Genesis 10:2

Genesis 10:2 . Moses begins with Japheth’s family, either because he was the eldest, or because it lay most remote from Israel, and had least concern with them at the time when he wrote; and therefore he mentions that race very briefly; hastening to give account of the posterity of Ham, who were Israel’s enemies, and of Shem, who were Israel’s ancestors: for it is the church of which the Scripture is designed to be the history: and of the nations of the world, only as they were some way or other interested in the affairs of Israel.

(2) The sons of Japheth. —Of these, seven main divisions are enumerated, some of which are subsequently sub-divided; they are— 1. Gomer, whose name reappears in the Cimmerians. Their original settlement was between Magog and Madai, that is, between the Scythians and the Medes. After remaining some time on the Caspian and Black Seas, on which latter they have left their name in the Crimea, a powerful branch of them struck across the centre of Russia, and, skirting the Baltic, became the Cimbri of Denmark (whence the name of the Chersonesus Cimbrica, given to Jutland), the Cymry of Wales, &c. Generally they are the race to which the " name is given of Celts. 2. Magog. The Scythians, who once possessed the country north and south of the Caucasus. The Russians are their modern representatives, being descended from the Sarmatians, a Scythic race, with a small admixture of Median blood. 3. Madai. The Medes, who dwelt to the south and south-west of the Caspian. Mada, in the Accadian language, means land, and it was in the Median territory that Kharsak-Kurra, “the mountain of the East,” was situated, on which the Accadians believed the ark to have rested, whence possibly Media took its name, being “the land” above all others (Chald. Gen., p. 196). 4. Javan, that is, Ionia, the land of the Greeks. 5. Tubal. The Tibareni, on the south-east of the Black Sea. 6. Meshech. The Moschi, a people of Colchis and Armenia. 7. Tiras. According to Josephus and the Targum, the Thracians.

Other races have been suggested, but this is probably right; and as the Getae, the ancestors of the Goths, were Thracians, this would make the Scandinavian race the modern representatives of Tiras. In this enumeration the race of Japheth is described as occupying Asia Minor, Armenia, the countries to the west as far as the Caspian Sea, and thence northward to the shores of the Black Sea. Subsequently it spread along the northern shores of the Mediterranean and. over all Europe. But though unnoticed by the writer its extension was equally remarkable towards the east. Parthia, Bactria, the Punjab, India, are equally Japhethite with Germany, Greece, and Rome; and in Sanscrit literature the Aryan first showed that genius, which, omitting the greatest of all books, the Semitic Bible, has made this race the foremost writers in the world.

2 . The sons of Japheth ] These are names of peoples who for the most part seem to have dwelt in remote northern and western regions in Asia Minor. Gomer ] Mentioned also in Ezekiel 38:6 . Probably the people dwelling in the region of Pontus in Asia Minor, and called by the Greeks Cimmerians ( Κιμμέριοι ). Cf. 1 Chronicles 1:5-6 . Magog ] appears as the name of a country in Ezekiel 38:2 , and of a northern people in Ezekiel 39:6 , generally identified with the Scythians. Sayce conjectures that Magog is for “Mat-Gog” = “land of Gog.” The allusions to Gog and Magog in Revelation 20:8 are based upon the prophetic passages in Ezekiel 38, 39. Madai ] Almost certainly “the land of the Medes.” The people of Media are referred to in the Assyrian inscriptions as “Madai” in the 9th century b.c. In the history of Israel they are first mentioned in 2 Kings 17:6 . Cf. Isaiah 13:17 ; Isaiah 21:2 ; 1 Chronicles 1:5 . Javan ] This is the Hebrew name for “the Greeks.” The Ionians were the Greeks of Asia Minor and of the islands of the Ægean Sea, who were first known to the peoples of Western Asia. They were called in Assyrian Javanu . For other passages in which the Greeks are mentioned in the O.T., cf. Isaiah 66:19 ; Ezekiel 27:13 ; Ezekiel 27:19 ; Daniel 8:21 ; Daniel 10:20 ; Joel 3:6 ; Zechariah 9:13 . Tubal … Meshech ] These two names are mentioned, along with Javan, in Ezekiel 27:13 ; Ezekiel 39:1 . They have been identified with peoples in N.E. Asia Minor, Tibarenians and Moschians.

In Isaiah 66:19 Tubal is classed with Javan and “the isles afar off.” In Psalm 120:5 , “Meshech” is used as the name of a barbarous and remote people, “Woe is me that I sojourn in Meshech.” Tiras ] Identified by Josephus ( Ant . i. 6) with the Thracians, but now more frequently with a race of sea pirates of the Ægean Sea called Τυρσηνοί . Another conjecture is Tarsus; another, Tarshish; cf. 1 Chronicles 1:6 .

Japheth’s portion was at first Asia the Less, and afterwards by degrees all Europe, and the northern parts of Asia. This is he so much celebrated among the Greeks by the name of Japetus. Gomer’s posterity are reckoned among the northern people, Ezekiel 38:6 , and were seated in the northern parts of the Lesser Asia, and afterwards about Thracia; and from him were called Gomari, and by an easy change Cimbri, or Cimmerii. Magog was the father of the Scythians, as may be gathered from Ezekiel 38:2-3, Ezekiel 38:15, Ezekiel 39:3, Ezekiel 39:6 . The posterity of Madai, wheresoever they were first placed, in Macedonia or elsewhere, afterward were fixed in Media, and were called Medes, and in the Hebrew by the name of their father Madai, as appears from 2 Kings 17:6 Isaiah 13:17 Jeremiah 25:25, Jeremiah 51:11, Daniel 5:28, Daniel 6:8 . From Javan came the Grecians, who are called by themselves Iaones, or Iones, and in the Hebrew Jevanim, and their country Greece, Javan. See Isaiah 66:19 Ezekiel 27:13, Ezekiel 27:19, Daniel 8:21, Daniel 10:20 . Of Tubal came the Iberi, anciently called Thobeli, a people of Asia, near the Euxine Sea. See Ezekiel 27:3, Ezekiel 32:26, Ezekiel 38:2-3 . Meshech was father of the Moschi, i.e. the Muscovites, or rather, as others think, the Cappadocians, who were anciently called Meschini, and Moschi, and their chief city Maraca.

CHAPTER 10 Ge 10:1-32. Genealogies. 1. sons of Noah—The historian has not arranged this catalogue according to seniority of birth; for the account begins with the descendants of Japheth, and the line of Ham is given before that of Shem though he is expressly said to be the youngest or younger son of Noah; and Shem was the elder brother of Japheth (Ge 10:21), the true rendering of that passage. generations, &c.—the narrative of the settlement of nations existing in the time of Moses, perhaps only the principal ones; for though the list comprises the sons of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, all their descendants are not enumerated. Those descendants, with one or two exceptions, are described by names indicative of tribes and nations and ending in the Hebrew im, or the English "-ite."

Verse 2. - The sons of Japheth are first mentioned not because Japheth was the eldest of the three brothers, although that was true, but because of the greater distance of the Japhetic tribes from the theocratic center, the Hamites having always been much more nearly situated to and closely connected with the Shemites than they. The immediate descendants of Japheth, whose name, Ἰάπετος , occurs again in the mythology of a Japhetic race, were fourteen m number, seven sons and seven grandsons, each of which became the progenitor of one of the primitive nations. Gomer . A people inhabiting "the sides of the north" ( Ezekiel 38:6 ); the Galatae of the Greeks (Josephus, 'Ant.,' 1:06); the Chomarii, a nation in Bactriana on the Oxus (Shulthess, Kalisch); but more generally the Cimmerians of Homer ('Odyss.,' 11:13-19), whose abodes were the shores of the Caspian and Euxine, whence they seem to have spread themselves over Europe as far west as the Atlantic, leaving traces of their presence in the Cimhri of North Germany and the Cymri in Wales (Keil, Lange, Murphy, Wordsworth, 'Speaker's Commentary ). And Magog .

A fierce and warlike people presided over by Gog (an appellative name, like the titles Pharaoh and Caesar, and corresponding with the Turkish Chak, the Tartarian Kak, and the Mongolian Gog: Kalisch), whose complete destruction was predicted by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 38, 39.); generally understood to be the Scythians, whose territory lay upon the borders of the sea of Asoph, and in the Caucasus. In the Apocalypse (Revelation 20:8-10) Gog and Magog appear as two distinct nations combined against the Church of God. And Madai . The inhabitants of Media (Mada in the cuneiform inscriptions), so called because believed to be situated περὶ μεσην τὴν Ασίαν (Polyb. 5:44) on the south-west shore of the Caspian And Javan . Identical with Ἰάων (Greek), Javana (Sanscrit), Juna (Old Persian), Jounan (Rosetta Stone); allowed to be the father of the Greeks, who in Scripture are styled Javan (vide Isaiah 66:19 ; Ezekiel 27:13 ; Daniel 8:21 ; Daniel 10:20 ; Joel 3:6 ). And Tubal, and Meshech . Generally associated in Scripture as tributaries of Magog ( Ezekiel 38:2, 3 ; Ezekiel 39:1 ); recognized as the Iberians and Moschi in the north of Armenia, between the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates, and the Black Sea (Josephus, Knobel, Lange, Kalisch). And Tiras .