1 Chronicles 1:5

Ver. 5-27. The sons of Japheth, Gomer,.... Here begins the genealogy of the sons of Noah after the flood; of the sons of Japheth the elder, in this and the two following verses; next of the sons of

The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. No JFB commentary on these verses.

1 Chronicles 1:5 The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.Ver. 5. Gomer.] Of whom came the Cymbrians and Danes. Magog.] From whom are the Scythians, Sarmatians, Tartars. Madai.] The father of the Medes, as Javan is conceived to be of the Grecians, Tubal of the Spaniards, Meshech of the Muscovites, Tiras of the Thracians, Ashchenaz of the Germans (Tuiscones Dutchmen), Riphath of the Paphlagones, Togarmah of the Turks, Elishah of the Eolians, Tarshish of the Cilicians, Kittim the Cyprians, Dodanim or Rodahim the Rhodians, &c.

THE SONS OF JAPHETH THE FAIR—(1 Chronicles 1:5-7). The Oriental theory of political and even social communities refers each to a common ancestor. The Israelites are known as “sons of Israel,” the Ammonites as “sons of Ammon” (Authorised version, “children”). In the same way, an Arab tribe is called. the “Bκni Hassan” (sons of Hassan), and Assurbanipal styles his subjects “sons of Asshur.” Sometimes a people is called “sons” of the land or city they inhabit; e.g., the Babylonians are styled “sons of Babel.” The “sons of Japheth” are probably the fair Caucasian race. (5) Gomer.—The Cimmerians of the Greek writers; called Gi-mir-ra-a-a in Assyrian inscriptions. Their country was Cappadocia, called Gamir by the ancient Armenians. The Arabic version has “Turkey.” Magog.—Ezekiel 38:2-3; Ezekiel 38:6 speaks of Gog, king of Magog, and suzerain of Tubal, Meshech, Gomer and the house of Togarmah. With the name Gog compare Gβgu, king of Salii, mentioned in connection with Assurbanipal’s campaign against the Mannβ-a. Magog appears to be a general name for the peoples north of Assyria, i.e., in Armenia. Madai.—The Medes. 2 Kings 17:6; Isaiah 13:17. Assyr., Ma-da-a-a.Javan.—The Assyrian Yavnan, i.e., Cyprus, mentioned in the Behistun Inscription, as here, along with Media, Armenia, and Cappadocia. (Comp. Joe 3:6; Isaiah 66:19.) Tubal and Meshech, the Tibareni and Moschi of classical writers; and the Muski and Tabali of Assyrian records. Tiras has been compared with the Tyras or Dniester. Perhaps we may compare Tros and the Trojans. (6) Ashchenaz.—Jeremiah 51:27, near or in Armenia. Apparently the Asguzβa mentioned by Esarhaddon in the account of his campaign against the Cimmerians and Cilicians. The Arabic has Slavonia.Riphath.—The reading of Gen 10:3, some Heb. MSS., the LXX., and Vulg. The common Hebrew text (Van der Hooght’s) wrongly reads Diphath (Syriac, Diphar). Togarmah seems to be the Tulgarimmη on the border of Tabali, which Sennacherib reduced in his expedition against Cilicia (Smith, Sennach., p. 86). (7) Elishah.—Usually identified with Hellas, or the Hellenes. Perhaps, however, Carthage is meant: comp. the name Elissa, as a by-name of Dido, Virg. Ζn. iv. 335. Tarshish.—Usually identified with the Phoenician colony of Tartessus, in Spain. (Comp. Psalms 72:10.) Dodanim.—So many Heb. MSS., the Syriac, Vulg., and Genesis 10:3. The LXX. has “Rhodians,” which implies a reading, Rodanim, which we find in the common Hebrew text. Dodanim might be the Dardauians of the Troad, or the Dodoneans (Dodona, the seat of an ancient oracle, the fame of which might have reached Phoenician ears). Thus far the list appears to deal with Asia Minor and adjacent lands; and Japheth, whose name is curiously like the Greek Iδpetus, seems to include the western races so far as known to the Hebrews.

Verse 5. After Tiras, the Targum adds, "And the names of their countries were Africa, and Germany, and Media, and Macedonia, Bithynia, and Maesia, and Thrace." And in another copy, "Germany, Getia, and Media, and Ephesus, Bithynia, and Maesia, and Thrace."

5–23. The “Genealogy” of the Nations The table which follows is taken from Genesis 10:2-29. In the A.V. several variations between Gen. and Chron. occur in the spelling of proper names. In the R.V. the spelling has been made uniform. The table is geographical rather than ethnological, i.e. neighbouring nations are regarded as having the same descent. The world, as known to the writer, is divided into three zones, of which the Northern is assigned to the Sons of Japheth (5–7), the Southern to the Sons of Ham (8–16), and the Central to the Sons of Shem (17–23). Had the arrangement been according to descent the Semitic Zidonians and the (probably Mongoloid) Hittites would not have been equally described as the offspring of Ham (cp. Sayce, Higher Criticism and the Monuments, p. 122). It must be noticed, moreover, that the passage contains a general table with two appendices. The General Table is derived from the so-called “Priestly” narrative (PC) of the Hexateuch, while the appendices have been inserted by a Redactor from an earlier narrative, the “Prophetical” (J) (cp. Driver, Introduction, p. 13). Thus we get the following scheme:— Ch 1:5-9. PC (General Table of the descendants of Japheth and Ham).–16. J (Appendix to the descendants of Ham).. PC (General Table of the descendants of Shem).–23. J (Appendix to the descendants of Shem). It must be further noted that though the Priestly source is assigned in its main stock by critics to “the exilic or early post-exilic period,” some elements in it belong to pre-exilic times. This table of the nations in particular agrees with the state of the world as referred to by Ezekiel, and is probably to be assigned to a date anterior to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. (Sayce in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, i. 347, suggests that the table is as early as the period of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Egyptian dynasties, when Palestine was under Egyptian suzerainty.)