The termJaphetites (sometimes spelledJaphethites; in adjective formJaphetic orJaphethitic) refers to the descendants ofJapheth, one of the threesons of Noah in theBook of Genesis.[1] The term was used inethnological andlinguistic writings from the 18th to the 20th centuries as aBiblically derived racial classification for theEuropean peoples, but is now considered obsolete.[2]Medievalethnographers believed that the world had been divided into three large-scale groupings, corresponding to the three classical continents: the Semitic peoples ofAsia, the Hamitic peoples ofAfrica, and the Japhetic peoples ofEurope.[3][4]
The term has been used in modern times as a designation inphysical anthropology,ethnography, andcomparative linguistics. In anthropology, it was used in a racial sense forWhite people (theCaucasian race).[2] In linguistics, it referred to theIndo-European languages.[2] Both of these uses are considered obsolete nowadays.[2] Only theSemitic peoples form a well-defined language family. The Indo-European group is no longer known as "Japhetite", and theHamitic group is now recognized asparaphyletic within theAfro-Asiatic family.
AmongMuslim historians, Japheth is usually regarded as the ancestor of theGog and Magog tribes, and, at times, of theTurks,Khazars, andSlavs.[5][6]
Japheth first appears in theHebrew Bible as one of the three sons of Noah, saved fromthe Flood through theArk.[1] In theBook of Genesis, they are always in the order "Shem, Ham, and Japheth" when all three are listed.[7][8] Genesis 9:24 callsHam the youngest,[8] and Genesis 10:21 refers ambiguously to Shem as "brother of Japheth the elder", which could mean that either is the eldest.[9] Most modern writers accept Shem–Ham–Japheth as reflecting their birth order, but this is not always the case: Moses and Rachel also appear at the head of such lists despite explicit descriptions of them as younger siblings.[10] However, Japheth is considered to have been the eldest son of Noah inRabbinic literature.[1]
Following the Flood, Japheth is featured in the story ofNoah's drunkenness.[1] Ham sees Noah drunk and naked in his tent and tells his brothers, who then cover their father with a cloak while avoiding the sight;when Noah awakes he curses Canaan, the son of Ham, and blesses Shem and Japheth:[1] "Blessed be the Lord God of Shem andmay Canaan be his slave; and may God enlarge Japheth and may he dwell in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave!"[11] Chapter 10 of Genesis, theTable of Nations, describes how earth was populated by the sons of Noah following the Flood, beginning with the descendants of Japheth:
| Japheth | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gomer | Magog | Madai | Javan | Tubal | Meshech | Tiras | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ashkenaz | Riphath | Togarmah | Elishah | Tarshish | Kittim | Dodanim | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japheth is mentioned as one of the threesons of Noah in theBook of Genesis. The other two sons ofNoah,Shem andHam, are the eponymous ancestors of theSemites and theHamites, respectively. In the BiblicalTable of Nations (GenesisGenesis 10:2–5), seven sons and seven grandsons of Japheth are mentioned:
The intended ethnic identity of these "descendants of Japheth" is not certain; however, over history, they have been identified byBiblical scholars with various historical nations who were deemed to be descendants of Japheth and his sons — a practice dating back at least to the classical Jewish-Greek encounters. According to the Roman–Jewish historianFlavius Josephus inAntiquities of the Jews, I.VI.122 (Whiston):
Japhet, the son of Noah, had seven sons: they inhabited so, that, beginning at the mountainsTaurus andAmanus, they proceeded along Asia, as far as the riverTanais (Don), and along Europe toCadiz; and settling themselves on the lands which they light upon, which none had inhabited before, they called the nations by their own names.
Japheth (inHebrew:Yā́p̄eṯ orYép̄eṯ) may be a transliteration of the GreekIapetos, the ancestor of theHellenic peoples.[12][13] His sons and grandsons associate him with the geographic area comprising theAegean Sea,Greece, theCaucasus, andAnatolia:Ionia/Javan,Rhodes/Rodanim,Cyprus/Kittim, and other places in theEastern Mediterranean region.[13][14] The point of the "blessing of Japheth" seems to be that Japheth (aGreek-descended people) andShem (theIsraelites) would rule jointly overCanaan (Palestine).
From the 19th century until the late 20th century, it was usual to see Japheth as a reference to thePhilistines, who shared dominion over Canaan during the pre-monarchic andearly monarchic period of Israel and Judah.[15] This view accorded with the understanding of the origin of the Book of Genesis, which was seen as having been composed in stages beginning with the time ofKingSolomon, when the Philistines still existed (they vanished from history after theAssyrianconquest of Canaan). However, Genesis 10:14 identifies their ancestor asHam rather than Japheth.[12]
An ancient, relatively obscure text known asPseudo-Philo and thought to have been originally written ca. 70 AD, contains an expanded genealogy that is seemingly garbled from that of the Book of Genesis, and also different from the much later one found in the 17th-century Rabbinic textSefer haYashar ("Book of Jasher"):[16]
Some of the nations that various later writers (includingJerome andIsidore of Seville, as well as other traditional accounts) have attempted to describe as Japhetites are listed below:
TheSefer haYashar ("Book of Jasher"), written byTalmudicrabbis in the 17th century (first printed in 1625), ostensibly based on an earlier edition of 1552, provides some new names for Japheth's grandchildren:
The term "Caucasian" as a racial label forEuropeans derives in part from the assumption that the tribe of Japheth developed its distinctive racial characteristics in theCaucasus area, having migrated there fromMount Ararat before populating theEuropean continent.[2] TheGeorgian historian and linguistIvane Javakhishvili associated Japheth's sons with certain ancient tribes, calledTubals (Tabals, in Greek:Tibarenoi) andMeshechs (Meshekhs/Mosokhs, in Greek:Moschoi), who claimed to represent non-Indo-European and non-Semitic, possibly "Proto-Iberian" tribes that inhabitedAnatolia during the3rd-1st millennia BC.[4] This theory influenced the use of the termJaphetic in the linguistic theories ofNikolai Marr (see below).
During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Biblical statement attributed to Noah that "God shall enlarge Japheth" (Genesis 9:27) was used by some Christian preachers[23] as a justification for the "enlargement" of European territories throughimperialism, which they interpreted as part of God's plan for the world.[24] The subjugation of Africans was similarly justified by thecurse of Ham.[24]
The termJaphetic was also applied by philologists such asWilliam Jones,Rasmus Rask, and others to what is now known as theIndo-European language group. The term was used in a different sense by theSoviet linguistNicholas Marr, in hisJaphetic theory, which was intended to demonstrate that the languages of the Caucasus formed part of a once-widespread pre-Indo-European language group.