JAPHETH (H£Ç), son of Noah. The most natural rendering of Gen. x. 21 is that which makes Shem the elder brother of Japheth, though the opposite view of the passage in the A. V. follows the Hebrew accents. Interpreters are not agreed whether the sacred text regards Japheth as the second or third son of Noah. In Gen. ix. 24 “youngest” is an easier rendering than “younger,” but the name of Ham is always placed between those of his brothers. The whole Biblical importance of the sons of Noah is geographical or ethnographical; even in the narrative of Gen. ix. 20-27 the point lies in the blessings assigned to the nations or groups of nations named after each. The distribution of the Japhetic group is sketched in Gen. x. 2-4 from the geographical standpoint of the Levitical narrator, that is, according to the most recent criticism, of the 6th century b.c. The seven sons of Japheth are the nations lying north of the Semitic group or westward across the Mediterranean. The details are in part obscure. Madai certainly means the Medians and Javan the Ionians, but in our passage the latter name is used in an extended sense, not so much for the Greeks proper—a common Eastern usage of the word—as for the inhabitants of the trading ports and coast-lands of the Mediterranean known to Phoenician commerce. Thus Javan includes Elishah (probably Carthage), Tarshish (Tartessus in Spain), Kittim (Cyprus), and Dodanim, for which we must rather read Rodanim (Rhodes), with the LXX. in our passage and the Hebrew of 1 Chron. i. 7. Tubal and Meshech appear in Ezek. xxvii. 13 as associated with Javan in exporting slaves and bronze to Tyre, and the same nations along with Gomer occur in Ezek. xxxviii. in the great army of Magog which issues from the “extreme north” (A. V. “north ...

the son of Noah, who is commonly named the third in order of Noah’s sons, was born in the five hundredth year of that patriarch, Genesis v, 32; but Moses, Genesis x, 21, says expressly he was the oldest of Noah’s sons, according to our translation, and those of the Septuagint and Symmachus. Abraham was named the first of Terah’s sons, “not from primogeniture, but from preëminence,” as the father of the faithful, and the illustrious ancestor of the Israelites, and of the Jews, whose “seed was Christ,” according to the flesh; with whose history the Old Testament properly commences: “Now these are the generations of Terah,” &c, Gen. xi, 27; all the preceding parts of Genesis being only introductory to this. By the same analogy, Shem, the second son of Noah, is placed first of his three sons, Gen. v, 32, and Japheth, “the eldest,” last. Compare Gen. x, 21; xi, 20. Thus Isaac is put before Ishmael, though fourteen years younger, 1 Chron. i, 28. And Solomon, the eldest, is reckoned the last of Bathsheba’s children, 1 Chron. iii, 5. Japheth signifies _enlargement_; and how wonderfully did Providence enlarge the boundaries of Japheth! His posterity diverged eastward and westward; from the original settlement in Armenia, through the whole extent of Asia, north of the great range of Taurus, distinguished by the general names of Tartary and Siberia, as far as the Eastern Ocean: and in process of time, by an easy passage across Behring’s straits, the entire continent of America; and they spread in the opposite direction, throughout the whole of Europe, to the Atlantic Ocean; thus literally encompassing the earth, within the precincts of the northern temperate zone. While the enterprising and warlike genius of this hardy hunter race frequently led them to ...