Japhetic
Japhetic is a term that refers to the supposed descendants of
Japheth, one of the three
sons of Noah in the
Bible. It corresponds to
Semitic (descendants of
Shem) and
Hamitic (descendants of
Ham). Variations of the term include
Japhetite and
Japhethitic.
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A stylised T and O map, depicting Europe as the home of the descendents of Japheth (botton left). Africa is ascribed to Ham and Asia to Shem |
Traditionally, Japheth was understood to have been the progenitor of the peoples of Europe. Thus "Japhetic" came to be used as a synonym for Europeans. In
Medieval Europe the world was understood to have been divided into three large-scale racial groupings. In addition to the Japhetic peoples of Europe, the Semitic peoples were equated with all Asians, and Hamitic peoples with Africans.
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.
In the Bible, Japheth is ascribed seven sons:
Gomer,
Magog,
Tiras,
Javan,
Meshech,
Tubal, and
Madai.
The intended ethnic identity of these 'descendants of Japheth' is not known for certain. However, over history they have been identified by Biblical scholars with historical nations who were deemed to be descendants of Japheth and his sons—a practice dating back at least to the classical encounters of Jew with
Hellene, for example in
Josephus's
Antiquities of the Jews, I.VI.122 (
Whiston). Josephus wrote::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:
*
Javan:
Ionians (and hence
Greeks)
*
Magog:
Scythians,
Slavs,
Irish,
Magyars (and hence
Hungarians)
*
Madai:
Mitanni,
Mannai,
Medes (and hence
Kurds), more generally
Persians, or even more generally
Indo-Aryans*
Tubal:
Tabali,
Georgians,
Italics,
Illyrians,
Iberians,
Basques*
Tiras:
Thracians,
Goths,
Jutes,
Teutons (Germans)
*
Meshech:
Phrygians,
Meskheti,
Moschoi*
Gomer: Scythians,
Turks,
Armenians,
Welsh,
Picts, Irish,
Germans (Teutons).
Japhetic and Caucasian
The term "
Caucasian" as a racial label for Europeans derives in part from the assumption that the tribe of Japheth developed its distinctive racial characteristics in the Caucasus area, having migrated there from
Mount Ararat before populating Europe. In the same vein,
Georgian nationalist histories associated Japheth's sons with certain ancient tribes of the Caucasus area, called
Tubals (
Tabals,
Tibarenoi in Greek) and
Meshechs (Meshekhs/Mosokhs,
Moschoi in Greek), who they claimed represented ancient pre-
Indo-European and non-Semitic, possibly "Proto-Iberian", tribes of
Asia Minor of the
3rd-
1st millennias BC. This theory influenced the use of the term Japhetic in the linguistic theories of
Nikolai Marr (see below).
During the eighteenth and nineteenth century 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, which was interpreted as part of God's plan for the world. The subjugation of Africans was likewise justified by the
curse of Ham.
The term Japhetic was also applied by
William Jones,
Rasmus C. Rask and other pre-
Darwinian linguists to what later became known as the
Indo-European language group, on the assumption that the principal languages of Europe would have originated with the tribe of Japheth.
In a conflicting sense, it was also used by the
Soviet linguist
Nikolai Marr in his
Japhetic theory, which was intended to demonstrate that the languages of the Caucasus formed part of a once-widespread pre-Indo-European language group.
*
Japheth*
Whites*
Japhetic theory*
Confusion of tongues*
Proto-Indo-Europeans*
Aryan*
Cimmerians*
Gog and Magog*
Hephthalites
*
Indo-Scythians*
Easton Bible dictionary about Japheth*
Smith's Bible Dictionary about Japheth*
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Japheth*
Japheth in the
Jewish Encyclopedia
