Table of Contents
Japheth is the son of Noah who rarely gets his own story. Shem has the line to Abraham and Ham has the curse, while Japheth stands in the background holding a garment. Yet when I followed his name through the site, he kept leading somewhere: to Europe, to the Aryans, to Ireland, to the Philistines and, in Donnelly’s reading, back to Atlantis. These are the pages where he appears.
One of three sons
Genesis introduces him in a single line, repeated on Genesis 6:
And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Genesis 6:10 (KJV)
He enters the ark with his brothers and their wives on Genesis 7. Noah’s Family gives the name of his wife from the Book of Jubilees: ‘Adataneses. On Ham the best known scene is retold: Ham sees his father drunk and uncovered, and Shem and Japheth walk backward into the tent to cover Noah without looking.
The blessing
Noah’s answer, quoted on Canaanites, curses Canaan and blesses the two brothers who covered him:
God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
Genesis 9:27 (KJV)
The scene itself is on Genesis 9, where this part of the chapter is marked as a likely later addition, based on its writing style.
The sons of Japheth
Genesis 10 gives him seven sons. The Hierarchy of YHWH lists them as Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras. Genesis 10 notes that Japheth is traditionally seen as the ancestor of the Indo-European peoples, among them the Greeks through Javan and the Medes through Madai. On The Island Tarshish, Tarshish is a son of Javan, which makes the port Jonah sailed for part of Japheth’s line.
Basque Myths picks up Tubal and records the later tradition that Noah divided the continents, giving Asia to Shem, Africa to Ham and Europe to Japheth. The Irish annals go through Magog. The Irish Colonies from Atlantis says Partholan’s people, the Nemedians, the Fir-Bolgs, the Tuatha-de-Dananns and the Milesians all descended from two brothers, sons of Magog, son of Japheth. Genesis 7 adds the Armenian story of Hayk, a descendant of Japheth who revolted against Bel.
Japheth and Atlantis
Ignatius Donnelly asks the question directly on The Aryan and Japhetic Colonies:
If the Aryans are the Japhetic race, and if Japheth was one of the sons of the patriarch who escaped from the Deluge, then assuredly, if the tradition of Genesis be true, the Aryans came from the drowned land, to wit, Atlantis.
Ignatius Donnelly, Atlantis: The Antediluvian World
On The Kings of Atlantis become the Gods of the Greeks Donnelly cites older scholars who thought the partition of the world among Shem, Ham and Japheth was the origin of the same partition among Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto.
Jim Marrs sends Japheth east instead. On Sumer, the first known civilization he writes that Japheth’s people were transported to the Indus Valley, “possibly becoming the mysterious Aryans who suddenly appeared there in ancient times.”
Giants, kings and kingdoms
The Sea Peoples and the Philistines notes that the Bible suggests the Philistines descended from Japheth, with a mixed heritage that also runs through Ham. In the Rob Skiba video Moses said the post-flood Nephilim came from other Nephilim, Shem’s line carries no giants, but Japheth’s descendants Gog and Magog have historical references to giants. In the Apocalypse of Adam, on Adam and Eve were created by the god Sakla, Noah divides the Earth among his sons and the seed of Ham and Japheth forms twelve kingdoms.
Related pages
- Noah’s Family
- Ham
- Genesis 9
- Genesis 10 – Noah’s offspring
- The Aryan and Japhetic Colonies
- The Irish Colonies from Atlantis
- Basque Myths
- The Sea Peoples and the Philistines
- The Island Tarshish
For every page I tagged with Japheth, see the Japheth tag archive.
