Genesis 10

We get the genealogies of the three sons of Noah in this chapter. Japheth and Ham are disposed of first, because they are not the most important, for the Messianic line will come through Shem. We don’t know much about most of the people mentioned in this chapter, but a few of them seem to give us some hints about how mankind spread. For example, Javan, the son of Japheth: “The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. From these the coastland peoples of the Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations” (v. 5). Scholars tend to think that these “coastland peoples of the Gentiles” were Europeans, that the word “Javan” eventually worked its way into “Ionia,” which is Greece. “Tarshish” may have established the city in Cilicia, modern day Turkey, where Tarsus, Paul’s home town, was eventually located. Nothing is known for sure, but it appears that Japheth’s people spread westward towards and into Europe.

There is almost universal agreement that the descendents of “Cush,” the son of Ham, settled, among other places, in Ethiopia and Africa. Indeed, ancient Ethiopia is often called “Cush.” So it does appear that Ham was the father of the Negroid peoples. But the ancient civilization of Sumeria also arose from Ham. “Shinar” was an ancient name for Babylon (before Babylon was Babylon), and Erech and Accad for sure were ancient Sumerian cities. Nimrod, “the mighty hunter before the Lord” (v. 9) founded all these cities, then moved northward into what became Assyria and found Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and a few other cities. Now the dates here are unknown. Obviously it is going to take many generations for the population to grow significantly. Sumeria is a Middle Eastern power from about 3000 B.C. to 1800 B.C. Babylon has a period of ascendancy about then that only last a couple of hundred years at most, and then a later empire under Nebuchadnezzar. Assyria began to be a noticeable power around 1100, though existing earlier than that. Canaan, another son of Ham, begot the Canaanites, the people who dwelt in that land when the Israelites arrived. Sidon, Canaan’s first born, apparently founded a famous city. Heth is the father of the Hittites, a people who play a large role in Middle Eastern history in the 2nd millennium B.C. The Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, etc. (vs. 16ff) were small tribes of people the Israelites encountered when conquering the Promised Land. Keep in mind that these genealogies are abbreviated and more than likely have significant gaps in them. The flood probably did not happen later than 5,000 B.C., if that late. The Oriental peoples very possibly came from Ham’s line as well.

Shem’s descendents are the Semitic peoples. His genealogy is mentioned briefly here, but then the Messianic line will be unfolded in chapter 11. Arphaxad is the significant one, for it is through him that Abraham will descend. More on that next chapter.