Genesis 10 contains a table of the nations that has been and can be readily verified by secular history, archaeology and culture but is also very accurate just in a biblical context. This table begins with Noah and his three sons including Japheth. Japheth as the head of the Indo-European people as well as probably the Chinese and other Far East people has been in different cultures made into a god as he is as from this name Iupater or then Jupiter who was the father of the gods for the Romans. Japheth is the ancestor of the white or light skinned people of the world. Japheth was also worshipped by the early Greeks as Iapetos or Iapetus that they thought was the son of heaven and earth and the father of a multitude of nations. The Irish Celts, Britons and Saxons also traced their royal dynasties to Japheth.
Gomer was the ancestor of the Cymry who later came to live in Wales and the Cimerians or Cimbri from whom came the Celtic people or the Germanic people. From Gomer also came Ashkenaz which name was associated with Germany in Jewish literature in medieval times. In Jeremiah 51:27 it is mentioned that Ashkenaz at first came to live in Ararat and Armenia. Based on the Encyclopeia Judaica the Ashkenaz later came to live in what is now Germany especially around the Rhine River. Even up to the present the Ashkenazi Jews is a term for Jews of Europe especially Germany or Eastern Europe although Ashkenaz would refer to Germanic people that are Gentiles based on Genesis 10 including the Saxons in Germany and the Angles from Denmark that later migrated to the British Isles then other English speaking parts of the world as the Anglo-Saxons. This is a much better and more biblical and accurate historical basis for the origin of the Anglo-Saxon people than the so-called British Israelism that proposes that the Anglo-Saxons are descendants of the 10 lost tribes of Israel. They originally dwelt on the shores of the Caspian Sea. In the 1st century the inhabitants in central Turkey were called Galatians or Gauls and they later moved to what is now France and Spain and what is now called France was largely in Roman Empire or New Testament times the province of Gaul. Magog probably gave birth to the people called by the Greeks the Scythians or Tartars who even to current times compose a significant part of the population of what is now called Russia. According to a Wikipedia article Haplogroup about the distribution of DNA around the world or in some places before European colonialism the closest resemblance of the Australoid people such as the Australian Aborigenes with the Y chromosome from the males that is in an area mentioned here in Genesis is the area for Uzbekistan which would probably be under Magog in Genesis 10. The other part of the Australoid on the mother's side seems most similiar in biblically mentioned lands to the part for Egypt and the Palestinians which would be descendants of Mizraim (Egypt) (possibly negros that were in Egypt before the Arabs) and the Canaanites which are both of Ham and of the Arabs which are descendants of Shem. The Dravidians or the former Indus VAlley civilation and more now in southern India such as the Tamils and Telegu people I found in an article on Wikipedia called Dravidian people that they are a combination of Causcasian from Elam in southern Iran and of oriental (far east) and of Australoid background. Elam is mentioned in Genesis 10 as a descendant of Shem and the oriental people I continue to believe were from a combination of background from Japheth and of the Canaanites through the son Sinim or the Sinites which is still used of China such as in foreign policy Sino-American relations. Coincidentally the Sinites aren't mentioned as part of the Canaanites in the Bible by the time the Israelites came to possess the land suggesting they had already moved to China and other far eastern lands. The Irish are also said to be descendants of Japheth through Magog. Madai the son of Japheth are the people that in English are called the Medes and dwelt mostly in what is now called Iran or Persia. Iran is said to mean the land of the Aryans and were composed of the Medes or the Madai and the Semite Elamites. These Iranians or Persians probably carried out the early invasion of about 1500 BC into India that brought Aryan people to India and displaced the earlier Dravidian people of India. These Aryan people as descendents of Japheth through Madai also brought Hinduism including the Hindu god Pra-japati (lord of offspring) and the Vedas or early Hindu scriptures. The Aryan people of India are like the Iranians generally olive skinned and look somewhat Caucasian in contrast to the people of India of Dravidian background that are generally brown or darker skin. Also the Aryan languages of Northern India are of the Indo-European family of languages that includes Persian or Iranian languages but also languages such as Sanskrit, Hindi and Urdu, Bengali, Panjabi, Marathi and Gujarati while the Dravidian family of languages includes languages such as Telegu, Tamil, Kanarese and Malayalam and probably native to India for a longer period and are now spoken mostly in southern India. Javan is said to refer to the people of Greece, Syria and adjacent regions. Javan is said to have changed to Iamanu then Iawones from which we get our term Ionian in English for a region of Greece especially the islands of Greece between Greece and Turkey and the Sea or part of the Mediterranean Sea between them. Tubal is a son of Japheth that is said to have originally lived on the south side of the Black Sea and from there spread north and south. There is evidence that they left their name to Tbilisi the capital of the country of Georgia in the Caucasus area of central Asia and to Tobolsk a major industrial city of Russian Siberia. They were called Thobelities by the Jewish 1st century historian Josephus and were later called Iberes which they probably continued with in their dwelling place in the Iberian peninsula of Spain and Portugal. Meshech is a name that also especially refers to the people of what is now Russia and the term for the capital of Russia, Moscow is probably derived from Meshech. Meshech is also often used with Tubal which also refers to the area and people of what is now Russia. By 1200 BC it was mentioned that the people of Meshech had overcome the Hittites and the Jewish historian in his time says the people of Meshech were called the Cappadocians which were a people of what is now central Turkey. Tiras gave birth to the people who before and still live in what is now Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Albania and other parts of the Balkans of southeast Europe. According to the book After the Flood by Bill Cooper in the Appendix about the nations of Japheth and according to Henry Morris in his book the Genesis Record Tiras the son of Japheth is also thought to have given rise to the Etruscans who were some of the early inhabitants of Italy. The Jewish historian identifies the descendants of Tiras as the Thirasians that is name called the Thracians. They had a reputation of being warlike and given to overusing alcohol. It is likely the name of the present capital of Albania, Tiranna, is derived from the name Tiras the probable ancestor of the Albanians. Also the descendants of Tiras worshipped him eventually as the god Thuras or Thor. The scripture reference in Genesis 10 of the sons of Japheth from which many of the nations descended is as follows:
Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood. The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. Genesis 10:1-2
Ashkenaz was one of the grandsons of Japheth through Gomer and was the ancestor of the Germanic people and their languages including German, Dutch, most Scandanavian languages and English. The Jews of Germany and Eastern Europe are still called Ashkenazi Jews today. The Askkenazi people first dwelt in Armenia in central Asia. Ashkenazi and his father Gomer were eventually related to the Germanic people. The Assyrians mention a tribe, the Askuza involved in a revolt in the 600s BC that is also mentioned in Jeremiah 51:27 in the Old Testament. From the Bible reference it can be determined that the Askuza can be associated with the descendants of Ashkenazi. However many of these people later moved to Germany and Eastern Europe. These people later became known as the Scythians (Skythai) of the 5th century BC Greek Historian Herodutus. Magog is a term for Russia or northern eastern Europe and northern Asia. It is a Hebrew word that is sometimes used interchangeably with the Greek Scythians which referred to roughly the same area. Madai referred to the Medes in what is now Iran and some adjacent areas but probably also was carried forward to the Aryans who later invaded India around 1500 to 1400 BC and came to dominate the Indian subcontinent. They are today's lighter skinned Indians. They also then brought Hinduism to India. Tubal also gave rise to some of the people of Russia especially in the eastern part and they could carry on their name with the Siberian city of Tobolsk. Mescheck is a name for part of Russia also especialy around Moscow and western Russia. Tiras is a term for the Balkan region in south eastern Europe and is referred in the old name Thrace and probably currently with the name of the city Tiranna the capital of Albania. Riphath was a son of Gomer the son of Japheth gave a name to his descendants as the Riphaei, Riphaces and Piphlataei who were known after more time as the Paphlagonians who were a people and former Roman province in what is now northern Turkey on the shore of the Black Sea. This identity is also confirmed by the Jewish historian Josephus. Riphath also gave its name to the Riphaean mountains that some ancient scholars considered the northern boundary of the Earth. The descendants of Togarmah at first lived in the region of Armenia which then spread into what is now Turkey and the people of Armenia have claimed to be descendants of Togarmah and Ashkenaz. It is probable the people of Turkey descended from Togarmah.
Elishah like his father Javan was identified with the Greek people. There are two Greek cities named after Elishah, Elis and Elissus as well as a larger area named Ellas. This term also gave rise to the term Hellas or Hellenic or Hellenism for the Greek land, language or culture. The title Elishah probably also is the original inspiration for the Elysian Fields which was a paradise in Greek mythology.
Tarshish also gave rise to a branch of the Greek people that is often identified with people who came to live in Spain with it probable that the ancient Spanish city of Tartesus on the south Spanish coast on the Atlantic side of the Strait of Gilbralter between what is now the city of Cadiz and the Portuguese border being the main location of Tarshish. Previously the Mediterranean Sea was also called the Sea of Tarshish and the Phoenicians who previously lived in an area centred on what is now Lebanon built ships for trading through the Mediterranean that were called ships of Tarshish. It is also possible the people of Tarshish in Spain gave rise to the legend of Atlantis. There was an article on the BBC (British Broadasting Corporation) on June 6, 2004 that gives the most convincing association of existing ruins or physical features with the description by Plato, who is our earliest remaining source of this legend.
For more information see my web page about Atlantis (and Tarshish) at: Atlantis and Biblical Tarshish
Kittim and his descendants moved and dwelt in what is now the island of Cyprus and in the Bible and other literature the people and land of Cyprus is Kittim. Finally Dodanim came from Dodan and the Greeks called them the Dardani or Dandanians of Asia Minor. This name is preserved in the Strait of the Dandanelles between European and Asian Turkey that is still used today. The ancient Britons claimed to derive from Dardanus.
It is also stated that the islands or coastlands of the nations derived from the descendants of Japheth which would include all the above mentioned sons and grandsons of Japheth but also others not mentioned such as descendants of the other sons of Japheth than Gomer or Javan and that would give rise also to the people of the Indian subcontinent and the Far East and the Americas. The scripture reference in Genesis 10 of these other descendants of Noah through Japheth are as follows:
And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah. And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations. Genesis 10:3-5
For more information, comments, questions and advice contact Doug at dougforheavens33@gmail.com Contact Spirit and Truth Ministries
For an excellent book from a Christian but historically accurate perspective from which much of the information in this article is derived see the book After The Flood The Early Post-Flood History of Europe Traced Back to Noah by Bill Cooper from New Wine Press. Another good source for information is The Genesis Record by Henry Morris from which I have also found some information. Another good source of information of origins of the Germanic people including the Anglo-Saxons is the booklet Germany and the European Nations In Prophecy by Gary Hedrick and published by The Christian Jew Foundation.