Appendix 11 We Are Family The Seven Sons of Japheth Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Meshech, Tubal and Tiras Genesis 10:2-5 1. Gomer - By far the most important of the sons. To judge from such ancient historians as Herodotus, Strabo and Plutarch, Gomer's family settled first to the north of the Black Sea, giving their name in slightly modified form to that district known as Cimmeria, later shortened to Crimea, where the Caucus mountains are. Some of the tribe of Gomer either remained in the country or subsequently returned, and others went west as far as France and Spain and later still into the British Isles. According to Josephus, the branch which returned to Asia Minor came to be known as the Galatians. Gomer is the ancient name for the more familiar Gaul (France). And the connections between the Gauls, the Galatians and the Celtic people are all well-established historically. According to the historian Haydn, the Gauls were called Galati or Celtae by the Romans. Furthermore, Roman historians claim that these people came originally from Asia Minor and settled throughout Europe - in Spain (Galicia), in France (Gaul) and in Britain (Celts). Gomer’s children and his children's children went far up into Europe, where, despite their separation both in time and distance, the name of their ancient forebear was preserved among them. Indeed, there is even the possibility that the very name of Germany preserves for us Gomer in slightly inverted form, although the claim made by certain German historians that the Teutons represent the pure Gomeric line (a claim which they held accounted for the warlike nature of the German people) is highly improbable and is challenged by virtually every ethnologist of modern times. It would appear that scarcely any part of Europe was not, at one time or another, settled by the descendants of Gomer, and some areas - notably France and the British Isles. 2. Magog - Bochart derived the word "Caucasus" from a compound form of "Gog" and "Chasan", meaning "the stronghold of Gog". According to Josephus, the descendants of Gog were later known as the Scythians, whom he says were otherwise known as Magogites. These people subsequently formed the greater part of Russian stock. Mention is made of Gog in Ezekiel (38:2) as "the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal." It may be observed that the Hebrew word rosh, which in this passage is translated "chief prince", signified the inhabitants of Scythia. From it the Russians derive their name. 3. Madai - It is reasonably clear that the Madai appear subsequently as the Medes and Javan gave rise to the Ionians. In his book, Races of the Old Testament, Sayce says that the Medes claimed a relationship with the Aryans of north India, and on the Persian monuments they are referred to as the "Mada" from which the Greek form, Medes, comes (see Daniel 5:31). Now it has already been observed that before there arose a complete separation of the various nationalities - Medes, Persians, Greeks, Celts, etc. the Japhethites were first divided into two major bodies. One of these comprised the ancestors of the Indians and Persians, whereas the second was the aggregate of those tribes which afterwards composed the nations of Europe. Thus the word "Indo-European" well sums up our ethnological origins. 4. Javan - Through the sons of Javan we have many original Greek city names. "Hellas" is a corrupted form of an original "Elishah" (son of Javan) and from about the time of the Persian War, Hellas came to be a name commonly applied to the Greeks as a whole. In Ezekiel 27:7, it is said that purple things were brought to Tyre from the "Isles" (or coasts) of Elishah. The mussel from which the purple dye was obtained in antiquity abounded on the coast of the Peloponnese, confirming the general area settled by this grandson of Japheth. Tarshish (son of Javan) is the original founder of Spain (city of Tartessos). Kittim (son of Javan) settled in Ma Kittim (place of Kittim) which later was called MaCedonia (birthplace of Alexander the Great). Dodanim (son of Javan) appears in Scripture (I Chronicles 1:7) as Rodanim and points to the island of Rhodes as settled by the family of Dodanim. 5. Meshech - Meshech appears with Tubal (the next son) rather frequently as a couplet (see, for example, Ezekiel 32:26, 38:2,3). Meshech is found on the Assyrians monuments in the form of "Muskaa", probably pronounced Muskai. Classical writers were in the habit of calling them the Moskhi, and, in the time of Ezekiel, the position of these people is probably that described by Herdotus (III, 94), i.e., in Armenia, where a mountain chain connecting the Caucasus and Anti-Taraus was named after them, the Moschici Montes. Here, according to Strabo (XI, 497-499), was a district named Moschice. 6. Tubal - In the Assyrian inscriptions, the word Tubal occurs as Tubla, whereas it seems to have been known to classical geographers as Tibareni. According to Rawlinson, these two - the Mushki and the Tibareni - dwelt in close proximity to each other on the northern coast of Asia Minor and were, at one time, among the most powerful people of that area. The Moschian capital was known to Josephus and was called by the Romans Caesarea Mazaca. Josephus also says that the Iberians of Italy were descendants of Tubal. As he put it, "Thobel founded the Thobelites, now called Iberis." It also is possible that in the River Tiber we have a recollection of this same ancestor. According to Forbes, the Moschi and Tibareni are included in the 19th satrapy of Darius. They were redoubtable enemies of the Assyrians in the early half of the first millennium B.C.; Tiglath Shalmaneser II mentions tribute paid to him by "twenty-four kings of the land of Tubal." By classical times (500 B.C.), these people had moved northwards, although Xenophon (430-354 B.C.) and his Greek troops still found remnants of them south of the Black Sea. Much later in history we meet the word Meshech in the form Muskovy. It is possible that the two famous cities of Moscow and Tobolsk still preserve the elements of the names Meshech and Tubal. 7. Tiras - According to Josephus and the Targum, the descendants of Tiras became the Thracians. One of offshoots of the Thracians were the Getae or Goths. King Darius conquered them in 515 B.C. By the time of Alexander the Great (c. 330 B.C.), they had settled the mouth of the Danube. They maintained independence but in the early part of the first century B.C., united with the Dacians, thereafter harassing the Roman legions until they were conquered by Trajan in A.D. 106 and incorporated into the Roman Empire. One of the problems here is that we have no further occurrence in Scripture of Tiras. There is this one brief mention of his name and then, unlike Gomer, Meshech, or Tubal, he disappears entirely. Credit: Arthur Custance, Christian anthropologist and author of Noah’s Three Sons. .