You see from this how this chapter is embedded in history. The Word of God
is dealing with realistic matters when it traces these divisions.

 

We learn here that Japheth had seven sons, but only two of them are traced
for us in any detail: The first son was Gomer. From this word, Gomer, by a
process of elision and transposition of letters, there came the word, Gaul, or
Gallic. These are the people, interestingly enough, to whom the New Testament
Epistle to the Galatians is written. The Galatians were Gauls. Most of us have a
Gallic or Celtic (or Keltic) ancestry, and the Gauls and Celts (or Kelts) were
descendants of Gomer. They migrated to the north and settled in Spain, France
and in Britain. From these Gauls come most of the early families of Western
Europe and, consequently, of the Americas as well.

 

The oldest son of Gomer was Ashkenaz. He and his descendants first settled
around the Black Sea and then moved north into a land which is called Ascenia,
and which later became known as the Islands of Scandia, which we now know as
Scandinavia. You can trace a direct link between Ashkenaz and Scandinavia.
Another of the sons of Gomer was Riphath. Although we do not know too much about
Riphath, we do know that he located in Central Europe, and some scholars feel
that the word, Europe, itself comes from this name, Riphath. Another son is
Togarmah. This name is easily traced. He was the ancestor of the present-day
Turks and Armenians, who also migrated northward into Southern Germany. Certain
scholars have felt that the word, Germany, derives from the word, Togarmah. If
you drop the first syllable you have the basic root of Germany.

 

Two others of the sons of Japheth were Madai and Javan. These are easily
recognizable in history: The Madai became the Medes, of the famous Medes and
Persian Empire. Javan is unquestionably the ancestor of the Greeks. His name,
Javan, is still found in Greece in the form of Ionia. The Ionic Sea and Ionian
Peninsula all derive from this word Javan. His sons were Elishah, from which we
get the Greek word, Helles (the Greeks are still called Hellenes), and Tarshish,
whom most scholars applesociate with Spain; Kittim, which is the Island of Cyprus;
and Dodanim, who settled around the Black Sea, and still finds a modern parallel
in the word, the Dardanelles. These can all be traced by the geographical titles
and place names they left behind.

 

Next is the family of Ham, which is the family gifted with technical
proficiency. Because of the great adaptability of these people to primitive
conditions, the Hamites became the great pioneers of mankind. All the early
civilizations were Hamitic: the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Mayans, the
Aztecs, the Sumerians. These were the people most able to adapt themselves to
the conditions they found wherever they settled. We owe a great deal to the
Hamitic nations. Later on, these lands were occupied by Japhethic nations, and
at the present day the entire Western hemisphere is peopled by Japhethic rather
than Hamitic nations, though it was once the other way around.