The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.
All Commentaries on 1 Chronicles 1:5 Go To 1 Chronicles 1
Richard Challoner
AD 1781
To Japheth the son of Noah were born seven sons who occupied land in Asia from Amanus and Taurus of Coele-Syria and the mountains of Cilicia as far as the river Don. Then in Europe they occupied land as far as Gadira, leaving behind names for places and peoples, most of which were afterwards changed: others remain as they were. So Gomer actually refers to the Galatians; Magog to the Scythians; Madai to the Medes; Javan to the Ionians who are also the Greeks (from which we get 'the Ionian Sea'); and Thubal to the Iberians who are also the Spaniards from whom derive the Celtiberians, although certain people suppose them to be the Italians. Mosoch refers to the Cappadocians, so that among themselves up to the present day their city is also called Mazeca; Thiras refers to the Thracians, whose name has not been much changed. I know that a certain man has referred Gog and Magog, both as regards the present verse and in Ezekiel, to the account of the Goths who were recently raging in our land: whether this is true is shown by the outcome of the actual battle [recorded in Ezekiel 38-9]. But in fact all learned men in the past had certainly been accustomed to calling the Goths Getae rather than Gog and Magog. So these seven nations, which I have related as coming from the stock of Japheth, live in the region of the north. From the Ionians, that is from the Greeks, were born the Elisaei who are called the descendants of Aeolus; whence also the fifth language of Greece is called aeolis, which they themselves call pemptēn dialekton. Josephus thinks that Tharsis refers to the Cilicians, alleging that the aspirated letter theta has been badly corrupted into the letter tau by later individuals: consequently, their mother-city is called Tarsus, famous for the Apostle Paul. Cethim refers to the Citii, from whom the city of Citium in Cyprus is named up to the present. Dodanim are the inhabitants of Rhodes.
