Biblical terminology for race explained

Since early modern times, a number of biblical ethnonyms from the Table of Nations in Genesis 10 have been used as a basis for classifying human racial (cosmetic phenotypes) and national (ethnolinguistic cultural) identities. The connection between Genesis 10 and contemporary ethnic groups began during classical antiquity, when authors such as Josephus, Hippolytus and Jerome analyzed the biblical list.

The early modern equation of the biblical Semites, Hamites and Japhetites with "racial" phenotypes was coined at the Göttingen school of history in the late 18th century – in parallel with other, more secular terminologies for race, such as Blumenbach's fivefold color scheme.

Classical analyses of Genesis 10

The following sources attempted to equate the biblical Table of Nations with contemporary identities:

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:[1]

Hippolytus

Hippolytus of Rome, in his Diamerismos (existing in numerous Latin and Greek copies),[2] made another attempt to assign ethnicities to the names in Genesis 10. It is thought to have been based on the Book of Jubilees.[3]

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 (7th century), and the Synopsis of Histories by John Skylitzes follow the identifications of Hippolytus.

Jerome

Jerome, writing, 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:

Isidore

The scholar Isidore of Seville, in his Etymologiae, repeats all of Jerome's identifications, but with these minor changes:[4]

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 (1571), who proposed connecting Meshech with Moscow, and Ophir with Peru.

Samuel Bochart

See main article: Geographia Sacra seu Phaleg et Canaan. Published in 1646, Samuel Bochart's Geographia Sacra seu Phaleg et Canaan was the first detailed analysis of the Generations of Noah since classical times, becoming – and remaining – the locus classicus for such scholarship.[5]

Early modern use of racial terminology

Göttingen school of history

Scholars at the Göttingen school of history, which played an important role in creating a "scientific" basis for historical research,[6] 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 ("Introduction to the Universal Synchronistic History") was the first publication to use these terms in an ethnic sense. Gatterer's description was as follows:

Other interpretations

Descendants of Japheth

See main article: Japhetites.

The Greek Septuagint (LXX) 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 (below) 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.

A people of the Black and Caspian sea areas, much later associated with German and East European Jews. The Ashkuza, who lived on the upper Euphrates in Armenia expelled the Cimmerians from their territory, and in Jeremiah 51:27 were said to march against Babylon along with two other northern kingdoms.

Descendants of Ham

See main article: Hamites.

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.[7]

The 17th-century Jesuit, Athanasius Kircher, thought that the Chinese had also descended from Ham, via Egyptians.

Descendants of Shem

See main article: Semitic people.

See also

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Antiquities of the Jews  - Book I.
  2. Book: Bauer, Adolf. Die Chronik des Hippolytos im Matritensis graecus 121. 27 February 2018. J.C. Hinrichs. 9780790541846. Google Books.
  3. Book: The Mission of the Early Church to Jews and Gentiles. Jostein. Ådna. Hans. Kvalbein. 27 February 2018. Mohr Siebeck. 9783161472428. Google Books.
  4. Book: Isidorus (Hispalensis) . Isidore of Seville . Stephen A. Barney . Etymologiae (English translation) . 2006 . Cambridge University Press . 9781139456166 . 192–193. page 192 page 193
  5. Book: Stroumsa, G. . A New Science: The Discovery of Religion in the Age of Reason . Harvard University Press . 2010 . 978-0-674-04860-7 . 2022-10-07. 84. In any case, Bochart's Geographia sacra would remain the locus classicus for this kind of biblical scholarship, and his seminal analysis would long retain a place of honor in scholarly literature..
  6. Book: Cheng, Eileen K.. The Plain and Noble Garb of Truth: Nationalism & Impartiality in American Historical Writing, 1784-1860. 2008. University of Georgia Press. 978-0-8203-3073-0. 362–. ...historians of the Gottingen school also played an important role in establishing the basis for critical scholarship and a more "scientific" approach to history during the second half of the eighteenth century as they used their training in philology and statistics and in what were considered the "auxiliary sciences" of paleography and numismatics to analyze historical data..
  7. Book: Changing Conceptions of Psychological Life. 2005. Psychology Press. 978-0805843361. 186. David Moshman. Cynthia Lightfoot, Michael Chandler and Chris Lalonde. Theories of Self and Theories as Selves. registration.
  8. Book: Josephus, Flavius. Antiquities of the Jews. Book 1, section 143.

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