Noah; Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
The sons of Japheth Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.
The genealogy of 1 Chronicles opens with Adam and runs down to Noah. At verse 5 it turns to seven names that are not Israel at all — the sons of Japheth. Why does Israel's own record start with the nations outside it? And what became of these seven men?
The order of these names is not accidental. One writer traces the same pattern elsewhere in the chapter.
Shem is mentioned first in verse 4, although he is not the firstborn. But the genealogies of Japheth and of Ham come before his (vv. 5-16), as we also see in Genesis 10. In God's eyes Shem, chosen by grace, has first place. Yet in the natural order what is spiritual does not come first. It is the same with Abraham's children. Verse 28 says, "The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael." Isaac is named first, as first in God's thoughts. But Ishmael, the elder, has his line listed first (v. 29), as the seed according to the flesh.
These are not lost names. Commentators trace several of them to peoples and places still on the map.
Next, Magog (compare Ezekiel 38:2) is just as surely the land we call Russia... To these we must add Meshech and Tubal, races long known as the Moschi and the Tibareni. These are the Muskai and the Tuplai of the Assyrian inscriptions, and their representatives today are Moscow and Tobolsk. This is the Slavonic branch.
Not every name is so clear. Of Tiras, the last of the seven, one reference work says only:
A son of Japheth. No one has traced his descendants, but they are thought to match the Thracians.
The list also touches the question of where the world's languages came from.
Scholars learned only recently that these languages had one common source in the east, as Sanskrit proved. But our verse states it with authority: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras were sons of Japheth. So they were all linked together — distinct in dialect, but of one origin. And it is not hard to tell these races apart in general.
The list stops where it does on purpose.
Of the seven sons of Japheth, we have the descendants of only two, Gomer and Javan: three from Gomer, four from Javan — seven named in the second generation, as in the first. No one can doubt that Magog and Madai had sons, for we hear of their descendants down to the latest times, and the same is true of Tubal and Meshech; nor can we doubt it of Tiras. But the design here was not to give details of more. The prophets speak of others who came from these early forefathers to play their part in the last days.
Four of these seven names come back in a prophecy of Ezekiel.
Of these sons of Japheth we get Gomer, Magog, Tubal and Mesec under the same names in Ezekiel 38, as followers of Gog. You will also find Persia there, which was joined to Media (Madai)... so that only Javan and Tiras are left to account for. The nations named above make up Russia, Asia Minor, Tartary and Persia.
Japheth's line was not left out of blessing.
The blessing was to be especially Shem's portion, and to come on Japheth in a secondary way. The blessing, as always, is tied to the name of the Lord, who was to be known as the God of Shem. Japheth was to be enlarged and "dwell in the tents of Shem." This, we gather, means that by being closely joined to Shem, Japheth would also come into the knowledge of God.
A chapter of names will never read like John 17. One writer says so, then makes the case for it anyway.
We do not claim that we should linger over the first chapter of 1 Chronicles with the same interest as over John 17 or Romans 8... But we do say that each of these Scriptures is inspired by God, one just as much as another. More than that: we say 1 Chronicles 1 and passages like it fill a place John 17 cannot fill, and do a work Romans 8 cannot do.
- Order — Japheth's line is written out first. In the natural order what is spiritual does not come first. Shem holds the place of honour in God's thoughts, not in the list.
- Origin — Seven peoples, seven languages, one father. Scholars took centuries to reach the common source this verse states outright.
- Reach — Japheth's portion is enlargement — room on the earth, and the knowledge of God, gained by being joined to Shem.
- Return — Four of these seven names come back in Ezekiel 38 among Gog's followers. The roll call of the past also sketches the days ahead. Not every name is equally sure: no one has traced Tiras.
- Reason — This chapter does a work no other chapter can do, which is reason enough to read it.