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Person

Japheth

Mentioned in 11 verses across 2 books, first in Genesis 5:32. The verses below are the ones linked to this person (the Theographic dataset, with our sourced corrections).

In these stories

Noah and the Flood

At a glance

Gender

Male

Ussher–Jones reckoning

born c. 2448 BC

F. N. Jones’s Ussher-style chronology, used by Theographic: one of several traditional counts, added up from the ages and reigns in the Hebrew text. The Jewish count (Seder Olam) and the Septuagint’s figures differ from it, for early Genesis by centuries. Not a scholarly date.

Most early-Genesis dates are not historically established: they are reckoned from the ages in the genealogies, and nothing outside the text confirms them.

Family

Father

Noah

Siblings

Children

As the dataset records them from the biblical genealogies.

Often appears with

Named in the same verses most often. Sharing a verse doesn’t always mean they met.

Shem9 verses
Noah6 verses
Ham6 verses
Tubal2 verses
Tiras2 verses
Javan2 verses
Meshech2 verses
Magog2 verses
Canaan2 verses
Madai2 verses
Gomer (son of Japheth)2 verses
God1 verse
Eber (Heber)1 verse

Places

Where the data places them (born, died, or an event they take part in) first; then places named in the same verses, which does not mean they were there.

Araratscene of “The Great Flood”; scene of “The flood subsides” +1 more

In the Bible

The first 10 of 11 verses, in Bible order. Text from the Berean Standard Bible; verse numbers follow the KJV.

Genesis

Genesis 5:32
After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Genesis 6:10
And Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Genesis 7:13
On that very day Noah entered the ark, along with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and his wife, and the three wives of his sons—
Genesis 9:18
The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan.
Genesis 9:23
Then Shem and Japheth took a garment and placed it across their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.
Genesis 9:27
May God expand the territory of Japheth; may he dwell in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant.”
Genesis 10:1
This is the account of Noah’s sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who also had sons after the flood.
Genesis 10:2
The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.
Genesis 10:21
And sons were also born to Shem, the older brother of Japheth; Shem was the forefather of all the sons of Eber.

1 Chronicles

1 Chronicles 1:4
The sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Show all 11 verses

Events

Events the dataset lists Japheth as taking part in. Dates follow its Ussher–Jones reckoning (one of several traditional counts), not established history.

c. 2348 BC
The Great Flood beginsGenesis 7:6–17
c. 2348 BC
The Great FloodGenesis 7:6–8:19 · at Ararat
c. 2348 BC
Water covers the earthGenesis 7:18–24
c. 2347 BC
The flood subsidesGenesis 8:1–14 · at Ararat
c. 2347 BC
Leaving the ArkGenesis 8:15–19 · at Ararat
c. 2346 BC
Noah gets drunk and Canaan is cursedGenesis 9:20–27

Dictionary

From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), as attached to this record by Theographic. The entry is for the name and can describe more than one person who bore it. Easton wrote in 1897, and some of his views are now debated.

Read Easton’s entry

Wide spreading: “God shall enlarge Japheth” (Heb. Yaphat Elohim le-Yephet, Gen. 9:27. Some, however, derive the name from yaphah, “to be beautiful;” hence white), one of the sons of Noah, mentioned last in order (Gen. 5:32; 6:10; 7:13), perhaps first by birth (10:21; comp. 9:24). He and his wife were two of the eight saved in the ark (1 Pet. 3:20). He was the progenitor of many tribes inhabiting the east of Europe and the north of Asia (Gen. 10:2-5). An act of filial piety (9:20-27) was the occasion of Noah’s prophecy of the extension of his posterity.

After the Flood the earth was re-peopled by the descendants of Noah, “the sons of Japheth” (Gen. 10:2), “the sons of Ham” (6), and “the sons of Shem” (22). It is important to notice that modern ethnological science, reasoning from a careful analysis of facts, has arrived at the conclusion that there is a three-fold division of the human family, corresponding in a remarkable way with the great ethnological chapter of the book of Genesis (10). The three great races thus distinguished are called the Semitic, Aryan, and Turanian (Allophylian). “Setting aside the cases where the ethnic names employed are of doubtful application, it cannot reasonably be questioned that the author [of [Gen. 10](/gen#Gen.10)] has in his account of the sons of Japheth classed together the Cymry or Celts (Gomer), the Medes (Madai), and the Ionians or Greeks (Javan), thereby anticipating what has become known in modern times as the ‘Indo-European Theory,’ or the essential unity of the Aryan (Asiatic) race with the principal races of Europe, indicated by the Celts and the Ionians. Nor can it be doubted that he has thrown together under the one head of ’children of Shem’ the Assyrians (Asshur), the Syrians (Aram), the Hebrews (Eber), and the Joktanian Arabs (Joktan), four of the principal races which modern ethnology recognizes under the heading of ‘Semitic.’ Again, under the heading of ‘sons of Ham,’ the author has arranged ‘Cush’, i.e., the Ethiopians; ‘Mizraim,’ the people of Egypt; ‘Sheba and Dedan,’ or certain of the Southern Arabs; and ‘Nimrod,’ or the ancient people of Babylon, four races between which the latest linguistic researches have established a close affinity” (Rawlinson’s Hist. Illustrations).