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JAPHETH

(Heb. yepeṯ, yāpeṯ; Gk. Iápheth)

1. One of the three sons of Noah, apparently the youngest since he is usually named last (although in the Table of Nations his line of descent is given first; Gen. 10; 1 Chr. 1:1-17). The derivation of the name is uncertain, but Heb. pth, “to be spacious,” has been suggested (cf. Gen. 9:27). After the Flood, Japheth and his brother Shem walk backward into the tent of their sleeping father to cover his nakedness, which their elder brother Ham had seen; for their discretion they are blessed by Noah (Gen. 9:20-27).

In the Table of Nations seven sons and seven grandsons of Japheth are named, though they are names of peoples rather than individuals. They inhabit the region extending along the northern reaches of the entire Fertile Crescent and westward above the Mediterranean Sea. Some are readily identifiable: Madai is the Medes in ancient Iran; Ashkenaz probably refers to the Scythians in the region of the Caucasus Mountains; Gomer is the Cimmerians, who inhabited northern Anatolia; Tiras has been variously identified with Thrace or with the Etruscans; Tarshish may refer to Tartessus in Spain (cf. John 1:3); Kittim points to Cyprus or possibly Crete; and Rodanim (a correction from MT “Dodanim,” based on the LXX, Samaritan Pentateuch, and Hebrew manuscripts) appears to be Rhodes.

Recent studies have associated the names of Japheth’s descendants with ethnic names known from Anatolia and more widely in Mediterranean regions in the 7th and early 6th centuries b.c.e.

Jeffrey S. Rogers

2. A region N of Arabia, perhaps in Asia Minor, where Holofernes surrounded and routed the Midianites (Jdt. 2:25).

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JAPHETH

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)