:6), and "the sons of Shem" (Gen 10:22). 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 (10). The three great races thus distinguished are called the Semitic, Aryan, and Turanian (Allophylian). "Setting aside the cases where the ethnic names employed are of doubtful application, it cannot reasonably be questioned that the author [of Gen. 10] has in his account of the sons of Japheth classed together the Cymry or Celts (Gomer), the Medes (Madai), and the Ionians or Greeks (Javan), thereby anticipating what has become known in modern times as the 'Indo-European Theory,' or the essential unity of the Aryan (Asiatic) 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 (Asshur), the Syrians (Aram), the Hebrews (Eber), and the Joktanian Arabs (Joktan), 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" (Rawlinson's Hist. Illustrations).
He had 7 sons, Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras.
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One of the sons of Noah, and the ancestor of a branch of the human race called "Japhetites." Japheth and his two brothers, Shem and Ham, were born when Noah had attained his five hundredth year (Gen 5:32). It is not clearly indicated which of the three brothers was the eldest. Japheth usually comes third in order (ib. vi. 10, vii. 12, ix. 18, x. 1), but in the genealogy of their descendants the order is inverted (ib. x. 2-22). The words "the elder" (ib. x. 21) are more probably applied to Shem. Still, it seems, from a comparison of Gen 5:32, vii. 6, and xi. 10, that Japheth was by two years Shem's senior. Japheth with his brother Shem covered the nakedness of their father when he lay drunken in his tent, for which deed he received from his father the blessing that his descendants might extend over the surface of the earth and that Canaan should be his as well as Shem's servant (ix. 23, 27). Japheth was married before the Flood, and had his wife with him in the ark (vii. 13); but his seven sons were born after the Deluge (x. 1).
The name "Japheth" is derived, according to Gen 9:27, from the Aramaic root (missing hebrew text) = "to extend," in allusion to the expansion of the Japhetites. Saadia and the modern lexicographers, as Gesenius and others, derive it from (missing hebrew text) = "fair"; but this interpretation had already been rejected by Ibn Ezra.
As to the identification of Japheth with the Iapetos of the Greek mythology, see D. S. Margoliouth in Hastings, "Dict. Bible"; comp. also Sayce in "Tr. Soc. Bibl. Arch." 1883, p. 154. See Biblical Ethnology.
Japheth is considered by the Talmudists to have been the eldest son of Noah (Sanh. 69b; Gen. R. xxvi.). The reason why Shem's name always appears first is that the sons of Noah are named in the order of their ability (i.e., as wise men, among whom Shem excelled; Sanh. l.c.). According to the Midrash, the prosperity of Japheth is alluded to in Ps 13: "and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper" (Gen. R. l.c.). In the act of covering Noah's nakedness it was Shem who first took "the cover"; but Japheth came afterward to help him and was repaid therefor in that his descendants Gog and Magog were granted burial (Ezek 39:11 et seq.; Gen. R. xxxvi.).
The words "yaft elohim le-Yefet" (Gen 9:27) are interpreted as alluding to the construction of the Second Temple by Cyrus, who was descended from Japheth (Yoma 10a). Bar Ḳappara interpreted the passage as meaning that the Law will be explained in the language of Japheth (Gen. R. xxxvi.; Deut. R. i.); R. Ḥiyya b. Abba, interpreting "yaft" as derived from the root (missing hebrew text) , meaning "beauty" (see Japheth, Biblical Data), explains it more clearly thus: "The Law will be explained in the beautiful language of the Greeks, descendants of Japheth" (Meg. 9b). According to the Targum pseudo-Jonathan (ad loc.), the passage means that the descendants of Japheth will become proselytes and will study the Law in the schools of Shem.
When God blessed Noah and his sons (Gen 9:1), He in blessing Japheth promised that all of his sons should be white; and He gave them as their portion deserts and fields (Pirḳe R. El. xxiv.).
| Child of | Noah + |
| Parent of | Gomer +, Magog +, Madai +, Javan +, Tubal +, Meshech +, and Tiras + |
   | Smith's Bible Dictionary about Japheth - Japheth - Smith's Bible Dictionary |
| | International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Japheth - International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Bible |
| | Japheth's family tree - Complete Bible Genealogy - Japheth |
| | The Table of Nations - Table of Nations by Tim Osterholm |
| | Origins of Nations Newsletter - Origins of Nations Newsletter - Volume 2 Issue 1 Part 4 |
| | Whiston - Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (ed. William Whiston, A.M.) |
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