Jok´tan (small), one of the sons of Eber, a descendant from Shem (Gen 10:25-26), and the supposed progenitor of many tribes in Southern Arabia. The Arabians call him Kahtan, and recognize him as one of the principal founders of their nation.
Son of Eber, and by him connected with the Hebrews and other Shemite families, Gen 10:25-30 ; 1Ch 1:19-23 . He is believed to be the Kahtan, or Yektan, to whom Arabian writers trace their purest and most ancient genealogies.\par
Son of Eber (Gen 10:25; Gen 10:30; 1Ch 1:19). Head of the Joktanite Arabs. His settlements were in S. Arabia, "from Mesha unto Sephar a mount of the East" (Zafari, a seaport E. of Yemen; an emporium of trade with Africa and India). The Arab Kahtan whose sons peopled Yemen or Arabia Felix. Cushites from Ham (Gen 10:7) and Ludites from Shem (Gen 10:22) were already there, and intermingled with them. The seafaring element was derived from the Cushites, the Shemites not being seafaring; also the Cyclopean masonry and the rock cut Himyeritic inscriptions indicate the presence of Cushites. Arab tradition makes Joktan or Kahtan progenitor of the purest tribes of central and southern Arabia. The Scripture list of his descendants confirms this; almost all the names are certainly connected with this locality: "Almodad (El-Mudad), Sheleph (Sulaf or Silfan), Hazarmaveth" (Hadramaut), etc.
[Jok’tan]
Son of Eber, of the family of Shem. Gen 10:25-26; Gen 10:29; 1Ch 1:19-20; 1Ch 1:23. His descendants are traced to southern Arabia.
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By: M. Seligsohn, Emil G. Hirsch, Hartwig Hirschfeld
—Biblical Data:
Younger son of Eber and progenitor of thirteen Arabic tribes (Gen. x. 25-29; I Chron. i. 19-23), many of which—as Hazarmaveth, Shebah, Ophir, and Havilah—have been identified. The name seems to mean "the younger" or "the smaller," but in Gen. R. xxxvii. 10 it is interpreted as "he who humbles himself," and for his humility Joktan was rewarded by being made the ancestor of thirteen tribes. The place of settlement of Joktan's descendants is given as "from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar, a mount of the east" (Gen. x. 30). The district indicated is in Arabia, but Targum pseudo-Jonathan identifies Sephar with Sepharvaim. Josephus ("Ant." i. 6, § 4) asserts that their dwelling was "from Cophen, an Indian river, and in part of Asia adjoining it."
M. Sel.—In Arabic Literature:
Joktan in Arabic literature bears the name "Ḳaḥṭan." In Gen. x. Joktan is described as the ancestor of several south-Arabian tribes. In accordance with this statement Arab genealogists hold Ḳaḥṭan to be the first king of Yemen, and his son and successor Ya'rub the first person who spoke Arabic. This is but the legendary form of the tradition that Ḳaḥṭan was the progenitor of the southern Arabs, or Arabs proper, while the Ishmaelite Arabs were originally of non-Arab stock; but, pretending to be Arabs, they adopted Arab customs and intermarried with genuine Arabs, being therefore called "Musta'rabs." Another son of Ḳaḥṭan, who was called Jurhum, emigrated to northwest Arabia, and founded a kingdom in the Ḥijaz. This tradition was probably invented at a later date in order to establish a close relationship between the northern and southern Arabs, because it is added that Ishmael married a woman of the tribe of Jurhum and became a member thereof.
JOKTAN, according to the genealogical tables in Genesis and 1 Chron., was one of the two sons of Eber, and the father of thirteen sons or races (Gen 10:25-30, 1Ch 1:19-23); In the first table it is added that his descendants dwelt from Mesha to Sephar. Though the names of the majority of his sons have not been satisfactorily identified, it is clear that he is represented as the ancestor of the older Arabian tribes. The list of his sons is probably not to be taken as a scientific or geographical classification of the tribes or districts of Arabia, but rather as an attempt on the part of the writer to incorporate in the tables such names of Arabian races as were familiar to him and to his readers. It will be noted that Seba and Havilah occur also as the sons of Cush (Gen 10:7), the peculiar interest attaching to them having doubtless given rise to a variety of traditions with regard to their origin and racial affinities. The name of Joktan himself, like the names of many of his sons, has not yet been identified or explained. Its identification by the native Arab genealogists with Kahtân, the name of an Arabian tribe or district, is without foundation; there appears to have been no real connexion between the names, their slight similarity in sound having probably suggested their identification. The supposition that Joktan was a purely artificial name devised for the younger son of Eber, in order to serve as a link between the Hebrew and Arab stocks, amounts to little more than a confession that the origin of the name is unknown.
L. W. King.