JAPHETH
“Aggrandizement”.
Name of the youngest of Noah’s sons (Gen. 9:24; 10:21) who, together with his father, his wife and Noah’s other relatives, was saved from the Flood (Gen. 7:7; 1 Pet. 3: twenty).
The book of Genesis says that Japheth was the father of the nations of Europe (Gen. 10:5).
Japheth was, perhaps, the “Iapetos” whom Greek legends represent as the progenitor of the Greek race. His seven sons (Gen. 10:2-5; 1 Chron. 1:5) occupied northern Asia and most of Europe with their posterity.
In later times the Greeks and Romans subjugated considerable parts of South Asia (Gen. 9:27).
Among the peoples identified as his descendants we can list:
the Cimerans (Gomer),
the Scythians (Ashkenaz),
the Medes (Madai),
the Slavs (Meshech),
the Ionians (Javan),
the Cypriots (Quitim) and
the inhabitants of Rhodes (Dodanim).