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Japheth

JAPHETH (Heb. יֶפֶת), son of Noah, brother of *Shem and *Ham. In all the lists of Noah's sons, Japheth invariably appears in the third place (Gen. 5:32; 6:10; 7:13; 9:18; 10:1; I Chron. 1:4). However, on one occasion Ham is called the "youngest son" of Noah (Gen. 9:24). If this is not to be explained as the result of a corruption in the text, it must reflect a variant tradition, unless some principle other than chronological governs the order of the listings. Japheth was married before the *flood (7:13), which he survived, together with his family, inside the ark. When his intoxicated father lay naked in the tent, Japheth, together with Shem, displayed great modesty and delicacy in covering him up (9:23). For this act he was blessed by Noah as follows: "May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem; And let Canaan be a slave to them" (9:27). The full meaning of this passage is obscure, and it has been variously interpreted as referring to either a Philistine-Israelite alliance against Canaanites (perhaps in Davidic times) or the future participation of the Japhethites – perhaps the Greeks – in the religion of Israel. In the Table of Nations (see The Seventy *Nations) Japheth is assigned seven sons and seven grandsons (Gen. 10:2–4; I Chron. 1:5–7). He is thus portrayed as the eponymous ancestor of various ethnic groups living to the west and north of Israel in the Aegean and Anatolian areas, largely composed of Indo-European stock. The origin of the name Japheth is unclear. The blessing referred to above implies a folk etymology grounded in a Hebrew root meaning "to enlarge," "make spacious." It has variously been connected with the Greek Titan, Ιαπετός (cf. Javan = Ionia, Gen. 10:2), and with Kafti, the Egyptian name for the Eteo-Creteans.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

A.H. Sayce, Races of the Old Testament (1891), 39–50; J. Simons, in: OTS, 10 (1954), 155–84; L. Hicks, in: IDB, 2 (1962), 802 (incl. bibl.); A. Reubeni, Ammei Kedem (1970), 162–84; Ginzberg, Legends, 1 (1961), 169–70; 5 (1955), 179–80, 192; 6 (1959), 459; I. Ḥasida, Ishei ha-Tanakh, 222.


Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.