Biblical terminology for race

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.

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.

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.

[6] Scholars at the Göttingen school of history, which played an important role in creating a "scientific" basis for historical research,[7] coined the modern racial definitions of the terms Semitic, Hamitic and Japhetic.

III) Die Chamiten wohnten zu Mosis Zeiten in Schinear, das ist in Mesopotamien und Babylonien, sodann im südwestlichen Arabien (aber ungewiß, ob damals schon, wie hernach, in Ethiopien): von da aber durch ganz Egypten, die nächsten Westfänder Lybiens vielleicht mir eingeschlossen, über einen nördlichen Strich von Arabien, und längst der Küste von Palästina und Syrien, Cypern mit eingeschlossen, bis nach Colchis.

The so-called Indo-Scythians, according to reputation, already lived on the Upper Indus back then; but would not dare to propose the Persians in Moses's days the southern regions that they subsequently had.

Over time, and in part even before Moses, the Hamites became very restricted, primarily through Semitic tribes, whom they had to give way in Arabia, Abyssinia and, more recently, also in Canaan, and here and there to withdraw from Asia, where no countries were entitled to them, forced, or exterminated.

The first depiction of historical ethnology of the world separated into the biblical sons of Noah : Semites , Hamites and Japhetites , 1771, Gatterer 's Einleitung in die Synchronistische Universalhistorie . Gatterer explains that modern history has shown the truth of the biblical prediction of Japhetite supremacy ( Genesis 9:25–27 ). [ 1 ] Click the image for a transcription of the text.
This T and O map , from the first printed version of Isidoor 's Etymologiae , identifies the three known continents as populated by descendants of Sem ( Shem ), Iafeth ( Japheth ) and Cham ( Ham ).
Geographic identifications of Flavius Josephus, c. 100 AD
Woodcut from the Nuremberg Chronicle , showing Shem, Ham and Japheth over their corners of the world
The oldest known map of Europe. The caption reads "Ecce sic diviserunt terram filii Noe post diluvium" (Lo thus did the sons of Noah divide the world after the Flood).