Truths about the Posterity of Japhet
In the genealogies, the Bible systematically lists the male children in the order of their birth, and we find the birth order of Noah's sons as follows:
Genesis 5:32 "After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth."
Genesis 9:18 "The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth."
Note that this order is also consistently repeated in non-canonical scriptures classified as apocrypha.
The Book of Jubilees, chap. 4:33
"And in the third year thereof she bare him Shem, in the fifth year thereof she bare him Ham, and in the first year in the sixth week she bare him Japheth."
The Conflict of Adam and Eve, chap. 3-3:5
"As to those three sons of Noah, the first of them is Shem; the next is Ham; and the third is Japhet."
The Conflict of Adam and Eve, chap. 3-1:8
"And she bare unto him three sons. Sham, Ham, and Japhet."
Genesis 10:21 and the Hebrew text refer to Shem as "Japheth's elder brother. So Shem cannot be the youngest son.
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. |Berean Standard Bible|
Genesis 10:21 "And unto Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, to him also were children born" |JPS Tanakh 1917|
Genese 10:21 "Of Sem also, the father of all children of Heber, the elder brother of Japheth, sons were born." |Douay-Rheims Bible|
Note how in some Bibles the syntax of the verse is arranged in such a way as to suggest that Japheth is the firstborn.
Genesis 10:21 "Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born." |The King James Bible|.
Genesis 10:21 "And children were born also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder." |The New King James Version|.
In the Aramaic Bible, Japhet is not called the eldest but the great.
Genesis 10:21 "And Sheem begot sons also, the father of all children of Eber, the brother of Yapheth the great."
Why was the identity of Noah's youngest son subtly obscured, creating confusion and contradiction?
In Genesis 9:24, all Bibles state that it was Noah's youngest son who humiliated him. And although all Scriptures agree in listing Ham as Noah's second son, the title of youngest was given to Ham and not to Japheth. Something is obviously amiss.
Click here to read more about this contradiction: the-descendants-of-canaan
The descendants of Japheth first inhabited the Taurus and Amanus mountains, and then moved along Asia to the river Tanais, and along Europe to Cadiz. It has been historically demonstrated that the descendants of Japhet migrated to the Caucasus Mountains, a region located between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea and which includes southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The region is considered part of the natural border between Europe and Asia.
They settled in the lands they were discovering, where no one had inhabited before, and gave birth to the Caucasoid, Aryan and Mongolian races whose first peoples were very tall. They gave these nations their own names.
Japheth begat Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras.