Noah (or Noe, Noyach; Hebrew: נוֹחַ or נֹחַ, Modern Nóaḥ Tiberian Nōªḥ; Nūḥ; Armenian "Noe" or նօի, Arabic: نوح ; "Rest"^[1]) was, according to the Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs; and a prophet according to the Qur'an. The biblical story of Noah is contained in the book of Genesis, chapters 6–9; he is also found in the passage 'Noah's sons", while the Qur'an has an entire sura named after and devoted to his story, with other references elsewhere. In the Genesis account, Noah saves his family and representatives of all animals in groups of two or seven from the flood. In the Islamic account, a group of 72 others are also saved (although none reproduce after the flood).^[2] He receives a covenant from God, and his sons repopulate the earth. In the Hindu account, Manu built a huge boat, which housed his family, 9 types of seed, and animals and repopulated the earth after the deluge occurred and the oceans and seas receded.

While the Deluge and Noah's Ark are the best-known elements of the Noah tradition, Noah is also mentioned in Genesis as the "first husbandman" and possibly the inventor  of wine, as noted in an episode of his drunkenness and the subsequent Curse of Ham. The account of Noah is the subject of much elaboration in the later Abrahamic traditions, and was immensely influential in Western culture. Jewish thinkers have debated the extent of Noah's righteousness. Christians have likened the Christian Church to Noah's ark (1 Peter 3-18:22).

 Tradition

The following section is a summary of the Book of Genesis, chapters 6–9.

Noah was the son of Lamech, who named him^[3] Noah because he would bring rest from toil on the land which God had cursed (a reference to the curse God placed on the earth following the expulsion from Eden).^[4] In his five hundredth year Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. When Noah was six hundred years old, God, saddened at the wickedness of mankind, decided to send a great deluge to destroy all life. But he saw that Noah was a righteous man, and instructed him to build an ark and gather himself and his family with every type of animal, male and female.^[5][6] And so the Flood came, and all life was extinguished, except for those who were with Noah, "and the waters prevailed upon the earth for one-hundred and fifty days"^[7] until the Ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. There Noah built an altar to God (the first altar mentioned in the Bible) and made an offering. "And when the Lord smelled the pleasing odour, the Lord said in his heart, 'I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the inclination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease'."^[8]

Then God spoke to Noah, and his descendants would henceforth be free to eat meat ("every moving thing that lives shall be food for you, and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything"), and the animals would fear man; and in return, man was forbidden to eat "flesh with its life, that is, its blood." And God forbade murder, and gave a commandment: "Be fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly on the earth and multiply in it." And as a sign of his covenant, he set the rainbow in the sky, "the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth."^[9]

After the Flood, "Noah was the first tiller of the soil. He planted a vineyard; and he drank of the wine."^[10]

Noah died 350 years after the Flood, at the age of 950,^[11] the last of the immensely long-lived antediluvian Patriarchs. The maximum human lifespan, as depicted by the Bible, diminishes rapidly thereafter, from as much as 900 years to the 120 years of Moses within twenty generations. Another few generations later, lifespans were reported to be less than 100 years on average.

 Jewish perspectives

The righteousness of Noah is the subject of much discussion among the rabbis.^[12] The description of Noah as "righteous in his generation" implied to some that his perfection was only relative: In his generation of wicked people, he could be considered righteous, but in the generation of a tzadik like Abraham, he would not be considered so righteous. They point out that Noah did not pray to God on behalf of those about to be destroyed, as Abraham prayed for the wicked of Sodom and Gomorrah. In fact, Noah is never seen to speak; he simply listens to God and acts on his orders. This led such commentators to offer the figure of Noah as "the man in a fur coat," who ensured his own comfort while ignoring his neighbour. Others, such as the medieval commentator Rashi, held on the contrary that the building of the Ark was stretched over 120 years, deliberately in order to give sinners time to repent. Rashi interprets his father's statement of the naming of Noah (in Hebrew נֹחַ) “This one will comfort (in Hebrew– yeNaHamainu יְנַחֲמֵנו) from our work and our hands sore from the land that the Lord had cursed”,^[13] by saying Noah heralded a new era of prosperity, when (1) there was easing (in Hebrew – nahah - נחה) from the curse from the time of Adam when the Earth produced thorns and thistles even where men sowed wheat and (2) that Noah introduced the plow.

Christian perspectives

The Gospel of Luke, (Luke17:26), equates Noah's Flood with the coming Day of Judgement: “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man.” Noah is called a "preacher of righteousness" in 2 Peter 2:5, and the First Epistle of Peter equates the saving power of baptism with the Ark saving those who were in it. In later Christian thought, the Ark came to be equated with the Church: salvation was to be found only within Christ and his Lordship, as in Noah's time it had been found only within the Ark. St Augustine of Hippo (354-430), demonstrated in The City of God that the dimensions of the Ark corresponded to the dimensions of the human body, which corresponds to the body of Christ; the equation of Ark and Church is still found in the Anglican rite of baptism, which asks God, "who of thy great mercy didst save Noah," to receive into the Church the infant about to be baptised.

Noah's three sons were generally interpreted in medieval Christianity as the founders of the populations of the three known continents, Japheth/Europe, Shem/Asia, and Ham/Africa, although a rarer variation held that they represented the three classes of medieval society - the priests (Shem), the warriors (Japheth), and the peasants (Ham). In the 18th and 19th centuries the view that Ham's sons in general had been literally "blackened" by the curse of Noah was cited as justification for black slavery.

 Latter-day Saint perspectives

In Latter-day Saint theology, the archangel Gabriel lived in his mortal life as the patriarch Noah. Gabriel and Noah are regarded as the same individual; Noah being his mortal name and Gabriel being his heavenly name.^[14]

 Gnostic perspectives

Gnosticism was an important development of (and departure from) early Christianity, blending Jewish scriptures and Christian teachings with traditional pagan religion and esoteric Greek philosophical concepts. An important Gnostic text, the Apocryphon of John, reports that the chief archon caused the flood because he desired to destroy the world he had made, but the First Thought informed Noah of the chief archon's plans, and Noah informed the remainder of humanity. Unlike the account of Genesis, not only are Noah's family saved, but many others also heed Noah's call. There is no ark in this account; instead Noah and the others hide in a "luminous cloud".] Islamic perspectives

The Quran contains 43 references to Noah (نوح, Nūḥ) in 28 suras (chapters), notably Sura Nuh and Sura Hud. Sura 11 (Hud) is largely an account of the Flood. Sura 71 (i.e., Sura Nuh), of 28 verses, consists of a divine injunction to Noah to preach, a short sermon of Noah’s to his idolatrous contemporaries on the monotheism of Allah (God), and Noah’s complaint to God about the hardness of the people’s hearts when his preaching is met by ridicule.

Quran's Noah lives for a total of 1000 years, with the Flood coming in his 950th year; (In later tradition, only 83 people are willing to submit, i.e., become Muslim, "those who accept a peaceful yield to the god" with God; these 83 are saved with Noah). It is mankind's obduracy which eventually brings the wrath of God on the unbelievers.

The theme of the Quranic story is the unity of Allah and the need to seek peace with Him. The narrative does not include the Genesis account of Noah's drunkenness, and the possibility of the Curse of Ham narrative is in fact implicitly excluded: Qur'an doesn’t mention the number of Noah’s sons. Nevertheless the traditions of Prophet Mohammed clearly mention that Noah had three sons ^[15], and that all the population descended from them., and a fourth son who does not join his father despite Noah's final plea to be saved ("O my son! Come ride with us, and be not with the disbelievers!"); instead he flees to the mountains and drowns in the flood and God tells Noah that this is because he is an evildoer.^[16] (In later Islamic tradition the son is given the name Kenan, "Canaan").

Shi'ah Muslims believe that Noah is buried next to Ali^[17] within Imam Ali Mosque, in Najaf, Iraq.

 Contemporary academic perspectives

Textual criticism

According to the documentary hypothesis, the first five books of the Bible, including Genesis, were collated during the 5th century BC from four main sources, which themselves date from no earlier than the 10th century BC. Two of these, the Jahwist, composed in the 10th century BC, and the Priestly source, from the late 7th century BC, make up the chapters of Genesis which concern Noah. The attempt by the 5th century editor to accommodate two independent and sometimes conflicting sources accounts for the confusion over such matters as how many pairs of animals Noah took, and how long the flood lasted.

More broadly, Genesis seems to contain two accounts concerning Noah, the first making him the hero of the Flood, the second representing him as a husbandman who planted a vineyard. This has led some scholars to believe that Noah was believed by the ancients to be the inventor of wine, in keeping with the statement at Genesis 5:29 that Lamech "called his name Noah, saying, 'Out of the ground which the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands.'"^[18]

 Connections to other lore

Noah's great grandfather Enoch is the beginning of a web of similarities between the story of Noah and older Mesopotamian myths. According to Genesis 5:24, at the end of his 365 years Enoch "walked with God, and was not, for God took him" - the only of the ten pre-Flood Patriarchs not reported to have died. It is not explicitly stated where he is taken. In a late Apocryphal tradition, Methuselah is reported to have visited Enoch at the end of the Earth, where he dwelt with the angels, immortal. The details bring to mind Utnapishtim, a figure from the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh - the hero Gilgamesh, after long and arduous travel, finds Utnapishtim living in the paradise of Dilmun at the end of the Earth, where he has been granted eternal life by the gods. (Gilgamesh's reason for seeking out Utnapishtim, incidentally, to learn the secret of immortality - like Methuselah, he comes close to the gift but fails to achieve it). Utnapishtim then tells how he survived a great flood, and how he was afterwards granted immortality by the gods. It has been suggested that the Flood story may originally have belonged to Enoch.^[18]

Lamech's statement that Noah will be named "rest" because "out of the ground which the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands," has another faint parallel in Babylonian mythology: the gods grew tired of working, digging the channels of the rivers, and so the god Enki created man from clay and blood and spit to do the work for them. Enki fell in love with his creation, and later warned Utnapishtim that the other gods planned to send a flood to destroy all life, and advised him on how to construct his ark.

Noah is also often compared to Deucalion, the son of Prometheus and Pronoia in Greek mythology. Like Noah, Deucalion is a wine maker or wine seller; he is forewarned of the flood (this time by Zeus); he builds an ark and staffs it with creatures - and when he completes his voyage, gives thanks and takes advice from the gods on how to repopulate the Earth. Deucalion also sends a pigeon to find out about the situation of the world and the bird return with an olive branch. This and some other examples of apparent comparison between Greek myths and the "key characters" in the Old Testament/Torah have led recent Biblical scholars to suggest a Hellenistic influence in the composition of the earlier portions of the Hebrew Bible^.

See also

• Flood myth
• Gilgamesh flood myth
• Noahide Laws
• Patriarchal Age
• Sons of Noah

 References

 Further reading

• Bailey, Lloyd R. (1989). Noah, the Person and the Story. South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0-87249-637-6. 
• Best, Robert M. (1999). Noah's Ark and the Ziusudra Epic. Fort Myers, Florida: Enlil Press. ISBN 0-9667840-1-4. 
• Young, Davis A. (1995). The Biblical Flood: A Case Study of the Church's Response to Extrabiblical Evidence. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. ISBN 0-85364-678-3. 
• Ryan, William (1998). Noah's Flood. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-81052-2. 

 External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Noah

• Jewish Encyclopedia: Noah from the 1901-1906 Jewish Encyclopedia
• Catholic Encyclopedia article
• "Wooden Models Of Noah`s Ark"

 

Genealogy of Adam to David according to the Hebrew Bible   Generations after Creation Adam · Seth · Enos · Kenan · Mahalalel · Jared · Enoch · Methuselah · Lamech · Noah · Shem   Patriarchs after Flood Arpachshad · Shelah · Eber · Peleg · Reu · Serug · Nahor · Terah · Abraham · Isaac · Jacob   Nationhood to Kingship Judah · Pharez · Hezron · Ram · Amminadab · Nahshon · Salmon · Boaz · Obed · Jesse · David

Prophets in the Qur'an     آدم إدريس نوح هود صالح إبراهيم لوط إسماعيل إسحاق يعقوب يوسف أيوب   Adam Adam Idris Enoch Nuh Noah Hud Eber Saleh Shelah Ibrahim Abraham Luth Lot Ismail Ishmael Is'haq Isaac Yaqub Jacob Yusuf Joseph Ayoub Job     شُعيب موسى هارون ذو الكفل داود سليمان إلياس إليسع يونس زكريا يحيى عيسى مُحمد   Shoaib Jethro Musa Moses Harun Aaron Dhul-Kifl Ezekiel Daud David Sulaiman Solomon Ilyas Elijah Al-Yasa Elisha Yunus Jonah Zakaria Zechariah Yahya John Isa Jesus Muhammad Mohammad

Ham (Hebrew: חָם, Modern Ḥam Tiberian Ḥām / Ḫām ; Greek Χαμ , Cham ; Arabic: حام, IPA: [ xam ], "hot"), according to the Table of Nations in the Book of Genesis, was a son of Noah and the father of Cush, Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan.^[1][2]

 Ham in the Bible

The story of Ham is related in Genesis 9:20–25,

And Noah the husbandman began, and planted a vineyard. And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.

And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.

And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done unto him. And he said: Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said: Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be their servant. God enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be their servant..^[3]

 Curse of Canaan also known as the Curse of Ham

This "curse of Canaan" by Noah was likely connected to the conquest of Canaan by Israel. Both the conquest of Canaan and the curse, according to the Book of Jubilees 10:29-34, are attributed, rather, to Canaan's steadfast refusal to join his elder brothers in Ham's allotment beyond the Nile, and instead "squatting" within the inheritance of Shem, on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, in the region later promised to Abraham.

 The existence of Ham

According to the bible, Ham was one of the sons of Noah who moved southwest into Africa and parts of the near Middle East, and was the forefather of the nations there. The Bible refers to Egypt as "the land of Ham" in (Psalms 78:51; 105:23,27; 106:22; 1Ch 4:40). The Hebrew word for Egypt was Mizraim (probably literally meaning the two lands), and was the name of one of Ham's sons. The Egyptian word for Egypt was Kemet (or Kmt), meaning "black land" (in reference to the fertile dark soil along the Nile Valley).^[4][5][6] Ham could plausibly be a name derived from Khem, or vice versa, via sound change, due to the change in language between Egyptian and Hebrew, corresponding to the well known phonological change of /k/ into /x/ (voiceless velar fricative) into /h/. The names of Ham's other children correspond to regions within Egyptian influence - Kush, Canaan, and Phut (probably identical with the Pitu, a Libyan tribe, though often associated with Punt, an ancient name for Benadir).

Creationist scholars hold that some early civilizations came to worship humans deified as gods in the generations after the flood, perhaps owing to the extraordinary longevity of the first few generations after leaving the ark. Minimalist scholarship holds a parallel view, that many (but not all) early gods (or deified humans, e.g. Herakles) are representative of personified archetypes of races, i.e., their family trees being codified descriptions of the inter-relatedness of each race and tribe (with some of the older/earlier generations being more speculative). Both of these distinct viewpoints agree that there is a connection between the family tree of the characters (whether gods or men) and that of tribes and races (although the extent of that connection varies, both amongst the characters in question, and amongst the scholars).

In the minimalist view, the early tribal name either became seen by later generations as the name of the "old ones", and thus gradually evolved into that of a god, or else was deliberately transformed into the name of a god, demi-god or hero, for the purpose of making it easier to tell the tale of a tribe representatively. However, minimalists generally prefer to avoid giving any credence to accounts of tribes being named for eponymous ancestors.

Counter arguments are often put forward that the connection is only between the Egyptian word and the typical modern pronunciation of Hebrew ? as /x/ ("kh") rather than /ħ/ (as was the case with biblical Hebrew, and suggest that the appearance is lessened with the original Hebrew ?? Ḥam with Northwest Semitic /ħ/ (such as in Hebrew, Phoenician, and Syriac). Further, Kam, the version of the name in Ge'ez—a South Semitic language—is seemingly borrowed from Biblical Hebrew via the Hebrew Bible and perhaps does not reflect a native derivation of the word.

In the 19th century, there was an erroneous transcription of the Egyptian for Min as ĥm ("khem"), purely by coincidence. Since this Khem was worshipped most significantly in Akhmim, the separate identity of Khem was reinforced, Akhmim being understood as simply a corruption of Khem. However, Akhmim is a corruption of ?m-mnw, meaning Shrine of Min, via the demotic form šmn. The existence of a god named Khem was later understood as a faulty reading, but unfortunately it had already been enshrined in books written by E. A. Wallis Budge—now out of copyright and widely reprinted. Thus this error still finds a home among some writers, who often use it to identify Ham with the imaginary god Khem, who may also be identified with the Greek Titan Cronos. (See the article Min (god) for more details.)

Nevertheless, since Khem (meaning black) was normally used to describe the fertile soils by the Nile, it was sometimes used as an epithet for Min, as the god of fertility. Since Khem was also an Egyptian name for Egypt (precisely because it described the soil of the Nile valley), there is also an association with Ham, who represented the forefather of the north-east African nations including Egypt.

Many believe that ancient Jatt people of Persia (who now inhabit Punjab), are descendants of Ham.

 Identifications based on Jasher

Some of the names of Ham's descendants in the list below do not appear anywhere in the Bible, but rather originated from the mediaeval rabbinic work, the Book of Jasher. Among the ethnic groups various modern authors have attempted to link to Ham's children include:

• Cush^[7] - also Chus, Kush, Kosh (Nubians, Ethiopians, Somalis, Eritreans, and other related groups).
• Mizraim "double lands" (sons were Lud, Anom, Pathros, Chasloth and Chaphtor)^[8] - also Misraim, Mitzraim, Mizraite, Mitsrayim (Egyptians, Khemets, Philistines, and other related groups).
• Phut "a bow" (sons were Gebul, Hadan, Benah and Adan)^[9] - also Putaya, Putiya, Punt, Puta, Put, Libia, Libya (Libyans, Cyrenacians, Tunisians, Tuaregs,Berbers,The extinct Guanches of the Canary Islands, North Africans, and other related groups).
• Canaan "down low" (sons were Zidon, Heth, Amori, Gergashi, Hivi, Arkee, Seni, Arodi, Zimodi and Chamothi)^[10] - also Canaanites, Cana, Chna, Chanani, Chanana, Canaana, Kana, Kenaanah, Kena'ani, Kena'an, Kn'nw, Kyn'nw, Kinnahu, Kinahhi, Kinahni, Kinahna, Kinahne (Canaanites.

 See also

• Sons of Noah
• Curse of Ham
• Wives aboard the Ark
• Noach (parsha)

 References

External links

• Table of Nations

Descendants of Noah in Genesis 10   Shem and Semitic Elam · Ashur · Aram · Arpachshad · Lud   Ham and Hamitic Cush · Mizraim · Phut · Canaan   Japheth and Japhetic Gomer · Magog · Madai · Javan · Tubal · Meshech · Tiras

Shem
Shem, Ham and Japheth by James Tissot.
Children	Elam Asshur Aram Arpachshad Lud
Parents	Noah

Shem (Hebrew: שֵׁם, Modern Šem Tiberian Šēm ; Greek: 'Σημ, Sēm; Arabic: سام, Sām ; Ge'ez: ሴም, Sēm; "renown; prosperity; name") was one of the sons of Noah in the Bible. He is most popularly regarded as the eldest son, though some traditions regard him as the second son. Genesis 10:21 refers to relative ages of Shem and his brother Japheth, but with sufficient ambiguity in each to have yielded different translations. The verse is translated in the KJV as "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 New American Standard Bible gives, "Also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, and the older brother of Japheth, children were born."

Genesis 11:10 records that Shem was 100 years old at the birth of Arpachshad two years after the flood, making him 98 at the time of the flood; and that he lived for another 500 years after this, making his age at death 600 years.

The children of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Aram, Arpachshad and Lud, in addition to daughters. Abraham, the patriarch of the Hebrews and Arabs, was one of the descendants of Arpachshad.

The 1st century historian Flavius Josephus, among many others, recounted the tradition that these five sons were the progenitors of the nations of Elam, Assyria, Syria, Chaldea, and Lydia, respectively.

Terms like "Semite" and "Hamite" are less common now, and may sometimes even be perceived as offensive, because of their "racial" connotations. The adjectival forms "Semitic" and "Hamitic" are more common, though the vague term 'Hamitic' dropped out of mainstream academic use in the 1960s. Semitic is still a commonly used term for the Semitic languages, as a subset of the Afro-Asiatic languages, denoting the common linguistic heritage of Arabic, Aramaic, Akkadian, Ethiopic, Hebrew and Phoenician languages.

'Semitic' also appears in the phrase "anti-Semitic" to refer to racial, ethnic or cultural prejudice aimed exclusively at Jews.

According to some Jewish traditions (e.g., B. Talmud Nedarim 32b; Genesis Rabbah 46:7; Genesis Rabbah 56:10; Leviticus Rabbah 25:6; Numbers Rabbah 4:8.), Shem is believed to have been Melchizedek, King of Salem whom Abraham is recorded to have met after the battle of the four kings.

In a few of the many extra-biblical sources that describe him, Shem is also credited with killing Nimrod, son of Cush.

Shem is mentioned in Genesis 5:32, 6:10; 7:13; 9:18,23,26-27; 10; 11:10; also in 1 Chronicles 1:4.

 Genealogies according to "Book of Jasher"

A rabbinic document that surfaced in the 1600s, claiming to be the lost "Book of Jasher" provides some names not found in any other source. Some have reconstructed more complete genealogies based on this information as follows:

Shem. Also Sem. Literal meanings are named or renown (father of the Semitic races - Shemites). The sons of Shem were:

• Elam "eternity" (sons were Shushan, Machul and Harmon)^[1] - (Elamites, Khuzestanis)^[2]

• Asshur "a step" or "strong" (sons were Mirus and Mokil)^[3] - (Assyrians

• Arphaxad (sons were Shelach, Anar and Ashcol)^[3] - Hebrews (Israelites, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Ishmaelites, And Qahtanites )

• Lud "strife" (sons were Pethor and Bizayon)^[4] - (Ludim, Lubim, Ludians, Ludu, Lydians, and other related groups in Asia Minor.

• Aram "exalted" (sons were Uz, Chul, Gather and Mash)^[4] - (Aramaeans.

 Other proposed lineages from Shem

Biblical longevity
Name	Age	LXX
Methuselah	969	969
Jared	962	962
Noah	950	950
Adam	930	930
Seth	912	912
Kenan	910	910
Enos	905	905
Mahalalel	895	895
Lamech	777	753
Shem	600	600
Eber	464	404
Cainan	—	460
Arpachshad	438	465
Salah	433	466
Enoch	365	365
Peleg	239	339
Reu	239	339
Serug	230	330
Job	210?	210?
Terah	205	205
Isaac	180	180
Abraham	175	175
Nahor	148	304
Jacob	147	147
Esau	147?	147?
Ishmael	137	137
Levi	137	137
Amram	137	137
Kohath	133	133
Laban	130+	130+
Deborah	130+	130+
Sarah	127	127
Miriam	125+	125+
Aaron	123	123
Rebecca	120+	120+
Moses	120	120
Joseph	110	110
Joshua	110	110

Europeans

Some believe that from Shem descend the whole of the European peoples. Ernest L. Martin writes, "...[The] Shemite tribes (people who were descendants of Shem and including some peoples who came from Abraham) later colonized the whole of southern Europe and replaced the people of JAVAN and his four descendants. JAVAN'S people were pushed mainly into the northern areas of Europe where in turn they migrated farther east into Asia (along with GOMER the firstborn son of JAPHETH and his descendants). Indeed, in prophecies dealing also with the End-Time, we find the people of JAVAN no longer in Europe, but they are now associated with TUBAL [Ezekiel 38: & 39 end time prophecy] (another son of JAPHETH) who became an eastern Mongolian type of people...though the name JAVAN still retained its geographical hold on the southern region of Europe, particularly in Greece)...It is not uncommon for people to give a name to a region and then the original people move on to other areas (or are killed off) and the original geographical name becomes associated with completely different people" ^[5]

 Germanic

Some scholars have claimed that the Anglo-Saxons are the descendants of Shem. "Alfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons [b. 849 A.D.] was... the son [descendant] of Sem [Shem]" (Church Historians of England, vol. 2, p. 443). Proponents of this theory also claim that Alfred the Great was a descendant of Shem because he claimed to descend from Sceafa, a marooned man who came to Britain on a boat after a flood.

Le Petit, a writer in 1601 mentioned King Adel, said to be descendant of Shem, ruler of Britain having 3 children that migrated to India.

Further, it is said^[who?] that Tuitsch a German patriarch is none other than Shem himself (see Assyrian-German theory).

 Hellenistic (Greek)

A text from Islam claims that the Greeks derived from Shem: Tabari II:11 “Shem, the son of Noah was the father of the Arabs, the Persians, and the Greeks;...”

In Serge A. Zenkovsky's, Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles, and Tales, "To the lot of Shem fell the Orient, and his share extended lengthwise as far as India and breadthwise (from east to south) as far as Phinocorura, including Persia and Bactria, as well as Syria, Media (which lies beside the Euphrates River), Babylon, Cordyna, Assyria, Mesopotamia, Arabia the Ancient, Elymais, India, Arabia the Mighty, Coelesyria, Commagene, and all Phoenicia."^[6]

 Indo-Iranians

According to Abulgazi, Shem's original land was Iran while Japheth's was the country called "Kuttup Shamach," said to be the name of the regions between the Caspian Sea and India.^[7]

According to Armenian tradition, Dr. Hales is quoted saying, "To the sons of Shem was alloted the middle region of the earth viz., Palestine, Syria, Assyria, Samaria (Shinar?) Babel (or Babylonia), Persia and Hedjaz (Arabia).^[8]

In Mystery of the Ages, by Dr. James Modlish, it is said that India is inhabited by Shemites.^[9]

Hisham Ibn al-Kalbi, a 19th century Arab historian, states that al-Hind and al-Sind [(Sindh)Pakistan] are of Ophir, the son of Joktan.^[10] Isidore of Seville (c. 635) had also made Joktan the ancestor of Indians and Pakistanis; his material was based on earlier enumerations made by Jerome and Josephus, who had stated that Joktan's descendants "inhabited from Cophen, an Indian river, and in part of Asia adjoining to it."

 African

In Genesis, while Sheba and Seba are listed among descendants of Cush son of Ham in 10:7, another Sheba is listed as a son of Joktan, son of Eber in 10:28. These names are associated with Semitic tribes on both sides of the Red Sea in Yemen and Eritrea (See Sabaeans). This situation may reflect a combined Hamito-Semitic ancestry postulated for Ethiopian peoples.

Racial connotations

Some writers have associated Noah's sons with different skin colors or alleged races. For instance the Jewish text Pirqei R. Eliezer, depicts God as dividing the earth among Noah‘s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet,^[11] and attributing different skin colors to them (literally, —blessing“ them with different skin colors): light colored skin for the Japhetites, medium dark or brown for the Semites, and very dark or black for the Hamites.

This passage from Pirqei R. Eliezer, a writing which was composed in Israel after the Islamic conquest, is paralleled in an Arabic text of approximately the same period. The historian abarī (d. 923) quotes Ibn Abbas (d. 686-8) as saying:

Born to Noah were Shem, whose descendants were tawny-white (bayā wa-adma); Ham, whose descendants were black with hardly any whiteness (sawād wa-bayā qalīl); and Japheth, whose descendants were reddish-white (al-łuqra wal- umra.)^[12]

From the same author also comes his commentary of Gen 5:32:

" 'And Noah begat Shem and Ham and Japheth.' That is Shem is the father of the swarthy, and Ham of the blacks, and Japheth of the whites." Then on the commentary on Gen 10:32, "...the red [smqry'] sons of Japheth,... the black sons of Ham,... and the swarthy sons of Shem."

The tradition is repeated in the 13th century by the Christian Ibn al- Ibrī (Bar Hebraeus), known for the —fidelity with which he reproduces earlier writers. Again in another work, Bar Hebraeus speaks of Noah dividing the world among his three sons, with Ham getting the Land of the Blacks (sūdān), Shem the Land of the Browns (sumra), and Japheth the Land of the Reds (łuqra).^[13]

"According to ISBE, Shem means "dusky", and Japheth means "fair." (McKissick, Beyond Roots. P. 108).^[14]

According to Armenian tradition, Shem had the region of the tawny.^[15]

Josiah Priest (1788–1851) believed that Shem, because he was a descendant in the Adamic line, and because "Adam" means reddish in Hebrew, that Shem too was of the "reddish race". Further, he believe that because Christ was a descendant in the line of Shem, that Christ was of "copper-colored stock".^[16]

 See also

• Wives aboard the Ark
• Subarians
• Finnegans Wake

 References

 External links

• Table of Nations
• Gary Greenberg, author of several books on Egyptian/Hebrew mythology and President of the Biblical Archaeology Society of New York
•  "Sem (Shem)". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Sem_(Shem). 

Genealogy of Adam to David according to the Hebrew Bible   Generations after Creation Adam · Seth · Enos · Kenan · Mahalalel · Jared · Enoch · Methuselah · Lamech · Noah · Shem   Patriarchs after Flood Arpachshad · Shelah · Eber · Peleg · Reu · Serug · Nahor · Terah · Abraham · Isaac · Jacob   Nationhood to Kingship Judah · Pharez · Hezron · Ram · Amminadab · Nahshon · Salmon · Boaz · Obed · Jesse · David

Descendants of Noah in Genesis 10   Shem and Semitic Elam · Ashur · Aram · Arpachshad · Lud   Ham and Hamitic Cush · Mizraim · Phut · Canaan   Japheth and Japhetic Gomer · Magog · Madai · Javan · Tubal · Meshech · Tiras

Japheth (pronounced /ˈdʒeɪfɪθ/, Hebrew. יפת, Yafet, Greek Ιάφεθ , Iapheth , Latin Iafeth or Iapetus,, Turk Yafes, Arabic: يافث) is one of the sons of Noah in the Bible. In Arabic citations, his name is normally given as Yafeth ibn Nuh (Japheth son of Noah).

 Order of birth

He is most popularly regarded as the youngest son, though some traditions regard him as the eldest son. 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 gives, "To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born." However, the Revised Standard Version's text seems incorrect when the original Hebrew text is examined. In Hebrew, the text reads "יֶפֶת הַגָּדוֹל" (literally "Japheth the great"; i.e., "Japheth the elder").

In Genesis 5:32 it records that one of the three sons of Noah, Shem, Ham or Japheth, was born when Noah was five hundred years old. Genesis 11:10 records that Shem was one hundred years old two years after the Flood when Arphaxad was born. 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. This would leave either Ham or Japheth the son born when Noah was five hundred years old. In Genesis 11:26, 32; 12:4 Terah's sons Abram, Nahor and Haran had the oldest son Haran listed last. So Japheth, who is listed last, would most likely be the oldest. This would support the interpretation of Genesis 10:21 that Japheth was the elder.

 The place in Noah's family

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:

• Japheth is the father of the Japhetic race
• Ham is the father of the Hamitic race
• Shem is the father of the Semitic race

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,

...they will be kin to us, or they will fetch it from Japhet. (II.ii 117-18)

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.

 Japhetic descendants

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):

"Japhet, the son of Noah, had seven sons: they inhabited so, that, beginning at the mountains Taurus and Amanus, they proceeded along Asia, as far as the river Tanais (Don), and along Europe to Cadiz; and settling themselves on the lands which they light upon, which none had inhabited before, they called the nations by their own names."

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:

• Gomer: Armenians, Cimmerians, Scythians, Welsh, Irish, Germans, Huns, Turks, Franks.
• Magog: Scythians, Slavs, Mongols, Hungarians, Irish, Finns, Pamiris, Pashtuns
• Madai: Medes, Indo-Iranians, Mitanni, Mannai, Persian , Tajiks, Balochis, Talishis, Mazandaris, Zazas, Sengesaris and Tati. According to the Book of Jubilees (10:35-36), Madai had married a daughter of Shem, and preferred to live among Shem's descendants, rather than dwell in Japheth's allotted inheritance beyond the Black Sea; so he begged his brothers-in-law, Elam, Asshur and Arphaxad, until he finally received from them the land that was named after him, Media.
• Javan: Greeks (Ionians)
• Tubal: Tabali, Georgians, Italics, Iberians, Basques
• Tiras: Thracians, Goths, Jutes, Teutons
• Meshech: Phrygians, Illyrians, Caucasian Iberia, Russians

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).

 Ethnic legends

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 continued 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]

 Proposed correlations with deities

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 and Pra-Japati, and the Roman Iu-Pater or "Father Jove", which became Jupiter

 Japhetic language

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 in literature

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.

 See also

• Caucasian race
• Mongoloid race
• Japhetic
• Whites
• Proto-Indo-Europeans
• Wives aboard the Ark
• Origin of the Armenians

 Notes

 External links

• Who are the sons of Japheth today?
• The Table of Nations
• Origins of Nations Newsletter
• Easton Bible dictionary about Japheth
• Smith's Bible Dictionary about Japheth
• International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Japheth
• Japheth in the Jewish Encyclopedia
• Japheth's family tree at complete-bible-genealogy.com

 See also

Descendants of Noah in Genesis 10   Shem and Semitic Elam · Ashur · Aram · Arpachshad · Lud   Ham and Hamitic Cush · Mizraim · Phut · Canaan   Japheth and Japhetic Gomer · Magog · Madai · Javan · Tubal · Meshech · Tiras