The Table of Nations; Japheth; Gen. 10:1-4
In the episode of the last part of Genesis chapter
nine Noah plants a vineyard, v. 20. He drinks the wine and he gets drunk. There
have been many people who have taught that what happened here was something
that surprised Noah. But that is an attempt to try to justify a more positive
view of Noah. Every time we look at Old Testament characters that are listed in
the New Testament we need to realize that the Old Testament gives both good and
bad, and throughout the book of Genesis we see these characters start off good
and end up revealing a certain corruption in their character. This is not just
to denigrate them but the writer is making a point that this is the result of sin,
and that sin corrupts everyone. So Noah is presented here as getting involved
in the sin of drunkenness. But the focus isn’t on Noah; it is really on Canaan.
This is emphasized by the fact that twice the writer says, “Ham the father of
Canaan.” Then the curse on Canaan in v. 25 drives our attention on what is
happening in relationship to this curse on Canaan.
The phrase that Noah uncovered
himself indicates what the key issue is in this whole thing. The allegation is that
it was some kind of sexual sin that Ham commits toward Noah, because it says
that Noah awoke and knew what his younger son had done to him. But the point is
that the verb used in v. 21 is the hithpael stem of the verb, which means to
uncover or to lay bare. The hithpael stem is a reflexive stem, so this is
accurately translated he “uncovered himself.” Then in v. 22 Ham, the father of
Canaan saw the nakedness of his father. The phrase “saw the nakedness”
expresses Ham’s action. The phrase in the Hebrew comprises the verb to see in
the perfect tense, indicating past action [he saw], and nakedness is what he
saw. In Leviticus chapters eighteen and twenty there are numerous statements
describing the sexual sins and perversions of the Canaanites. In all of those
passages there is a different phrase. In Genesis there is the phrase to look
upon or to see and a phrase in Leviticus 18:19 is a parallelism. Some people
say that this shows that seeing the nakedness is the same as uncovering the
nakedness. No it is not. The key controlling thought in the Leviticus passages
is different and has to do with sexual perversion. So it is an extremely weak
argument to say that to see the nakedness implies some sort of sexual sin. We
have to remember that nakedness in the ancient world represented a loss of
human dignity and to look upon someone in such a state of vulnerability was a
sign of a lack of respect, a lack of personal dignity, and they had the person
in a position where they lacked protection and were vulnerable. It was
considered and extreme cultural sin to do that. What Ham did shows a moral
flaw, and so this represents the first stage in the process of abandoning the
moral code that has been stated in the Noahic covenant. It is already breaking
down. Ham’s lack of respect for his father represents the first stage in this
abandonment. What happens is that Noah in his perceptiveness of what is going
on with his sons recognizes that Ham’s problem is already evident in the
behavior of his son, Canaan, and he prophesies that this will lead to a
complete breakdown of sexual morality among the descendants of Canaan. So he
pronounces a curse upon Canaan, that because of his lack of self-discipline in
this area of sexual sin it will lead to servitude of those people. Eventually
the Canaanites were also related to the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians who
are all destroyed by others. The Canaanites were wiped out by the Jews, the
Phoenicians eventually disappear from history, and the Carthaginians are also
wiped out by Rome. So it is ultimately fulfilled that Canaan goes into
servitude to his brethren.
The blessing is on Shem and the
blessing is related to their spiritual environment, and this works itself out
in the descendants of Shem, which will be given in chapters 10 and 11 and
culminates in Abraham. It is through Abraham that God will call out a new
people and through whom the Messiah will come. So the spiritual blessing is
through Shem who is positive to doctrine, positive to the Lord, and it is
specifically stated again that Canaan will be his servant. Then in verse 27 is
the blessing, “God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of
Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.” The Hebrew word for “enlarge”—it
is a play on words—means to expand. Throughout history you see this
expansion and exploration of Japhethic tribes. The expanded north into Russia
and then westward, but eventually the new world was expanded and settled by
descendants of Japheth, and then they have gone out under the British and then
the Americans and many of the Europeans in the 18th and 19th
centuries, and established colonies and basically controlled most of the
commerce on the face of the earth. The idea that Japheth may dwell in the tents
of Shem is the fact that most Japheth’s descendants are going to come under the
umbrella, as it were, of Christianity and Judaism; that most of western
civilization is going to be influenced by Judeo-Christian values. This is the
idea of dwelling in the tents of Shem, “and Canaan shall be his servant.”
In that curse you have the
recognition that the human race and the history of the human race is going to
follow upon the three different paths related to their progenitors. Every time
we run into the names of the sons of Noah they are listed in this order: Shem,
Ham, and Japheth. And this is what we discover in Genesis chapter 10:1.
Summary
1)
The oracle of
Noah is a capsule of ancient history. It gives us a three-pronged approach to
understanding human history in terms of these three sons of Noah.
2)
The oracle
emphasizes certain characteristics of the three branches of the human race in
relation to cursing and blessing.
3)
We see that
Shem had positive volition toward God. His blessing is in the spiritual
dimension and this is fulfilled ultimately in the person of Christ.
4)
The descendants
of Japheth share in that blessing and their promised geographical expansion.
Verse 1, “Now these are the
generations [record of, toledot] of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them
were sons born after the flood.” This introduces chapter ten extending down
11:9. This is the section that gives us the summary of what happens to the
three sons of Noah.
That brings us to the table of
nations. This is called technically the table of nations and describes all of
the nations and their sources, where they came from in terms of the descendants
of Noah after the flood.
The table of nations
1)
The table is
foundational to understand Israel’s past and future. We have to understand the
framework of this table that has to do with the foundation of Israel. Between
the events of chapter nine and the events of chapter twelve we have these two
genealogically heavy chapters. What is their purpose? Their purpose is to show
the need for God calling out Abraham as the father of a distinct people. So the
table of nations is a very brief run-down to show why that has to happen: that
there is a continued corruption and the Gentiles as a whole fail to obey God,
fail to follow and apply the Noahic covenant, and therefore God is going to quit
working through the human race as a whole and is going to work primarily
through the descendants of Abraham. The purpose for the table is to show
various blood ties, various treaty relationships and alliances, and other
connections between the people who existed at the time that Moses is writing
this. When Moses writes the Pentateuch all of these peoples had been developed
and Israel was getting ready to go into the land. The basic purpose of giving
the table of nations was to give Israel an understanding of how they fit into
the rest of humanity. This not only affects their past historical situation but
will all affect their future condition and ultimately their final estate,
because it is terminology from this table of nations that is used again and again
and again that is used to define certain people groups.
2)
The second
thing we realize from a study of the table of nations is that the Mid-East
conflict is primarily theological and has its roots in these nations. We often
want to pin the Arab-Israeli conflict in Isaac and Ishmael. It also goes back
to Isaac’s sons, Jacob and Esau. But there are numerous Arab tribes that were
descendants of cousins of Abram and it goes back to the table of nations itself
where we see that these various nations rejected God. What creates the
division, the hostility, the warfare, and the conflict in human history? It is
the rejection of God. Everything ultimately has to be traced to a theological
root, to an understanding of who God is, what God is doing in history, man as a
fallen creature, and the consequences of that. So we see that this is
ultimately going back to a breakdown in the first three divine institutions: #
1, human responsibility. We see that at the tower of Babel, they refused to
take responsibility for their actions in terms of expanding, and they gather
together and build the tower in rebellion against God. There is a further
breakdown of responsibility several times in the life of Abraham. This leads to
breakdown in divine institution #2, marriage, when Abraham takes Sarah’s advice
to take Hagar as his wife and raise up the promised child through her. This in
turn breaks down the third divine institution, the family. So again and again
what we see traced through the table of nations and through Abraham and the rest
of Genesis is when the first three divine institutions break down, then it
creates conflict and warfare. And these seemingly innocent acts that take place
early on don’t seem that momentous have consequences that reverberate for
centuries. Noah recognizes that this action that takes place in the tent really
represents certain major character traits that are going to reverberate all the
way down through history. In the same way, this seemingly innocuous act of Esau
selling his birthright for a mess of pottage continues to reverberate through
the headlines of the newspapers every day that we read about the problems in
Israel. So again and again in Genesis the emphasis is on the fact that what may
appear to be events that aren’t that momentous just ripped the fabric of
society in threw ancient world.
3)
Nevertheless,
God is still in control of history. As we go through the table of nations we
see that God controls the affairs of nations. Even though all events and
decisions in human history are freely made by man, in the final analysis every
event in human history is under God’s sovereign will and He is working through
human history to accomplish His purposes in the angelic conflict.
4)
We learn that
the sins of the parents may afflict future generations but only insofar as
those future generations continue to perpetuate those sins. This is found in
Exodus 34:7, and this is called the fourth generation curse. This doesn’t mean
somebody can curse you and it goes down to the fourth generation. It doesn’t
mean that God is going to punish down to the fourth generation those who commit
certain sins, but if a person commits the same sins as his forbears they will.
What the table of nations points out is that there is a genetic tendency to
perpetuate the sins of the parents, grandparents and great grandparents unless
there is a turning to God, positive volition, a change based on Bible doctrine.
That is the only way to reverse this curse.
Basic
observations on the table on nations
1)
Genesis 10:1-11:26
comprise the fourth and fifth toledot sections. (This is what happened to the descendants of) The
fourth toledot
extends from 10:1 to 11:9—the toledot of Noah’s sons (This is what happened
to Shem, Ham, and Japheth). In 11:10-26 we have the toledot of Shem. Notice something: the 4th
one says, “These are the generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth,” and then the 5th
comes back, “These are the generations of Shem.” What is the writer telling us?
What is important here? The Shemites. This is where the focus is going to go,
so it is foreshadowed by repetition of Shem’s descendants. That culminates in
Terah who is the father of Abraham.
2)
The isolation
of Shem as a distinct toledot, after Shem, Ham and Japheth, draws our attention to the
unique role that Shem will play in human history—that is, the descendants
of Shem. Shem is the one who is positive to Yahweh.
3)
The toledot of
Shem, Ham and Japheth focuses on two things: what happens to the descendants of
the three sons and the rebellion at the tower of Babel. In this section, which
is called the table of nations, the Scriptures classify people according to
genetically related plans. They are divided up anthropologically,
linguistically, politically and geographically. The genealogy not only mentions
the names of people but also mentions tribal groups, countries and cities.
4)
Another thing
that is interesting is the order reversals. Up to this point we’ve read the
names of Noah’s sons as Shem, Ham, and Japheth. When the table of nations
begins we don’t we don’t begin with the descendants of Shem, we begin with the
descendants of Japheth. Again, this is the writer drawing our attention to the
fact that he has reversed the order and he is going to end with Shem. That is
the direction he is going in. This draws attention to Shem as the focal point
of the table of nations.
5)
The number of
descendants. Japheth’s descendants number fourteen. Ham’s descendants number
thirty. Shem’s, twenty-six. Add them up and we have seventy. There were 70 that
went into Egypt with Jacob when Joseph was the vice-ruler. This all ties
Genesis together. This shows us that there are internal threads here that give
us great confidence that this is exactly what it claims to be, the Word of God.
One author wrote it; there is an internal cohesion; and it is not just
something cobbled together by different religious people over the centuries,
which is what the liberals charge.
6)
The seventy
nations are said to correspond to the numbers of families in Israel where God
arranged their boundaries according to the number of the
Israelites—Deuteronomy 32:8, “When the Most High divided to the nations
their inheritance, when he separated the sons of man [the division at Babel],
he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.”
7)
The table of
nations also introduces important place names—important geographical
places, cities, and nations.
8)
The writer
shifts between two terms. He starts off talking about “the sons of” and then he
will shift and use the phrase, so and so “gave birth to.” It indicates
something. The writer emphasizes what became of the sons. Certain sons were
given birth to and then the writer wants to emphasize what became of those
sons, what they produced, and the people that came forth from them in relation
to Israel. We don’t see some things in the English but they are there in the
Hebrew, and they give us the confidence that this is a historically valid
document, that it is accurate in everything that it says, that “all Scripture
is God-breathed.”
Genesis 10:1, “Now these are the
generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were
sons born after the flood.” Obviously they had daughters as well, but the focus
is on that line of descent through the sons. We start off by looking at the
sons of Japheth. Seven are given. Only two of these sons are then singled out
for further development: Gomer and Javan. Their sons are given in vv. 3, 4, and
then there is a concluding sentence in v. 5. That is where we are headed, the
conclusion, the emphasis. “By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in
their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their
nations.”
The first focus is on Japheth. This
word is also brought over into the Greek in the word iapotos. He was considered to be the father of the Greeks and he is part god. Here
is an interesting aside to remember. There are two things that go on during
this early period of time. First, there were these stories that filtered down
of the beni ha
Elohim, the sons of God. These were the demons that intermarried with the
daughters of men, and they produced a race that was known as the nephilim, the
monsters, “giants in the earth in those days” [KJV]. This was a supernatural race. So
that is one stream of thought that gets filtered. Remember that as time goes by
these things get distorted, but there is a core of truth, a kernel of
historical reality, that goes back to the fact that there were these demons
that were thought of as gods who came to the earth and took human wives. Then,
on the other hand, there are the beni Noah, the sons of Noah. These sons of Noah
and their sons, and even their grandsons, lived for hundreds of years after the
flood. See Genesis 11:10ff, “These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an
hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood: and Shem lived
after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. And
Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah: and Arphaxad lived after
he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.” All
these people are going to die before Shem dies. Most of them are going to live
longer than their great grandsons. These are the first three or four
generations off the ark. That means the first three generations or so off the
ark are going to also appear to be gods to their great, great grandchildren.
These were civilization builders. When we look in Genesis 10:6 at Mizraim who
is the descendant of Ham, he is the founder of an Egyptian civilization, the
founder of the first dynasty of Egypt. He and his sons built the pyramids.
These men were considered gods by their descendants because of what they were
able to accomplish. Shem, Ham, and Japheth brought with them the technology of
the antediluvian world. So in those early generations while they were still
alive, while Ham and Mizraim and the other passed on this technology—and
they accomplished incredible things—five generations, ten generations
later on that technology was lost. They couldn’t go back and duplicate it. So
those descendants thought of Noah and that generation as gods. As a matter of
fact, what we have is an attempt to identify Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth with
the gods.
There was a group of men who wrote
for several centuries called Euhenerists, and these were men who took Genesis
10 and 11 as literally true. They also assumed that the ancients, descendants
of Shem, Ham and Japheth, deified the early generations off the ark. So they
tried to identify the humans listed in the table of nations with the gods and
goddesses of the ancient pantheons.
Japheth’s first son is Gomer. He is mentioned in
Ezekiel 38:6, “Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north
quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.”
There is a listing in this chapter
that relates to the Gog and Magog invasion of Israel in the Tribulation. V. 2,
“Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of
Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am
against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: and I will turn
thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all
thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour,
even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all
his bands: and many people with thee.” Who are these people? Well, we have to
go back to Genesis 10 to find out.
Gomer, when you take out the vowels
is GMR. If the G hardens to a C or a K you have the
word CMR. This is
related to the Cimerians who were related to the Cythians, the people who
inhabited the central part of Turkey in the period right after the flood.
Eventually those people moved north and west into Europe. The Assyrians listed
them as the Gamaria, and in Greek they were called the Kemarioi. Notice how the
G becomes a C and then
becomes a K. Also, sometimes when a word goes from one language to another language
the consonants will shift. Think about that: GMR, can we think of a country that
instead of having as its root consonants GMR it has its root consonants as GRM? Germany! The
descendants of Gomer through Ashkenaz (there is a lake Ashkenaz up in northern
Germany): the Germanic tribes ultimately derived from the descendants of Gomer,
and, of course, many, many others because he is so far back. Other names that
are etymologically related to Gomer are Umber in Italy—the G in Gomer
softens to O, and then U in Umber. That also shows up in the English North Umberland. Related to
Gomer: the Gauls, the Celts, Galatia, etc. Ireland was also known as Ibernai or
Hybernia, which again is etymologically related to the word Gomer. All of these
are related to Gomer. So we end up with the Irish, the Scots, the Germans,
Brits, some tribal groups in northern Italy, the Gauls in France. All are
descendants from Gomer.
The third man is Magog, mentioned in
Ezekiel 38:2, the land of Gog, a region between Armenia and Cappadocia in the
central eastern part of Turkey. These are the ancestors of the ancient
Cythians. Think about the word “Cythian.” SC or KT, or Scot. The Cythians are the
progenitors of the Scots. They come down through Magog. Between those two
terms, God and Magog you really have a summary of Western Europe. So how does
that fit Ezekiel 38 and 39? Interesting. According to an eighth century monk in
Britain the Goths were also descendants of Magog.
Madai, the fourth son, is the
progenitor of the Medes who lived in the area east of Assyria, southwest of the
Caspian Sea in the area of modern Uzbekistan. These were the Medes who joined p
with the Persians in the time of Daniel.
Then Javan, also Ionian. The J turns to an I and the V to an O and becomes
Ionia. This is one of the progenitors of the Greeks in western Turkey, an area
that is eventually made up of Greeks. There is Troy, Ephesus, and all that
area. Early records during the reign of Sargon II in the 8th century
BC refer to that
area of western Turkey as Jawan or Jamon. So these ancient names were attached
to the areas where they established their domain.
Tubal is described as the father of
a people the Assyrians called Tabale, and they lived in an area called Tabal, which is in modern Georgia. The capital of modern
Georgia is Tblisi. Notice how that is related etymologically to Tabal and
Tubal. Tabal is next door to the biblical land Togarmah, which is mentioned
again in Ezekiel 38. He is mentioned in Genesis 10:3 as a son of Gomer.
Then we have Meshech, father of the
Cappadocians. The last is Tiras, the father of a group of Greeks in the
northern part of Greece known as the Thracians, according to Josephus.
So from the seven sons of Japheth we
are beginning to get an overview of how Western Europe became settled, and also
how these names show up later on in history.