The sixteen grandsons of Noah

[KimberlyAA]

The seven sons of Japheth

Genesis 10:1–2 reads:

‘Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood. The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.’

​

The first of Noah’s grandsons mentioned is Gomer. Ezekiel locates the early descendants of Gomer, along with Togarmah (a son of Gomer), in the north quarters (Ezekiel 38:6). In modern Turkey is an area which in New Testament times was called Galatia. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus records that the people who were called Galatians or Gauls in his day (c. AD 93) were previously called Gomerites.1

They migrated westward to what are now called France and Spain. For many centuries France was called Gaul, after the descendants of Gomer. North-west Spain is called Galicia to this day.

Some of the Gomerites migrated further to what is now called Wales. The Welsh historian, Davis, records a traditional Welsh belief that the descendants of Gomer ‘landed on the Isle of Britain from France, about three hundred years after the flood’.2 He also records that the Welsh language is called Gomeraeg (after their ancestor Gomer).

Other members of their clan settled along the way, including in Armenia. The sons of Gomer were ‘Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah’ (Genesis 10:3). Encyclopaedia Britannica says that the Armenians traditionally claim to be descended from Togarmah and Ashkenaz.3 Ancient Armenia reached into Turkey. The name Turkey probably comes from Togarmah. Others of them migrated to Germany. Ashkenaz is the Hebrew word for Germany.

The next grandson mentioned is Magog. According to Ezekiel, Magog lived in the north parts (Ezekiel 38:15, 39:2). Josephus records that those whom he called Magogites, the Greeks called Scythians.1 According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, the ancient name for the region which now includes part of Romania and the Ukraine was Scythia.4

The next grandson is Madai. Along with Shem’s son Elam, Madai is the ancestor of our modern-day Iranians. Josephus says that the descendants of Madai were called Medes by the Greeks.1 Every time the Medes are mentioned in the Old Testament, the word used is the Hebrew word Madai (maday). After the time of Cyrus, the Medes are always (with one exception) mentioned along with the Persians. They became one kingdom with one law—‘the law of the Medes and Persians’ (Daniel 6:8, 12, 15). Later they were simply called Persians. Since 1935 they have called their country Iran. The Medes also ‘settled India’.5

The name of the next grandson, Javan, is the Hebrew word for Greece. Greece, Grecia, or Grecians appears five times in the Old Testament, and is always the Hebrew word Javan. Daniel refers to ‘the king of Grecia’ (Daniel 8:21), literally ‘the king of Javan’. Javan’s sons were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim (Genesis 10:4), all of whom have connections with the Greek people. The Elysians (an ancient Greek people) obviously received their name from Elishah. Tarshish or Tarsus was located in the region of Cilicia (modern Turkey).

Encyclopaedia Britannica says that Kittim is the biblical name for Cyprus.6 The people who initially settled around the area of Troy worshipped Jupiter under the name of Jupiter Dodonaeus, possibly a reference to the fourth son of Javan, with Jupiter a derivative of Japheth. His oracle was at Dodena. The Greeks worshipped this god but called him Zeus.

Next is Tubal. Ezekiel mentions him along with Gog and Meshech (Ezekiel 39:1). Tiglath-pileser I, king of Assyria in about 1100 BC, refers to the descendants of Tubal as the Tabali. Josephus recorded their name as the Thobelites, who were later known as Iberes.1

‘Their land, in Josephus’ day, was called by the Romans Iberia, and covered what is now (the former Soviet State of) Georgia whose capital to this day bears the name Tubal as Tbilisi. From here, having crossed the Caucasus mountains, this people migrated due north-east, giving their tribal name to the river Tobol, and hence to the famous city of Tobolsk.’7

Meshech, the name of the next grandson, is the ancient name for Moscow. Moscow is both the capital of Russia, and the region that surrounds the city. To this day, one section, the Meschera Lowland, still carries the name of Meshech, virtually unchanged by the ages.

According to Josephus, the descendants of grandson Tiras were called Thirasians. The Greeks changed their name to Thracians.1 Thrace reached from Macedonia on the south to the Danube River on the north to the Black Sea on the east. It took in much of what became Yugoslavia. World Book Encyclopaedia says: ‘The people of Thrace were savage Indo-Europeans, who liked warfare and looting.’8 Tiras was worshipped by his descendants as Thuras, or Thor, the god of thunder.

The four sons of Ham

Next we come to the sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan (Genesis 10:6).

The descendants of Ham live mainly in south-west Asia and Africa. The Bible often refers to Africa as the land of Ham (Psalms 105:23,27; 106:22). The name of Noah’s grandson Cush is the Hebrew word for old Ethiopia (from Aswan south to Khartoum). Without exception, the word Ethiopia in the English Bible is always a translation of the Hebrew word Cush. Josephus rendered the name as Chus, and says that the Ethiopians ‘are even at this day, both by themselves and by all men in Asia, called Chusites’.9

Noah’s next grandson mentioned was Mizraim. Mizraim is the Hebrew word for Egypt. The name Egypt appears hundreds of times in the Old Testament and (with one exception) is always a translation of the word Mizraim. E.g. at the burial of Jacob, the Canaanites observed the mourning of the Egyptians and so called the place Abel Mizraim (Genesis 50:11).

Phut, the name of Noah’s next grandson is the Hebrew name for Libya. It is so translated three times in the Old Testament. The ancient river Phut was in Libya. By Daniel’s day, the name had been changed to Libya (Daniel 11:43). Josephus says, ‘Phut also was the founder of Libia [sic], and called the inhabitants Phutites, from himself’.9

Canaan, the name of Noah’s next grandson, is the Hebrew name for the general region later called by the Romans Palestine, i.e. modern Israel and Jordan. Here we should look briefly at a few of the descendants of Ham (Genesis 10:14–18). There is Philistim, obviously the ancestor of the Philistines (clearly giving rise to the name Palestine [ed. note: but see Origins of the word “Palestine”, 2011]), and Sidon, the founder of the ancient city that bears his name, and Heth, the patriarch of the ancient Hittite empire. Also, this descendant is listed in Genesis 10:15–18 as being the ancestor of the Jebusites (Jebus was the ancient name for Jerusalem—Judges 19:10), the Amorites, the Girgasites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites, ancient peoples who lived in the land of Canaan.

The most prominent descendant of Ham was Nimrod, the founder of Babel (Babylon), as well as of Erech, Accad and Calneh in Shinar (Babylonia).

(Cont'd below)

 

[KimberlyAA]

The five sons of Shem

Last we come to the sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram (Genesis 10:22).

Elam is the ancient name for Persia, which is itself the ancient name for Iran. Until the time of Cyrus the people here were called Elamites, and they were still often called that even in New Testament times. In Acts 2:9, the Jews from Persia who were present at Pentecost were called Elamites. The Persians are thus descended from both Elam, the son of Shem, and from Madai, the son of Japheth (see above). Since the 1930s they have called their country Iran.

It is interesting to note that the word ‘Aryan’, which so fascinated Adolf Hitler, is a form of the word ‘Iran’. Hitler wanted to produce a pure Aryan ‘race’ of supermen. But the very term ‘Aryan’ signifies a mixed line of Semites and Japhethites!

Asshur is the Hebrew word for Assyria. Assyria was one of the great ancient empires. Every time the words Assyria or Assyrian appear in the Old Testament, they are translated from the word Asshur. He was worshipped by his descendants.

Indeed, as long as Assyria lasted, that is until 612 BC, accounts of battles, diplomatic affairs and foreign bulletins were daily read out to his image; and every Assyrian king held that he wore the crown only with the express permission of Asshur’s deified ghost.’10

Arphaxad was the progenitor of the Chaldeans. This ‘is confirmed by the Hurrian (Nuzi) tablets, which render the name as Arip-hurra—the founder of Chaldea.’11 His descendant, Eber, gave his name to the Hebrew people via the line of Eber-Peleg-Reu-Serug-Nahor-Terah-Abram (Genesis 11:16–26). Eber’s other son, Joktan, had 13 sons (Genesis 10:26–30), all of whom appear to have settled in Arabia.12

Lud was the ancestor of the Lydians. Lydia was in what is now Western Turkey. Their capital was Sardis—one of the seven churches of Asia was at Sardis (Revelation 3:1).

Aram is the Hebrew word for Syria. Whenever the word Syria appears in the Old Testament it is a translation of the word Aram. The Syrians call themselves Arameans, and their language is called Aramaic. Before the spread of the Greek Empire, Aramaic was the international language (2 Kings 18:26 ff). On the cross, when Jesus cried out, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani’ (Mark 15:34),13 He was speaking Aramaic, the language of the common people.

 

[miamited]

Hi Kim,

Thank you so very much for that well worked out study. The establishment of the 'tribes' (descendents) of the children of Adam and then the children of Noah has been a fascination of mine. I have also often wondered how the Americas came to be established. Do you have any research on the when and where of the establishment of the tribes on these two continents?

I, as I suspect you also, am a young earth creationist and understand that all of this nomadic wandering to establish these tribes and peoples all over the earth had to have happened within the last 4-5 thousand years. So, I'm just curious to know, based on that understanding of the time of the settlement of all the earth, how and when did people of these tribes come over and begin settling the Americas?

God bless you and I look forward to hearing from you.
In Christ, Ted

 

[KimberlyAA]

Hi Kim,

Thank you so very much for that well worked out study. The establishment of the 'tribes' (descendents) of the children of Adam and then the children of Noah has been a fascination of mine. I have also often wondered how the Americas came to be established. Do you have any research on the when and where of the establishment of the tribes on these two continents?

I, as I suspect you also, am a young earth creationist and understand that all of this nomadic wandering to establish these tribes and peoples all over the earth had to have happened within the last 4-5 thousand years. So, I'm just curious to know, based on that understanding of the time of the settlement of all the earth, how and when did people of these tribes come over and begin settling the Americas?

God bless you and I look forward to hearing from you.
In Christ, Ted

You're welcome, however, the credit is due to Pastor Harold Hunt and Chemist Russell Grigg who conducted research on this and posted an article with all the details. This has also been a fascination of mine because I have always been interested in learning who my ancestors were. I don't have much info. on when, where and how the various indigenous peoples settled the Americas but I will post what little I've gathered :

It has been assumed that a fairly
advanced Paleo-Indian culture, the
Clovis people, rounded the Bering land
bridge during the Ice Age and passed
by land through the ice-free corridor
into the United States, Central America

and South America.1

Although the
timing of this migration is disputed,
most researchers would place this
migration at about 11,000 years ago
within the uniformitarian geological​

time scale.2

However, the above scenario is being
challenged on several fronts, one
of which is a report by Chlachula and
Leslie of ‘Old World Early Paleolithic
tools’ near Peace River and Calgary,
Alberta, Canada.3,4 The ‘stone artefacts’
consist of various quartzite cobbles
and flakes that presumably have
been worked by man into choppers.5

Drawings of the stones show them as
freshly chipped tools. But photographs

show that the broken parts of the rocks
have a rough, weathered look and do
not even look like ‘tools’. (Interestingly,
the stone tools are usually illustrated
with artistic drawings that
show a man-made, fresh appearance.
Photographs of the stones are rarely
shown.) The ‘tools’ are similar to tools
from the Lower Paleolithic industries
from Pleistocene
Eurasia6 and to the
‘Oldowan industry’ from the Oldovai​

Gorge, east-central Africa.

How strong is this evidence that
Lower Paleolithic people rounded
the Bering land bridge during an interglacial
or interstadial7 and entered the
United States? Are the ‘tools’ really
human artefacts or are they geofacts
​

(fashioned by geology)?

Chlachula and Leslie admit that
​

some of the previously defined

cultural
attributes of these ‘tools’ could
occasionally
develop naturally on

fractured quartzose rocks, especially in

glacial settings.8 Yet, they dismiss this
possibility because the cobbles are all
of similar size, display a regularity of

flaking, and are similar to other ‘tools’
​

found elsewhere in the world.9

Some archaeologists are skeptical
​

that the stones are indeed ‘tools’.

Chlachula and Leslie attempt to

counter such skepticism:

‘Assumptions that ice can generate
artefact-looking “geofacts”
in large numbers reflect either a
lack of familiarity with “pebble
tool” stone industries and (or) a
limited understanding
of glacial
dynamics and related ice-marginal
depositional​

processes.’ 8

​

Native American people in the Americas have similar creation stories handed down from their ancestors. I thought this was also interesting.

“My name is Percy Bullchild. I’m sixty-seven years of age. I’m a Blackfeet Indian from Browning, Montana. With what little education I have I am going to try to write the version of our own true ways in our history and in our legends … ”

So starts The Sun Came Down, a retelling of the Blackfeet1 tribe’s history. What was Percy’s motivation for writing these stories down? “Most written history of us Indians … has been written by non-Indians … . Most of these are so false and smearing that it gets me very mad.”2“But this is our history and our legends of our beginnings, the very beginning of all life … ”3
Percy describes his people’s beginnings like this:

“This story is about a lone spirit that lived in this spiritual place before there was a world of any kind of life … He has been alive from ever and will continue to live forever … Life is given to all of us humans and to all the creations of the earth … ”4​

The Blackfeet describe the Creator God as “Creator Sun”, who’s first living beings were snakes that rebelled against their creator and were punished for their transgressions. He then decided to make “ … something that will look like my image.”5 This creation was a woman (Creator Sun’s wife), animated when, “He had blown in the nostrils of the mud figure, which gave it life”.6
This woman was looking for food one day when she was tempted by a “snakeman” who told her a half-truth7 and caused her to betray her husband. The Creator “ … knew what was going on … but, as always, he is so forgiving to all his creations.”

“Nevertheless, all of us are to pay for whatever sins we commit … ”

​

“From the mud Creator Sun molded a form in his own shape, his own image … This mud figure came to life as Creator Sun blew into his nostrils.8
“ … he wanted to do for the mudman … Some way to help him overcome that loneliness. Using that strange power, Creator Sun put the mudman into a deeper sleep so he wouldn’t know what was going on.
“Kneeling down beside him, Creator Sun took out the mudman’s lowest, smallest left rib. With this rib he made an image after the mudman and himself … To bear fruit, to bear offspring.”

​

​

 

[Bumble Bee]

Kimberly, thank you for your study. It is refreshing to see someone so young (not that you are much younger than me) interested in Biblical history. It has always been a favorite of mine, and I'm glad to know that I'm not alone

Your history of Noah's grandsons really does intrigue me. What sources have you used to find your information?

As for your blackfoot creation story, that really made me feel at home. My best friend is Blackfoot, and I attended the Native American Bible Study (so named because it was geared toward the tribal members) with her. There was also a man in Alaska that was a prophet for his tribe. I will try to dig up some of their stories for you. They have told so many and I lose track and mix them up.

 

[pshun2404]

Wow! Really good Kimberly...

How about the curious relationship between the various flood accounts from around the world found through our Anthropological and archaeological studies that help confirm this material. Canadian researcher Dr. Arthur Custance, a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute has said indisputably:

“All 200 some odd Anthropologically recognized flood accounts around the world agree on four points.”

a) In all but the Egyptian, the cause is moral, it is alleged to be a judgment on mankind,

b) Only one man is warned, and saves his family, and/or his closest friends,

c) The world was depopulated, except for a handful of people who alone re-populated the entire world,

d) and animals always play a role!

Dr. Custance says, “In extra-biblical accounts, the survivors always land on a local mountain. In the Hebrew account, the Ark lands far away from Palestine in a distant country of which the Hebrew people of the time had no firsthand knowledge. This is an unusual circumstance…this circumstance surely suggests that here in the Bible we have the genuine account“.

Let me give some of them in replies to follow

Paul

 

[pshun2404]

There are three versions just from ancient China that I have had the pleasure to hear about!! These are the legends of Fah Le, Nu Wah, and Yah Hu. In the legend of Fah Le, the only survivors of the world wide flood are a man and his wife and their three sons, exactly as in the Biblical account only minus the mention of the three son’s wives (although in this culture they may have been considered insignificant detail).

In story of Nu-Wah (sound like Noah?), eight people built a huge boat and survived a great flood. In the Biblical account again there are exactly eight survivors. The ancient Chinese character for boat that is found in this account (one of the oldest Chinese words we have record of), is a sign that is the shape of a boat, surrounded by eight mouths.
In the story of Yah Hu, Yah Hu and his friends land on top of a local mountain. In this story however, we have an additional element. Yah Hu declares that when they exited the craft, the Sun now rose and set in another direction from that which it traveled before they entered the craft (borrowed from Immanuel Veilokovsky’s, Worlds in Collision). All of these legends are very old, and go way back, long before the Chinese ever saw or heard that there even was such a thing as Christians or the Bible.

These are much like the Native American tales of the great flood. Again all varieties of flood legend were on the American continent before any Christian or Jewish person ever set foot on the land. From centuries before any Native American ever heard of a Bible, the Native American versions speak of some sort of craft, often a raft or a large canoe, and animals are always brought on board so as to protect and preserve them, and the raft or canoe always lands on a local mountain.

Not long ago some Archaeologists digging around the remains of the ancient area of Phrygia found a coin. On one side of the coin is a huge box-like craft named “Noe“, and on the other side, a man is receiving a returning bird!

In most of the traditions of faraway places, we have definite history of oral transmission throughout the generations. Local colorings help fill in missing pieces, and in some tribes there are colorful metaphors, and allegories, such as one might add to a story to make it more palatable to children. For example in one legend a great giant turtle carries them all through the flood to safety.

One rather strange coincidence has been pointed out. In all these accounts, save the one in Genesis, the mountains are always fairly close to the Hero's home, which this author believes is reminiscent of the time before the land was divided when the story had been passed down for only a couple of generations and most people were still fairly close to great-grandpa Noah’s mountain, but of course this is just fun conjecture on my part and not at all established fact.

 

[pshun2404]

In most other cultures, older versions vary slightly from more modern adaptations, which is what we would expect, but in the story as written by Noah, or perhaps it was written down by one of his sons, the story has gone on unchanged allegedly since the time immediately following the event. In fact, only in the Bible do we have a consistently unchanged, and even dated, written record of times, places, peoples, and events, since at least the time of Moses. It is precisely this specificity that drives the skeptics crazy and causes them to strive so hard to refute it. If this were any other history, written by any other author than Moses, it would probably never have been so fiercely denied.

In the flood legend as told by the Alaskan Kolushes, we hear that once the father of all tribes on the face of the Earth (which Noah would be if the legend is true) was told in a dream, that the world would be entirely flooded. He builds a huge raft for his family, and takes all the animals on board with them. We are told in the legend that the waters didn’t recede for many months.

Then there is the Toltec tradition told by Native Mexican historian Ixtilochitl which records a time when the first world was destroyed by a great thunderous rain. It reports that even the tops of the mountains were covered with water. The only survivors were those who had floated around for months in a large closed box. The story then goes on to tell us, that some of the people in the following generations (Biblically Nimrod's time) built a Tower of Refuge (we call it Babel) to save them from the possibility of subsequent destruction. Their languages became confused in this generation. 14 individuals, male and female (7 pairs of twos, that could communicate with each other), set out from the others to find a new home (as I am sure other groups likewise did). This band traveled through all kinds of seas, and forests, and mountains, until finally they settled in the place we now call Mexico. According to legend, the entire journey took 104 years and by the time they arrived they were a clan or tribe.

Likewise from the perspective of Babel looking back to a flood time we see that Cuneiformist Oliver Garney translated a Sumerian Tablet found by Archaeologists Spencer and Kramer that says that originally mankind had one language but the god of Wisdom confounded their speech. The Stele of Ur found by Wooley but not able to be translated until much later (dated to early 3rd millennium) speaks of one King Ur-Nammu who after the flood built a great tower. George Smith later found a clay tablet in the same site (a little farther down) that being translated said, the kings tower had offended the gods who threw down what was built and scattered the people abroad making their language strange to one another, and R. W. Williamson’s Religions and Cosmic Beliefs of Central Polynesia speaks of the Hoa peoples who claim one of the gods saw the people building this giant building to heaven so he chased them all away, broke down the building and changed their languages so they all spoke in different tongues

 

[pshun2404]

In the Hindu tradition, we have one of the stories of Manu (Noah), which was probably transmitted by the Aryans who came from the Tigris Euphrates area to the Indus Valley bringing the Vedas. In this version, Manu was warned that the Earth would be destroyed by a great flood, and received instruction on how to build a huge ship. He gathered all kinds of seeds for his arduous journey (Hindus are traditionally vegetarian). Manu, called “the Salyu“, meaning “the Righteous”, was one of the eight Rishi’s, or holy ones, that were saved on the ship from the violence of the flood (again we have confirmation of only eight souls saved).

After the ship came to rest on the top of the mountains, Manu planted a vineyard and eventually got drunk (exactly as the Biblical narrative depicts). One of his sons, Charma (our Ham) exposed his shame, the other two covered their father, walking backwards (Shem and Japheth), so as to not look upon his nakedness. Later, Manu curses his son Charma (just as Noah did) for what has happened, then he and his wife, and his three sons and their wives, set out to re-populate the entire world.

Now last, but in no wise least, I want you to hear History as recorded by the Chaldean Priest Berosus from the 3rd or 4th century B.C.! Berosus records, that the god Chronos (the Father of all time), appeared to the tenth king, in the succession of the kings of all the Earth named Xisuthras (our Noah). Mostly all cultures, the Akkadian and Summerian included, list ten kings to their Noah, some others only eight! So any way, Chronos tells the goodly king to build a giant boat. So Xisuthras builds a boat big enough to house his family and friends. Animals are on the boat with them. In order to determine the end of their ordeal, Xisuthras releases a series of birds. Finally, the last bird does not return, and the boat comes to rest on the Gordyan mountains of Armenia (what we now call the Mountains of Ararat).

Paul

 

[Pastor J Dog]

yo whatsup interesting...hmmm... well american indians are only called indians because they reminded the colonizers of the asian indians, just called indians.

if you compare the south americans with many south african mixed raced peoples, and even north american black-white or black-white-asian or black-white-indian peoples, they do not look that different. not really.

it would probably be more realistic to say that primitive euro-afro-eastern tribes migrated (asian along with eastern and euro, as they had very powerful dictators).

and middle east is the focal point of history. still is today.

 

[dana b]

Here is a map form showing the locations of the grandsons of Noah. Eventually this is how the three great religions of Eurasia(the earth) came about. There are many many correspondences that confirm these ideas.

 

[dana b]

 

[dana b]

 

[dana b]

 

[dana b]

 

[dana b]

 

[dana b]

The Bible actually tells us who and how the great religions of Eurasia were founded. One only has to look positively. And as you see more, more opens up to you. Soon you see it all and your searching is finished. This is possible because today we have passed the year 2000AD and the book is "unsealed."