Genesis 10:6 reads, “And the sons of Ham: Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.” The descendants of Ham settled primarily in Southwest Asia and Africa. The Bible often refers to Africa as the land of Ham (Psa. 105:23,27; 106:22). Cush is the Hebrew word for Ethiopia. Without exception, the word Ethiopia in the Bible…
According to Josephus, the descendants of Tiras were called Thirasians. The Greeks changed their name to Thracians. The Greeks had a habit of changing the names of other people. The Greeks changed the name of Canaan to Palestine. Thrace reached from Macedonia on the South to the Danube River on the North to the Black…
Meshech, the name of Japheth’s fifth son, who along with Tubal, appears in the annals of Assyria under the names Tabali and Mushki. They were their enemies and are seldom named without some of the others – Tubal, Javan, Gog, and Magog. Ezekiel mentions Meshech several times, once as involved in the trade of Tyre…
Javan is the father of Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim, all of which have connections with the Greek people. They are the Ionian Greeks of Asia Minor. Greece, Grecia, or Grecians appears five times in the Old Testament and it is translated from the Hebrew word Javan. Daniel refers to Alexander the Great and calls…
This line of people called themselves the Arioi or what we term “Aryans” who were closely allied in descent, language, and religion with the Persians. Every time the Medes are mentioned in the Bible the word is translated from the Hebrew word Madai. Josephus goes on to explain that the descendants of Madai were caged…
Magog is referred to by Ezekiel as the “land of Gog” (38:2; 39:6). This is the area of Russia, not the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, but the older and smaller country of Russia. Ezekiel tells us that Magog lived in the North parts (Ezek. 38:15, 39:2). If you travel due north from Israel, past…
Gomer, the grand-son of Noah, is referenced by Ezekiel 38:6. We learn that, along with Togarmah, he lived in the northern quarters that is referred to in the New Testament as Galatia, now known as central Turkey. Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian who lived during the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, records that those…
Tubal is the hardest of all Noah’s grandsons to identify. Ezekiel mentions him along with Gog and Meshech (Ezek. 39:1). In Ezekiel 27:13, they are mentioned together as exporters of slaves and copper and were a warlike people (32:26) in the army of Gog (38:2-ff; 39:1). Since they lived to the North of Israel, it…
After the flood, Noah’s descendants spread and repopulated the earth with each establishing various nations of people. The people in those various areas not only called themselves by the name of the man who was their common ancestor, but the land was also called by his name. In some cases, major cities and/or rivers were…
Noah and his descendants left a very clear record of where they came to live and the nations that were produced by them. But before we examine each of those names, we need to notice one important characteristic of that age of the world. It does not apply to any other age, either before or…