Biblical terminology for race


Biblical terminology for race has been used to classify human races, based on proposed Biblical lineage from the Table of Nations in Genesis 10, since antiquity.
The early modern biblical division of the world's races into Semites, Hamites and Japhetites was coined at the Göttingen School of History in the late 18th century – in parallel with the color terminology for race which divided mankind into five colored races.

Flavius Josephus

The 1st-century Jewish-Roman historian Josephus, in Antiquities of the Jews Book 1, chapter 6, was the first known author who assigned known ethnicities to some of the names listed in Genesis chapter 10. His assignments became the basis for most later authors, and were as follows:
, in his Diamerismos, made another attempt to assign ethnicities to the names in Genesis 10. It is thought to have been based on the Book of Jubilees.
Its differences versus that of Josephus are shown below:
The Chronography of 354, the Panarion by Epiphanius of Salamis, the Chronicon Paschale, the History of Albania by the Georgian historian Movses Kaghankatvatsi, and the Synopsis of Histories by John Skylitzes follow the identifications of Hippolytus.

In Jerome

, writing c. 390, provided an 'updated' version of Josephus' identifications in his Hebrew Questions on Genesis. His list is substantially identical to that of Josephus in almost all respects, but with the following notable differences:
The scholar Isidore of Seville, in his Etymologiae, repeats all of Jerome's identifications, but with these minor changes:
Isidore's identifications for Japheth's sons were repeated in the Historia Brittonum attributed to Nennius. Isidore's identifications also became the basis for numerous later mediaeval scholars, remaining so until the Age of Discovery prompted newer theories, such as that of Benito Arias Montano, who proposed connecting Meshech with Moscow, and Ophir with Peru.

Tacitus

In the early 6th century CE, perhaps in Byzantine Constantinople, the commonly-termed "Frankish Table of Nations" was created, likely under the influence of Gothic sources. It drew heavily from Tacitus's Germania and is notable for its focus on linking the various Germanic peoples of the 6th century to Trojan and Biblical ancestors. The text was eventually transmitted to Frankish Gaul by the 6th to 7th centuries and in the early 9th century CE, likely due to its reference to the ancestry of the Britons, was used as a primary source by an anonymous Welsh scribe for the Historia Brittonum.

Göttingen school of history

Scholars at the Göttingen School of History, which played an important role in creating a "scientific" basis for historical research, coined the modern racial definitions of the terms Semitic, Hamitic and Japhetic. The primary scholars were Johann Christoph Gatterer, August Ludwig von Schlözer and Johann Gottfried Eichhorn.
Gatterer's 1771 Einleitung in die Synchronistische Universalhistorie was the first publication to use these terms in an ethnic sense. Gatterer's description was as follows:
Original GermanEnglish translation

Allgemeine Gränzliniender Mosaischen Bevölkerungskunde.
Die Familien und Stämme, aus denen hernach kleine und grösere Nationen erwachsensind, haben sich nach gewissen Directionslinien ausgebreitet. Der Mittel punet der Ausbrei tung ist in der Gegend des Gebirges Ararat oder Paropamisus, das ist, im Nordwesten von Indien oder um Bactra herum.
Hiebey ist nicht zu vergessen, was Gen. IX, 25-27 steht, daß nämlich den Japhetiten, wie schon ihr Name anzeigt, vom Noach eine vorzüglich grose Ausbreitung als ein eigener Siegen verheisen worden, daß sie auch in Semitischen Ländern Size bekommen, und daß die Canaaniter ihnen, wie den Semiten, dienen sollren. Wie wörtlich dieses erfüllet worden sey, lehrt die alte und neue Geschichte ganz augenscheinlich.
I) Die Japhetiten wohnten zu Mosis Zeiten von Bactria und Sogdiana an rings um das Caspische Meer herum,im Süden bis an die Küsten von Kleinasien, im Nors den von dem Uraltag oder den Riphäisschen Gebirgen an bis in Europen hinüber, woselbst die westliche Gränzlinie vom Tyras oder Dnjester an längst den Küsten des schwarzen Meers über Thracien hinweg, bis an die abendländische Küste Griechenlandes, mit Einschliesung der südöst lichen Küste Italiens, fortlief. Die sogenannten Indo-Scythen haben allem Ansehen nach damals schon an dem Ober-Indus hin gewohnt; aber den Persern getraue ich mir zu Mosis-Zeiten noch niche die südlichen Wohnungen, die sie in der Folge inne hatten, einzuräumen.
II) Die Semiten wohnten zu Mosis Zeiten theils in Indien, gegen den Ganges hin, theils an den Küsten des Südmeers bis an den Persischen Meerbusen, in Elymais, Assyrien, Chaldäa, und im südlischen Mesopotamien, und bey weiterer Ausbreitung in einigen Gegenden von Palästina, im Norden und Süden von Arabien, endlich auch, aber vielleicht noch nicht zu Mosis Zeiten, in Abyssinien oder Ethiopien.
III) Die Chamiten wohnten zu Mosis Zeiten in Schinear, das ist in Mesopotamien und Babylonien, sodann im südwestlichen Arabien : von da aber durch ganz Egypten, die nächsten Westfänder Lybiens vielleicht mir eingeschlossen, über einen nördlichen Strich von Arabien, und längst der Küste von Palästina und Syrien, Cypern mit eingeschlossen, bis nach Colchis. Mit der Zeit, und zum Theil schon vor Mose wurden die Chamiten, vornämlich durch Semitische Stämme, denen sie in Arabien, Abyssinien und zulezt auch in Canaan weichen musten, sehr eingeschränkt,und hier und da zum Abzug aus Asien, wo ihnen keine Länder zustunden, gezwungen, oder ausgerottet.
General Outline of Mosaic Population Studies.
The families and tribes, from which small and larger nations subsequently grew, have spread in various directions. The middle point of the spread is in the area of the mountains of Ararat or Paropamisus, that is, in the northwest of India or around Bactra.
It is not to be forgotten what states: that the Japhetites, as their name indicates, were successfully spread by Noah as a result of their victories, that they also have size in Semitic countries, and that the Canaanites, like the Semites, should be subservient. The ancient and modern stories clearly show how this has been literally fulfilled.
I) In Moses's time, the Japhetites lived from Bactria and Sogdiana around the Caspian Sea, in the south to the coasts of Asia Minor, in the North from across the Urals or the Riphaise Mountains to in Europen, even the western line from the Tyras or Dniester on the coasts of the Black Sea long ago across Thrace, to the western coast of Greece, including the southeastern coast of Italy. The so-called Indo-Scythians, according to reputation, already lived on the Upper Indus back then; but would not dare to propose the Persians in Moses's days the southern regions that they subsequently had.
II) During the time of Moses, the Semites lived partly in India, towards the Ganges, partly on the coasts of the South Sea to the Persian Gulf, in Elymais, Assyria, Chaldea, and in southern Mesopotamia, and with further expansion in some areas of Palestine, in the north and south of Arabia, finally too, but maybe not yet in Moses's time, in Abyssinia or Ethiopia.
III) During the time of Moses, the Hamites lived in Schinear, that is in Mesopotamia and Babylonia, then in southwestern Arabia : from there, however, through all of Egypt, perhaps the closest west of Libya to me, across a northern line from Arabia, and long since the coast from Palestine and Syria, including Cyprus, to Colchis. Over time, and in part even before Moses, the Hamites became very restricted, primarily through Semitic tribes, whom they had to give way in Arabia, Abyssinia and, more recently, also in Canaan, and here and there to withdraw from Asia, where no countries were entitled to them, forced, or exterminated.

Other interpretations

Descendants of Japheth

The Greek Septuagint text of Genesis includes an additional son of Japheth, "Elisa", between Javan and Tubal; however, as this name is found in no other ancient source, nor in I Chronicles, he is almost universally agreed to be a duplicate of Elisha, son of Javan. The presence of Elisa and of Cainan son of Arpachshad in the Greek Bible accounts for the traditional enumeration among early Christian sources of 72 names, as opposed to the 70 names found in Jewish sources and Western Christian sources.
Beginning in the 9th century with the Jewish grammarian Judah ibn Quraysh, a relationship between the Semitic and Cushitic languages was seen; modern linguists group these two families, along with the Egyptian, Berber, Chadic, and Omotic language groups into the larger Afro-Asiatic language family. In addition, languages in the southern half of Africa are now seen as belonging to several distinct families independent of the Afro-Asiatic group. Some now discarded Hamitic theories have become viewed as racist; in particular a theory proposed in the 19th century by Speke, that the Tutsi were supposedly of some Hamitic ancestry and thus inherently superior.
The 17th-century Jesuit, Athanasius Kircher, thought that the Chinese had also descended from Ham, via Egyptians.

Descendants of Shem