Sons of Noah

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This T and O map, which abstracts that society's known world to a cross inscribed within an orb, remakes geography in the service of Christian iconography and identifies the three known continents as populated by descendents of Shem (Sem), Ham (Cham) and Japheth (Iafeth)

The Table of Nations is an extensive list of descendants of Noah appearing within the Torah at Genesis 10, representing an ethnology from an Iron Age Levantine perspective.

There are disputes as to how many of the peoples of the Earth it was intended to cover, or how accurate or inaccurate it is. Some have taken the table to define the lineages of all people on earth. In this interpretation, the sons of Noah correspond to three races: Europeans, Semites, and Africans. Others read it as a guide only to local ethnic groups.

[edit] The genealogies and their reputed nations

According to Genesis 10, the present population of the world was descended from Noah's three sons and their wives. Until the mid-19th century, this was taken by many as historical fact (see External links). They are still taken as historical by Orthodox Jews, Muslims, and many Christians.

Critical scholarship rejects the traditional view of historicity, and holds instead that the genealogy is merely a traditional one, aimed at explaining the relations between the ethnic groups of the ancient Near East, perhaps re-edited at the time of the text's final composition in the 7th century BC.

In the Biblical view, the listed children of Ham, Shem and Japheth correspond to various historic nations and peoples.

• Elam, son of Shem. The Elamites called themselves the Haltamti and had an empire in what is now Khuzistan (capital Susa).

• Asshur, son of Shem. The Assyrians traced themselves to the god-ancestor Ashshur and the city he founded by that name on the Tigris.

• Aram, son of Shem. The Arameans were known in earliest times as Aram-Naharaim, or Hurrians, and were centered on the Balikh river in northwestern Mesopotamia (modern Syria). His descendants settled in the city of Haran.

• Arpachshad, son of Shem. He or his immediate descendants are credited in Jewish tradition with founding the city of Ur of the Chaldees on the south bank of the Euphrates, as well as being the ancestor of the Hebrews and the Arabs.

• Cush, son of Ham. The Empire of Kush to the south of Egypt is known from at least 1970 BC, but this name has also been associated by some with the Kassites who inhabited the Zagros area of Mesopotamia, the Sumerian city of Kish, as well as the Hindu Kush.

• Mizraim, son of Ham. Mizraim is a name for Upper and Lower Egypt and literally translates as Ta-Wy in Ancient Egyptian ("The Two Lands"). The im in Mizraim represent duality. Egyptians of today refer to their country as Misr.

• Phut, son of Ham. Ancient authorities are fairly universal in identifying Phut with the Libyans (Lebu and Pitu), the earliest neighbors of Egypt to the west. (Although more recent theories have tried to connect Phut with Phoenicia, or the currently unidentified Land of Punt.)

• Canaan, son of Ham. This is known to be the name of a nation and people who settled the Eastern shore of the Mediterranean in what is now called Israel and Lebanon.

The following names are associated with entities whose earliest attestation is recorded somewhat later in history.

• Lud, son of Shem. Most ancient authorities assign this name to the Lydians of Eastern Anatolia (Luddu in Assyrian insciptions from ca. 700 BC). This name may also be connected with the earlier Luwians who lived in approximately the same area.

• Gomer, son of Japheth. Usually identified with the migratory Gimirru (Cimmerians) of Assyrian inscriptions, attested from about 720 BC).

• Madai, son of Japheth. The Medes of Northwest Iran first appear in Assyrian inscriptions as Amadai in about 844 BC.

• Javan, son of Japheth. This name is said to be connected with that of the Aegean state of Ionia, first appearing in records ca. 700 BC.

• Tubal, son of Japheth. He is connected with the Tabali, an Anatolian tribe, and both the Iberians of the Caucasus and those of the Iberian peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal), as well as Illyrians and Italics. In the book of Jubilees he was bequeathed the three 'tongues' of Europe.

• Meshech, son of Japheth. He is regarded as the eponym of the Mushki Phrygian tribe of Anatolia who, like the Tabali, contributed to the collapse of the Hittites ca. 1200 BC. The Mushki are considered one of the ancestors of the Georgians, but also became connected with the Sea Peoples who roved the Mediterranean Sea.

• Tiras, son of Japheth. This name is usually connected with that of Thracians, an ancient nation first appearing in written records around 700 BC. It has also been associated with some of the Sea Peoples such as Tursha and Tyrsenoi, with the river Tiras, and sometimes with the Anatolian region of Troas, dating to the later 13th century BC.

The remaining of the 16 listed grandsons of Noah, Magog, has not been definitively linked to the name of any historical entity, although is claimed as an ancestor in both Irish and Hungarian medieval traditions. Flavius Josephus, followed by Jerome and Nennius, makes him ancestor of the Scythians who dwelt north of the Black Sea.

[edit] Table of nations

The table of nations in Genesis 10 begins by listing Noah's immediate children:

• Ham, forefather of the southern peoples (Hamitic Africa)
• Shem, forefather of the middle peoples (Semitic Arabia)
• Japheth, forefather of the northern peoples (Japhetic Europe)

The names of the Eponyms or children have meanings in the Hebrew language. Ham means "warm".[1] Shem merely means "name".[2] Japeth means "open".[3]

It then proceeds to detail their descendants.

[edit] The first generation

The first generation of descendants is given as:

• The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras.
• The sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.
• The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud and Aram.

[edit] Second generation

The identification of several of the first generation is aided by the inclusion of the second, although several of their identifications are less certain. (The copy of the table in Chronicles has occasional variations in the second generation, most likely caused by the similarity of Hebrew letters such as R and D). Note that all of the forms ending in -im are plurals, probably indicating names of peoples, and not intended as the name of a single person.

[edit] Descendants of Japheth

• Ashkenaz, son of Gomer. It has been conjectured that this name arose from a misprint in Hebrew for "Ashkuz", by reading a nun for a waw. Ashkuz and Ishkuz were names used for the Scythians, who first appear in Assyrian records in the late 8th century in the Caucasus region, and at times occupied vast areas of Europe and Asia. Another option is that, in Medieval Hebrew Germany is known as Ashkenaz, note the fact that Ashkenazic Jews originated in Germany, note Ashkenaz.
• Riphath (Diphath in Chronicles), son of Gomer. Identifaction with Paphlagonians of later antiquity has been proposed, but this is uncertain.
• Togarmah, son of Gomer. Some Armenian traditions have claimed descent from Togarmah; other authors have attempted to connect them with Turkic peoples.
• Elishah, son of Javan. Identifications have been proposed with various Aegean peoples such as Elis of northwestern Peloponnesos, or Ellis of Phthia.
• Tarshish (Tarshishah in Chronicles), son of Javan - has been variously connected with Tarsus in Anatolia or Tartessus in southern Spain.
• Kittim, offspring of Javan. Usually connected with Kition in Cyprus, but name appears in other texts with a variety of interpretations.
• Dodanim (Rodanim in Chronicles), offspring of Javan. Usually connected with large Aegean island of Rhodes near coast of Asia Minor.

[edit] Descendants of Ham

• Sheba, son of Cush. Has been connected with Sabaeans and peoples on either side of the narrowest part of the Red Sea, in both Yemen / South Arabia, and Eritrea / Ethiopia / Somalia.
• Seba, son of Cush. Like Sheba, has been connected with both Yemen and Eritrea, with much confusion between the two. (The Shibboleth-like division amongst the Sabaeans into Sheba and Seba is acknowledged elsewhere, for example in Psalm 72, leading scholars to suspect that this is not a mistaken duplication of the same name, but a genuine historical division. The significance of this division is not yet completely understood, though it may simply reflect which side of the sea each was on.)
• Havilah, son of Cush. Usually considered to be a part of the Arabian peninsula near the Red Sea.
• Sabta, son of Cush. Sometimes connected with Hadhramis (their ancient capital being Saubatha) in eastern Yemen.
• Raamah, son of Cush. Has been connected with Rhammanitae (their capital being Regmah) in southern Oman.
• Dedan, son of Cush. Apparently a region of the Tabuk Province of Saudi Arabia.
• Sabteca, son of Cush. Possibly Sabaiticum Ostium, Sabaeans living around a specific harbour in Eritrea.
• Nimrod, son of Cush, also identified as a mighty hunter before God, and the founder of ancient Babel, Akkad, Sumer, and possibly cities in Assyria. The Hebrew wording of Genesis 10:11 has led to some ambiguity as to whether Asshur here is the son of Shem or a city built by Nimrod; either interpretation can be found in various modern versions.
• Ludim, offspring of Mizraim. Sometimes considered a typographic error for Lubim, a reference to the Lebu of Eastern Libya.
• Anamim, offspring of Mizraim. There is a reference in an Assyrian inscription from Sargon II's time to Anami, a tribe located in Cyrene, Libya.
• Lehabim, offspring of Mizraim. Identification uncertain, possibly Libya.
• Naphtuhim, offspring of Mizraim. Has been connected with Na-Ptah, the Egyptian form of Memphis.
• Pathrusim, offspring of Mizraim. Possibly connected with Egyptian word Pa-To-Ris meaning southerners.
• Casluhim ("from whom came the Philistim"), offspring of Mizraim.
• Caphtorim, offspring of Mizraim, associated with Caphtor, probably Crete, Cyprus, or both.
• Sidon, firstborn son of Canaan, and name one of the oldest city-states on the Phoenician coast.
• Heth, son of Canaan, considered ancestor of "Hittites", a people of Canaan, possibly connected with Hatti, a powerful entity in Anatolia.
• "the Jebusite", offspring of Canaan, a tribe that lived around Jerusalem, that was formerly known as Jebus according to the Books of Kings.
• "the Amorite", offspring of Canaan, a people living between the Jordan and Euphrates rivers by at least 2000 BC, known as Amurru to the Akkadians and Egyptians.
• "the Girgasite", offspring of Canaan
• "the Hivite", offspring of Canaan
• "the Arkite", offspring of Canaan, probably city-state of Arqa in Phoenicia.
• "the Sinite", offspring of Canaan, possibly connected with the Wilderness of Sin.
• "the Arvadite", offspring of Canaan, refers to the Phoenician city-state of Arwad.
• "the Zemarite", offspring of Canaan, refers to the Phoenician city-state of Zemar.
• "the Hamathite", offspring of Canaan, refers to Syrian city of Hamath.

[edit] Descendants of Shem

• Uz, son of Aram. Jordanians and Nabataeans; also mentioned in book of Job.
• Hul, son of Aram. Unknown; possible connection with Lake known in Aramaic as Hulata.
• Gether, son of Aram. Father of Thamud in Arabic tradition.
• Mash, son of Aram (Chronicles has Meshech). Unknown; suggestions include Mashu, an unknown region of cedars mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh (possibly Lebanon), and E-Mash-Mash, the main temple at Ninevah in Assyria.
• Salah, son of Arphaxad.

[edit] Arpaxad's family

The table proceeds to list a genealogy from Arpaxad to a man named Eber and his sons, who is implicitly indicated as the eponymous ancestor of the Arabs and Hebrews:

• Arpaxad
  • Salah
    • Eber
      • Peleg
      • Joktan (قحطان)

Of these names, Salah is usually considered to be completely unidentified, Joktan is generally identified with Jectan, an ancient town near Mecca, and Peleg is generally connected to Phalgu, an ancient town located where the Euphrates and Chaboras meet. In the table, it is said that the earth was divided in the days of Peleg, often considered a reference to the incident involving the Tower of Babel. Peleg is later indicated to be a distant ancestor of Abraham.

[edit] The sons of Joktan

The table ends by listing the sons of Joktan:

[edit] The table and its geographical context

The near universal view of the table is that each of the names within is intended to represent a group of peoples, nation, or tribe. Thus several criticisms concerning its accuracy in reflecting the ethnological relationship between identifiable peoples, have been raised by anthropologists, archaeologists, linguists, and others:

• Elam is listed as a son of Shem, but the Elamite language was not related to Semitic languages.
• Rather than being more closely related to languages of the other sons of Ham, the Canaanite language was Semitic, and virtually identical to Ancient Hebrew.
• Lud is listed as a son of Shem; but the classical Lydian language, as a descendant of Hittite, was completely Indo-European, and not Semitic.
• There is no suggestion amongst historians and archaeologists for any theory of Nubian origin for the cities said to be have been founded by Nimrod.

In addition, several of the groups involved in the table do not appear in known historical records until the first millennium BC. The table is thus seen by critical scholarship as dating from the 7th century BC, and representing the beliefs of its authors concerning the interrelatedness of the nations known to them. The relation between Nimrod and Cush is seen simply as a mistake caused by conflating the African nation of Cush with unrelated Mesopotamian Kassites (Cush-ites). The identification of Elamites as Semitic is similarly regarded as an error, based on its closer superficial similarity to Semitic than to Indo-European languages. The identification of the Lydians as Semitic is also regarded as odd; so it may be the case that the generally agreed interpretation that Lud is a reference to Lydia, is simply wrong.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] The table and the wider world

One of the most noticeable features of the table is that it describes nations far beyond Canaan, as far as East Africa, Georgia, Thrace, Ukraine, etc. Some Mediterranean trading nations, usually sea merchants, are also mentioned. The table implies that all nations have descended from those it lists, since all other possible lines of descent were apparently wiped out in a great flood; thus the region of Shinar (Mesopotamia) is traditionally seen, in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic thought, as the cradle of civilization. The traditional view is that, for example, French, Zulus, and Australian Aborigines are all descended from one or another of the people or nations named within the table.

Africans are thus anciently understood to be the sons of Ham, particularly his descendant Cush, as Cushites are referred to throughout scripture as being the inhabitants of East Africa, and they and the Yoruba still trace their ancestry through Ham today. Beginning in the 9th century with the Jewish grammarian Judah ibn Quraysh, a relationship between the Semitic and Cushitic languages was seen; modern linguists group these two families, along with the Egyptian, Berber, Chadic, and Omotic language groups into the larger Afro-Asiatic linguistic family. In addition, the southern half of Africa is now seen as being part of a distinct language family independent of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Some now discarded Hamitic theories have become viewed as racist; in particular a theory proposed in the 19th century by Speke, that the Tutsi were Hamitic and thus inherently superior, (while the Hutu were just Bantu) is regarded by some as having ultimately led to the Rwandan Genocide.

Japheth is traditionally seen as the ancestor of Europeans, as well as some more eastern nations; thus Japhetic has been used as a synonym for Caucasians. Caucasian itself derives in part from the assumption that the tribe of Japheth developed its distinctive racial characteristics in the Caucasus, where Mount Ararat is located. The term Japhetic was also applied by the early linguists (brothers Grimm, William Jones, Rasmus C. Rask and others) to what later became known as the Indo-European language group, on the assumption that, if descended from Japheth, the principal languages of Europe would have a common origin, which apart from Finno-Ugric, Kartvelian, Pontic, Nakh, Dagestan, Hattic, and Basque, appears to be the case. In a conflicting sense, the term was also used by the Soviet linguist Nikolai Marr in his Japhetic theory intended to demonstrate that the languages of the Caucasus formed part of a once-widespread pre-Indo-European language group.

In classical times, and among a minority of modern students, arguments have been proposed that Jupiter was actually a deified Japheth, and that the Greeks knew him as 'Iapetos', the Indian Sanskrit as 'Pra-Japati', and the Romans as 'Iu-Pater', a hypothesised antecedent to 'Jupiter'. However, scholars of linguistics disagree, for while they agree on a shared origin for many Indo-European gods, etymology indicates that these gods derive from Dyeus, sometimes referred to as Dyeus Pater ("sky father"). Linguistically, Dyeus became Jupiter to the Romans, as well as the word Deus meaning simply God, Zeus to the Greeks, Dyaus Pita to the pre-Hindu Vedic religion, Dia in Slavic mythology, and Tiwaz in Germanic and Scandinavian mythology, who later became Tyr, and Tiw, from whom we get the name of Tuesday. Most linguists assert that there is no linguistic connection between 'Pra-Japati', which translates as Lord of Creatures, and either Iapetos, Iu-Pater, meaning father Iu, a corruption of Dyeus Pater, or with Japheth, meaning beauty, and attempts to connect these deities with Japheth are regarded as poor scholarship and folk etymology.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Biblical statement that God shall enlarge Japheth (Genesis 9:27) was used by some Christians as a justification for the "enlargement" of European territories through Imperialism, interpreted as part of God's plan for the world. However, rather than being a prediction, the statement appears, in the eyes of scholars, to be a pun on Japheth's name meaning beauty, since the statement literally translates as God shall beautify Japheth.

Religious Jews and Arabs consider themselves sons of Shem (thus, Semites). There are current dispute whether or not Ishmael was the legitimate son of Abraham. Nevertheless, though the term Semitic has come to be attached to their language group including Hebrew and Arabic, in the opposing term anti-Semitic it is generally regarded in modern times as referring solely to the Jews. While, apart from Lydia and Elam, the groups usually associated with Shem are also identified as having a shared origin, the groups of Japheth and Ham are not always agreed to, and most secular and religious scholars have abandoned all claims of absolute accuracy for the table.

Nevertheless, a minority, including young earth creationists and Orthodox Christians, Jews and Muslims, retains the belief that the table applies to the entire people of earth, owing to holding the traditional reading of the Bible as historical.

[edit] Doublets

There are some apparent doublets in the table, such as two separate lines of descent covering groups in Yemen and the surrounding region — one indicating descent via Cush, and hence Ham; the other via Joktan, and hence Shem. Groups such as the Sabaeans (under Sheba), Huwaila (under Havilah), and Hadhramaut (under Hazarmaveth, or Sabtah, a name representing its capital), appear to be in both lineages. Gen 10:11, translated in the KJV as "Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Niniveh, etc…", is taken by some interpretations of the Hebrew word-order to mean Asshur was listed as one of the cities that Nimrod built, causing another apparent 'doublet' with regard to confusion between Asshur (descendant of Shem) and Nimrod (descendant of Cush).

In the documentary hypothesis, such doublets are seen as signs of multiple authorship; thus this theory identifies hypothetical Jahwist (J) and Priestly (P) sources as having two quite different genealogies later combined into the present table. It must be remembered that these hypothetical sources have never been archaeologically or otherwise attested, and are only reconstructions according to this theory. These sources are seen as originating some 150-300 years apart, with the later source, the Priestly, rewriting the Jahwist's account to reflect their own view concerning ethnology. While both sources are considered to have divided the groups into Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the descent beyond these is reconstructed as quite different. To the Jahwist are ascribed by such experts, the account of Nimrod and his cities, as well as the descendants of Joktan, Canaan, and Mizraim, while to the Priestly source are ascribed the account of the descendants of Cush and Japheth.

The Yahwist (J) would thus exhibit a worldview concerned heavily with Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Arab tribes viewed to have originated from around Mecca (a holy site since ancient times), and Canaan. Rather than a table, the Yahwist is reconstructed as presenting a more narrative structure. Preceded by the tale of the curse of Ham, the Yahwist reconstruction proceeds to describes his son fathering Nimrod, who is subsequently described as going on to found the great cities of Mesopotamia, then details the sons of Canaan and Mizraim.

A more genealogical line is given by the Yahwist reconstruction for Shem, going down the generations in a straight line until Joktan is reached, and, like elsewhere in the Yahwist text, though Joktan is not on the line himself, as the son of Eber, a major Patriarch on the line (the eponymous founder of the Hebrews, Eberu), Joktan's own descendants are described. The name of Joktan's purported brother, Peleg, is etymologically related to the word Pulukku in Akkadian, meaning divided by boundaries, and by borders, and Palgu in Assyrian, meaning divided by canals, and by irrigation systems. While Peleg is believed by some to be present in the narrative to indicate origin via the city of Phalgu, the comment after his name, that in his day the earth was divided, is thought in critical circles to simply be a convenient pun in order to insert the story of the Tower of Babel into the Yahwist's narrative. In the Yahwist reconstruction, Japheth has previously been described, within the tale of Ham's curse, as going on to dwell in the tents of Shem, and hence is not indicated as having any children of his own.

Over the years between the Yahwist and Priestly sources, according to the dates given by critical scholars, the areas of the Mediterranean and the Caucasus had become much more developed, and the Egyptians had become much more unified (having largely recovered from the Third Intermediate Period). Thus, while the reconstructed Priestly source does not include the subdivisions within Egypt, it does include details of groups in the eastern Mediterranean (Javan, Tubal, Meschech, Tiras) and Caucasus (Gomer, Madai), attaching them to Japheth, perhaps since his descendants are not identified by the Yahwist. Mesopotamia retained its importance, and the Priestly source, a text reconstructed with a favouritism for long dry lists, extends the detail concerning its genealogy given by the Yahwist, presenting a more complicated ethnological tree. The Arab groups of the Yemen area also seem to have been viewed as retaining importance, as the hypothetical Priestly source considered them still worth detailing, though presenting an origin for them in the more significant Nubia (via Cush), rather than from around Mecca. There is little narrative quality in the text usually ascribed to the priestly source; essentially it resembles simply a raw list of names, with the occasional indication of familial relationship.

[edit] See also

• Wives aboard the Ark
• Nuwaubianism
• Genealogy
• Ethnography
• Comparative linguistics
• Mesopotamia
• Ancient Egypt
• Fertile crescent
• Garden of eden
• Antediluvian
• Human history
• 40th century BC
• Jewish mythology
• Continuity thesis

[edit] References

• Dillmann, A., Genesis: Critically and Exegetically Expounded, Vol. 1, Edinburgh, UK, T. and T. Clark, 1897, 314.
• Kautzsch, E.F.: quoted by James Orr, "The Early Narratives of Genesis," in The Fundamentals, Vol. 1, Los Angeles, CA, Biola Press, 1917.

[edit] External links

• Latin Vulgate and English Douay-Rheims
• English Septuagint
• King James Version and Revised Standard Version
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Genealogy; the balanced scholarly modern view in 1901/6, (the early days of comparative linguistics and the documentary hypothesis).
• The connection of modern nations to the table according to a creationist source (with Europe as descended from the tribes of Israel, and the UK and USA from Joseph (but by different sons)).
• Custance, Arthur C., The Roots of the Nations.A more standard creationist account that associates Japheth with Europe.