Episode 181 – 10 Facts Every Christian Needs to Know 9 – Noahic Names Remain
Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.
The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshek and Tiras. …
The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan. …
The sons of Shem: Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram…
Genesis, chapter 10, verses 2, 6, and 22, New International Version
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VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. We’re very glad to be with you today as we continue the series we started several weeks ago on Anchored by Truth. We are calling this series “10 Facts Every Christian Needs to Know.” In the studio today we have RD Fierro. RD is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. So far we have covered 6 of the 10 facts and we have done 2 other episodes to talk about what those facts mean. RD, the purpose of this series is to give listeners 10 solid facts that they can turn to when they encounter narratives in the world that try to cast doubt on the reliability of the Bible. And in our culture people trying to do that is pretty common isn’t it?
RD: Well, I would also like to greet all the listeners joining us here today. And yes, our culture constantly feeds us messages that conflict with the Bible. A great deal of the time these messages are dressed up to make us think that they possess some kind of dispositive authority with which we disagree at our peril. Usually, the costumes these messages wear is the garb of supposed science. For instance, in our culture we are told that science tells us that the universe and earth are billions of years old whereas we learn from the Bible that they are really only thousands of years old. We are told that the geological features we see on the earth’s surface result from uniform factors that have been operating these billions of years. And we are told that the living creatures we see all around us were produced by slow and gradual mutational changes that have been going on during that vast pool of Deep Time. These narratives are so pervasive and so compulsive that even many Christians have begun to believe them. But just because they are pervasive doesn’t make them true. And that’s what we are showing in this series.
VK: For instance, the presence of detectable carbon-14, which is the radioactive form of carbon, in diamonds is directly at odds with the assertion those diamonds were formed hundreds of millions of years ago. Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,730 years. Every 5,700 years or so, the amount of carbon-14 present in anything decreases by 50%. If the diamonds were really hundreds of millions of years old, any carbon-14 present during the formation of the diamond would have long since have turned into ordinary carbon.
RD: Correct. So, the 1st fact that we covered in this series is that the scientific evidence for Deep Time is not nearly as compelling as we are regularly told. There is an abundance of scientific observations that cast doubt on the conventional contentions. Similarly, we are routinely told that the features of the earth are the result of uniformitarian processes that have been going on during this Deep Time. But our 3rd fact in this series showed that there are marine fossils found on the highest mountains on earth. That shows that the Himalayas were at one time covered by water. Well, if the Himalayas had been formed by a slow, gradual uplift that lifted those fossils out of the water which took tens of millions of years – then during the those tens of millions of years erosion would have worn away the fossil containing layers if not the mountains themselves. Well, today we want to introduce our 7th fact that Christians need to know. And our 7th fact goes hand in hand with that 3rd fact. Today we are going to show that there is not only geological and paleontological evidence the flood of Noah occurred as described by the Bible but also that there is geographic, historical, and linguistic evidence of the reliability of the text.
VK: Today we are going to talk about the considerable evidence that the names of Noah’s grandsons have been preserved in remarkable ways on at least 3 different continents. So, just by way of background, let’s remind everyone that the Bible tells us that when the ark came to rest after the flood waters receded, it landed in a region that is part of modern day Turkey. The Bible also tells us that Noah had 3 sons and 16 grandsons. But the Bible does not tell us that Noah had any daughters or granddaughters, does it?
RD: No. It doesn’t. But we do know that Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth were all married before they got into the ark. Undoubtedly, those couples also had daughters as well as sons and the grandchildren intermarried. Remember that this is a time when the human gene pool had not suffered the deterioration that it would later. We have to also remember that this is a time long before the later prohibitions on close family members intermarrying. At any rate, the Bible has preserved the names of Noah’s 16 grandsons and we know from history and geography that those names have been indelibly carved on the ancient world.
VK: And we know that because as Noah’s grandsons began to have their families and spread out several things happened. First, people in various areas called themselves by the name of the man who was their common ancestor. Second, those expanding families of grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. began calling their land, and often their major cities or rivers by the name of their common ancestor. And, third, in some cases the various nations that were now forming fell into ancestor worship. They abandoned their focus on the True God who had saved their ancestors and began revering the ancestor who was most prominent in their memories. This was particularly true because the first generations after the Flood lived to be very old, with some men outliving their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. This set them apart. When this happened, it was natural for their descendants to almost regard them as being more than human. In some cases, the descendants began to claim their long-living ancestor as their god. What all this means is that the evidence of Noah’s sons and grandsons has been preserved in a way that can never be lost. God ensured that human history would contain evidence of the authenticity of the Biblical account. There is a very good article about this evidence on the website for Creation Ministries International which is creation.com.
RD: Let’s take a look at some of this evidence. First, let’s note that Noah’s son Japheth had seven sons: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. Ham had four sons Cush, Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan. Shem had five sons: Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. So, let’s start with an easy example – Shem’s son Aram.
VK: Noah’s grandson Aram’s [A-RAHM] name is preserved in the history of the people and nation of Syria which is where Aram’s descendants settled after the dispersal that followed the tower of Babel. Aram is the Hebrew word for Syria. Whenever the word Syria appears in the Old Testament it is a translation of the word Aram. In fact, the Syrians call themselves Arameans [AIR-AH-MAY-UNS]. Their language is called Aramaic [AIR-AH-MAY-ICK]. Before the spread of the Greek Empire following the conquests of Alexander the Great, Aramaic was used as the international language. 2,500 years after Aram’s birth Aramaic was still in widespread use. In fact, it was still in use in Jesus’ day as the language of the common people.
RD: Here’s another obvious example of how the names of Noah’s grandsons have been preserved by secular history. Asshur is the Hebrew word for Assyria. Assyria was one of the great ancient empires. Assyria is mentioned frequently by the Bible most often as one of Israel’s most dangerous enemies. Because Assyria was an enemy of Israel the prophet Jonah did not want to go and preach in the capital city of Assyria, Nineveh, as God had instructed him.
VK: And we all know how that turned out. Jonah’s experience in the belly of the whale – though the Bible just calls it a “big fish” – came as a direct result of his disobedience. Despite the big-fish episode Jonah still wound up going to Nineveh and the whole population converted as a consequence of his preaching. So, in an ironic, providential way, Jonah was converting his distant cousins because both he and the Assyrians were descendants of Shem.
RD: Yes. Every time the words Assyria or Assyrian appear in the Old Testament, they are translated from the word Asshur. Asshur’s descendants became a mighty empire and probably because of this he became an example of the ancestor worship that we mentioned. Asshur was worshipped by his descendants. As long as Assyria lasted, which was for many centuries - until 612 BC - accounts of battles, diplomatic affairs and foreign bulletins were daily read out to Asshur’s image. It was said that every Assyrian king held that he wore the crown only with the express permission of Asshur’s deified ghost.
VK: So, Asshur [AH-SURE] and Aram were sons of Shem and grandsons of Noah. They founded tribes and nations that are well known even by secular history. And the fact their names are so well known authenticates the accuracy of the text of Genesis chapter 10 where their names appear. This reinforces the fact that there is strong linguistic and geographic evidence that favors the Bible’s description of the Genesis flood and its effects on humanity. How about if we move on and discuss some of Noah’s grandsons that were born to Japheth [JA-PHUTH]?
RD: Ok. Let’s start with the very first of Noah’s grandsons that the Bible mentions: Gomer. Gomer is the first listed of Japheth’s seven sons. And Gomer is a great illustration of two things. First, that the geographic spread of Noah’s descendants is exactly what you would expect of a human population that was being rebuilt starting in or around Turkey. Shem’s sons Aram and Asshur founded nations that are both located to the south and east of modern Turkey. Japheth’s son Gomer founded nations that spread to the north and west.
VK: The prophet Ezekiel located the early descendants of Gomer, along with one of his sons, Togarmah, in the north quarters (Ezekiel 38:6). In modern Turkey is an area which in New Testament times was called Galatia. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus [FLAY-VEE-US JOE-SEE-PHUS] records that the people who were called Galatians or Gauls in his day (c. AD 93) were previously called Gomerites.
RD: Right. And the Gomerites did not remain in Turkey. They migrated westward to what we now call France and Spain. For many centuries France was called Gaul, after the descendants of Gomer. North-west Spain is called Galicia to this day. Furthermore, Some of the Gomerites migrated further to what is now called Wales. The Welsh historian, Davis, records a traditional Welsh belief that the descendants of Gomer ‘landed on the Isle of Britain from France, about three hundred years after the flood’. He also records that the Welsh language is called Gomeraeg (after their ancestor Gomer). Other members of the Gomerite clan settled along the way, including in Armenia. The sons of Gomer were ‘Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah’ (Genesis 10:3). The Encyclopedia Britannica says that the Armenians traditionally claim to be descended from Togarmah and Ashkenaz. Ancient Armenia reached into Turkey. The name Turkey may well come from Togarmah. Others of them migrated to Germany. That connection is supported by the fact that Ashkenaz is the Hebrew word for Germany.
VK: But Japheth’s sons didn’t just spread north and west from Turkey. They also spread far to the east. One of Japheth’s sons was named Madai [MAH-DIE]. Along with Shem’s son Elam, Madai is the ancestor of our modern-day Iranians. Josephus tells us that the descendants of Madai were called Medes by the Greeks. This makes perfect sense because every time the Medes are mentioned in the Old Testament, the word used is the Hebrew word Madai (maday). Initially, the Medes were a separate people and nation but after the time of Cyrus, the Medes are always, with only one exception, mentioned along with the Persians. After Cyrus, the two nations became one kingdom with one law. The Bible will often refer to the law of the Medes and Persians’. Later on the combined entity was simply called Persians. Since 1935 they have called their country Iran. The Medes also moved even further east and are thought to have settled India.
RD: Another one of Noah’s grandsons and also a son of Japheth’s sons was Javan. Javan is the Hebrew word for Greece. Greece, Grecia, or Grecians appears five times in the Old Testament, and is always the Hebrew word Javan. The prophet Daniel refers to ‘the king of Grecia’ in Daniel 8:21), but what Daniel literally says is ‘the king of Javan’. Javan himself had 4 sons named Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim (Genesis 10:4), all of whom have connections with the geographic region of the middle or eastern Mediterranean region. The Elysians were an ancient Greek people and obviously received their name from Elishah. Tarshish or Tarsus was located in the region of Cilicia which is part modern Turkey. Most people know that Greek and Turkey are located very close to each other geographically. Turkey is just east of Greece.
VK: And Tarshish [TAR-SHISH] is famous because the Bible tells us that that was the destination of the boat that Jonah caught before he wound up in the Mediterranean Sea and the belly of the fish. And after the name evolved into Tarsus the city became famous as the hometown of the Apostle Paul. In the book of Acts, chapter 9, verse 11 we hear God telling a man named Ananias [AN-NA-NEYE-US] to go seek out Paul, who at that time was still called Saul. God said to Ananias “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.”
RD: Right. And the geographic connections with Javan continue. The Encyclopedia Britannica says that Kittim is the biblical name for Cyprus. Cyprus is an island that is south of Turkey and near the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. Javan’s 4th son, Dodanim is connected to the famous city of Troy. The people who initially settled around the area of Troy worshipped Jupiter under the name of Jupiter Dodonaeus, possibly a reference to the fourth son of Javan. Jupiter may be a derivative of the name Japheth. Jupiter’s oracle was located at a site called Dodena. The Greeks worshipped this god but called him Zeus.
VK: So, thus far we see that the geographic territory occupied by Japheth’s [JA-PHUTH] descendants has covered a pretty wide range. We have seen that the descendants of his first son Gomer have been found as far to the west of Turkey as Wales and as far to the east as India. This seems like a remarkable confirmation that God honored the prayer that Noah uttered in Genesis, chapter 9, verse 27, part of which said “May God extend Japheth’s territory … .”
RD: Well, let’s take a note of one more son of Japheth: Tubal. Ezekiel mentions Tubal along with Gog and Meshech (Ezekiel 39:1). His name is preserved in the name of the capital city of the nation Georgia whose capital to this day is called Tbilisi. From there, Tubal’s descendants crossed the Caucasus mountains, migrated due north-east, and gave their tribal name to the river Tobol, and hence to the famous city of Tobolsk, Russia. So, this expands the territorial reach of Japheth even more. His descendants stretched over most of the continent of Europe and deep into the continent of Asia. By contrast, the descendants of Noah’s other son Ham are primarily found in the continent of Africa.
VK: Ham had 4 sons: Cush, Mizraim [MIZ-RAY-UM], Phut [FHUT], and Canaan. Ham’s descendants are so prominently identified with Africa that the Bible often refers to Africa as the land of Ham. For instance, the name of Noah’s grandson Cush is the Hebrew word for old Ethiopia. The Ethiopia of the Bible is not in the same place as the nation currently called by this name. Biblical Ethiopia is located more in the region of the modern Sudan. This is obviously still on the African continent. Without exception, the word Ethiopia in the English Bible is always a translation of the Hebrew word Cush.
RD: Noah’s next grandson mentioned was Mizraim. Mizraim is the Hebrew word for Egypt. The name Egypt appears hundreds of times in the Old Testament and with only one exception is always a translation of the word Mizraim. For instance, at the burial of Jacob, the Canaanites observed the mourning of the Egyptians and so called the place Abel Mizraim (Genesis 50:11). Phut, the name of Noah’s next grandson is the Hebrew name for Libya. It is translated three times in the Old Testament that way. The ancient river Phut was in Libya. By Daniel’s day, the name had been changed to Libya (Daniel 11:43). Josephus tells us that, “Phut also was the founder of Libia , and called the inhabitants Phutites, from himself.” Ham’s final son, Canaan, of course, gave his name to land that we call Palestine. When God encountered Moses at the burning bush, God told Moses that he was sending Moses to bring his people into the land of the Canaanites. For a long time the name Canaan was synonymous with the territory we call Israel.
VK: By the time of the Romans that territory was being called Palestine. But even the term Palestine has a connection to Noah’s grandsons. Many scholars see a connection between the Hebrew word that is translated in our Bibles as Philistines. Philistine, in turn came from one of the term “Philistim” [PHIL-IS-STEM] who is one of Ham’s descendants.
RD: So, a brief look at Noah’s grandsons reveals several things. First, we see that as Noah’s grandsons founded tribes that grew into nations those nations fan out from the part of the world where the ark is traditionally thought to have landed: modern day Turkey. Some of Noah’s descendants, especially the families descended from Shem, settled reasonably close by in ancient Assyria (modern Lebanon) and Syria. Ham’s descendants moved south into Africa first settling along the Mediterranean coast but ultimately moved further into the interior. Japheth’s sons moved more northerly but they spread widely to the east and west just as Noah had prayed for. Noah prayed that God would enlarge Japheth’s territory and He did.
VK: And, of course, it makes sense that it would take longer to reach more distant places but there was another consideration, wasn’t there? In the aftermath of the global flood the conditions were perfect for the Ice Age. The volcanic eruptions beneath the sea had put a lot of moisture into the air and the increased particulate matter would have brought on cooler-for-longer conditions. So, as Noah’s descendants spread they would have been more likely to go south first and waited for improvement in the conditions in the northern parts of Europe and Asia. But once the conditions did improve it would have been ideal for settlement. The plants and animals would have made a comeback and there would have been no competition.
RD: The point of all this is that the geographic names that in many cases remain with us today point to the accuracy of the Noahic genealogies that are contained in the book of Genesis. This is confirmation that when Moses made the record he was writing history not some sort of poetical look back at the early history of mankind.
VK: This is one of the reasons that we took pains in our last episode of Anchored by Truth to point out the fact that Moses was the author of the first five books of the Bible. Moses obviously wasn’t around when Noah’s sons and grandsons were so God may have given Moses the history He wanted Moses to record or Moses may have worked from oral or written histories still in circulation – likely a combination of both. Moses wrote in the 15th century BC – over a thousand years after the repopulation of the earth had begun. By that time the tribes and nations that found their origination in Noah’s grandsons had been well established but Moses would not necessarily have possessed all the information that we do. We can rely on information sources that Noah did not have access to like the treasures of clay tablets that would be found thousands of years later in Babylon, Nineveh [NIN-UH-VUH], and other sites.
RD: So, again this points to the reliability of the record that Moses prepared. Moses probably had very little, if any information about how far the Gomerites had spread into France or Germany or the fact that Javan’s descendants were forming city states in what we call Greece. Moses was recording names that were relevant to tribes and peoples of which he was completely unaware. But the accuracy of his record would be confirmed by a great many later historians, even ones from other nations, and archeological finds that would only emerge into widespread view 3,500 years later. Through far-away names and places God would leave an indelible imprint of the accuracy of the record the Holy Spirit was inspiring Moses to write. That’s a pretty phenomenal thought.
VK: Again, the purpose of this “10 Facts Every Christian Needs to Know” series is to enable people to put a solid intellectual foundation beneath their conviction that the Bible is the inspired word of God. In our day and time we need to ensure that we have that foundation because the Bible is under attack from just about every quarter. We are told by popular culture that the Bible is not relevant because it is not accurate. But as we have been discussing here today the Bible’s continuing relevance is established by the abundant evidence that it is accurate even to such small details as the names of one man’s grandsons who lived thousands of years ago.
RD: Yes. People sometimes chafe at the Bible’s genealogies. I suspect most people skip right over many of the lists of names of who begat who when they read the Bible. Even faithful Christians may think that it is more important to read the chapters on family relationships, doctrinal proclamations, or subjects such as love and peace than it is to spend any time on the genealogies. But the simple truth is that the genealogies give us strong evidence that the Bible is the inspired word of God and help us make sense out of God’s actions within world history. Without that evidence we would have no good reason to invest our trust in what the Bible tells us about the other things like salvation, financial matters, family relationships, etc. The big takeaway here is that God gave us each and every part of the Bible for our benefit. We can learn from and benefit from even the parts of the Bible that at first glance may seem to be less relevant to the heart of our faith – the salvation available through Christ alone.
VK: The point of this series and today’s discussion is to help Christians guard against the narratives that circulate so widely today. One of those narratives is that the Bible cannot be trusted. So, to push that narrative the critics must cast doubt on the reliability and authenticity of scripture. Only an almighty, omniscient God could have enabled Moses to provide the genealogies that are validated by history, linguistics, and geography. By doing so God gave us powerful evidence that even those genealogies are inspired revelation. To close, for today let’s listen to a prayer that God would sovereignly bring the renewal and restoration so greatly needed by our churches and our hearts.
---- PRAYER FOR RENEWAL OF THE CHURCH
VK: Before we close we’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes in this series or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.”
If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!”
(Opening Bible Quote from the New International Version)
Genesis, chapter 10, verses 2, 6, and 22, New International Version
The sixteen grandsons of Noah - creation.com
Satan’s Strategy
• Cast doubt on God’s goodness
• Deny God’s truth
• Elevate self-importance
• Establish a replacement in the mind and heart for God’s truth
Cultural Narratives
One way to look at narratives is that there are primary and secondary narratives that circulate in our culture. The primary narratives are so embedded in our culture that they are not even noticed any more. They are like the framed prints on your wall. Initially you see them but as time goes by you notice them less and less. Eventually you only know they are there when a visitor comes in and remarks about them.
Deep time, evolution, uniformitarianism, and the equality of all religious viewpoints are now primary narratives in our culture. Only fools and the suspect disagree with them. The narratives we notice (such as the prominent social and political narratives) are secondary ones - the acceptability of abortion, same sex marriage, the difference between "green" energy and fossil fuels, "public" education, increased government control and regulation, etc. The secondary ones emerge from and are dependent on the primary ones.
• The Big Bang/deep time does away with the need for God as Creator.
• Evolution does away with the need for God as the Author of life.
• Uniformitarianism does away God as the Administrator of justice (become evil continually and God will wipe you off the face of the earth).
Since we've done away with God we now create our own standards for what constitutes "personhood," family, man's dominion over the earth, etc.
The problem is, of course, we didn't do away with God or His truth.
And the house built on intellectual sand falls when the river of reality hits it.
So, we will proclaim the truth to try to save some and maybe by God's grace many or most. People who doubt the inerrancy of scripture never think about any of this but they should.
The line from that which they doubt the Word to a life they don't want to live is very straight. The line grows even more straight as it uncoils - just like the hangman's rope.
