Genesis #10 Ch. 9:20-11 — Chuck Missler

Genesis 9 Through 11 and the Scope of the Study

This is the tenth study in the book of Genesis conducted by Chuck Missler. The subject of this tape, Genesis 9, verse 20 through chapter 11.

Heavenly Father, we just praise you from the bottom of our heart for this opportunity to explore your book. We thank you, Father, for this evening and this opportunity. We would ask, Father, in accordance with the promises you've given us, to just open our hearts and our understanding by your Holy Spirit to your word that we might understand those things which were written aforetime for our learning and that we, through the patience and the comfort of the scriptures, might have hope and that in all these things we would become more aware that the volume of the book is written of Jesus Christ.

And, Father, as we explore these passages, we just ask that you would be with us, give us an appetite and a hunger for those things that are fruitful and edify and help us, Father, not to get off in tangents in areas that are not productive.

For, Father, we would just seek you as our teacher through your Holy Spirit as was promised by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray, amen. Well, we're finishing, hopefully, close to finishing the most difficult third, if you will, of the book of Genesis.

Genesis as the Story of Mankind, Abraham, and Joseph

Chapters one through eleven are the story of mankind at large. We've started with the creation in Genesis 1 and 2 and 3, the fall of Adam, the whole development of the antediluvian or pre-flood civilization and the deliverance of Noah and his own.

And we have an interesting discussion of the post-flood civilization tonight. And we should get into the table of nations, as it's called, Genesis 10. All of this sets the stage for the next major section of the book of Genesis, the call of Abraham, chapter 12 on.

And in general, most people regard the book of Genesis as three major parts. The story prior to Abraham, which we're concluding tonight. The story of Abraham himself, which is pivotal in the scripture.

In fact, some of the most exciting prophecy passages are in the study and incident to and involved with the father of the faithful, Abraham. And generally, most people regard the story of Joseph, while it's one of the 12 tribes, when we get to the story of Joseph, we have an extended narrative that, it frankly fascinates me, has not been made into a Hollywood movie because in their interest in scripts and so forth, there have been many biblical passages rendered into very exciting movies.

But the one that, to the best of my knowledge, has been missed in terms of just sheer drama and emotion and so forth, is the story of Joseph. And so we'll take that sort of as a third of three thirds, not certainly an equal size.

Noah After the Flood and the Rainbow Covenant

But tonight we are into the conclusion, in a sense, of the story of Noah. There's no way we can exhaust the flood. We could have spent many, many, much, much time on that. But I think many of you may feel we're taking long enough as it is.

We did, I think, last time, cover, let's see, we came down, I think we came through chapter 8, discussed the institution of human government. I believe we covered that last time, right? And thank you.

And we got up to about verse 19, through 19, of chapter 9. And again, as I looked through my notes and reviewed the material last time, a long list of things occurred to me that we didn't cover, but I have a feeling we, well, our whole intent anyway, I'll take refuge in my definition of salt.

He instructs us to be the salt of the earth. And the casual use of salt is, of course, to make you thirsty. Right? So I'll leave that. And if you find those things intriguing, you'll dig in on your own from the bibliography that we had passed out, and I'll have some additional copies of that in future evenings and let you explore the book on your own.

We did cover the rainbow. The rainbow is covered three times in the scripture, but in each case it's associated with the throne of God. We see it here, of course, in Genesis, as a sign, token, symbol, commitment of the Lord relative to flooding the earth with water.

And we have the same image occurs again, or I should say the rainbow occurs again in Ezekiel and also the book of Revelation, incident to the throne of God. So if you're into rainbows, you can study rainbows in the scripture.

The Universal Flood and the Persistence of Sin

Okay, so we got up to verse 9. Now, the interesting thing about this flood is that the flood destroyed sinful man. All but eight were wiped out on the entire earth. One other point that I think is important for us to recognize is the language of the book of Genesis clearly requires a universal flood.

Because if the flood was local or partial or some scholars like to retreat to, then the Lord has broken His covenant. Because His covenant in chapter 9 was never again to bring a flood like that one. Well, there have been many, many widespread devastating floods.

And if the flood at issue here was something less than a universal worldwide flood, then we've got a problem. And I mentioned that as sort of a backhanded evidence that the scripture really speaks of a universal flood.

But the interesting thing is that the flood did not wipe out sin. The flood wiped out sinful men. And what's amazing here, the very first event in the new world, here we are, Noah and his family, the ark is at rest and they've come off the ark.

And indeed, the first thing he did was to build an altar. And we took note of that last time. But chapter 9 doesn't close before we have a very pathetic, dismal, disheartening glimpse into the heart of man.

As we'll sense here that we don't have a full insight as to what probably was going on, although what insight we have makes it a bit discouraging. Okay. Let's, verse 20. We're down to chapter 9, verse 20.

Noah’s Drunkenness and Ham’s Dishonor

And Noah began to be a farmer, or husband, or anyway, and he planted a vineyard. And he drank of the wine and became drunk. And he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brethren outside.

And Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces were backward and they saw not their father's nakedness.

Now, this may strike us as strange for a lot of reasons. First of all, the idea of the father lying naked as a result of his drunkenness probably doesn't offend us as much as the import of the text implies it should.

And many scholars are very divided about just exactly what's at issue here. Certainly, as a minimum, the issue here is one of a lack of respect for the father. And one gets the impression from the handling of this whole situation that the respect that should have been shown is a very, very high thing.

There may be even more here than meets the eye because the verb in the Hebrew where it says, We, in the English, think of that in the passive voice that he was uncovered as describing his condition. The Hebrew structure implies an active verb.

That was something that was done to him. Furthermore, as we skip down here in verse 24, moving on, let's finish the chapter and then come back. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done unto him, and he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. And then Noah lived after the flood some 350 years, and all the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died.

Now, several strange things about this. This whole business of Noah getting drunk doesn't sound to us like that grave a circumstance. And that can speak to two different things. It can speak to the level of depravity that we're in, where we don't regard that as that serious.

But it also can hint here as to some other things that are going on. The fact that there was an active act involved, the fact that in several verses, both in verse 21 and in 24, there's in the language implied an act.

Many scholars, not all, it's a lot of controversy about it, many scholars believe that what was involved here was a homosexual act on the part of one of the sons, on the part of him. And that's hinted at in the text, it's far from conclusive, but it is a hint and a suggestion that is in the literature, and many scholars defend, and so I share that with you.

Noah’s Watchfulness, Salvation, and the Messianic Line

There is sort of a disturbing thing here, setting aside, first of all, the act of him, whatever that was. And that is the situation with Noah. You know, Noah should be a lesson to us, all of us, for watchfulness in prayer.

I want you to think about Noah for a minute. For 600 years, Noah walked with God. For 600 years, Noah walked with God. God established his salvation for Noah and his family, and indeed for the whole human race, and in fact preserved the Messianic line through Noah.

Now, indeed, it was through grace, not through anything Noah earned. I don't mean to imply that Noah was a good guy in the sense that he earned that. We went through that before. But certainly, one could argue that 600 years certainly led to his being a vessel or a vehicle of deliverance.

What's also interesting is that, okay, after this incredible event of the 371 days in the ark, and leaving the ark and starting a new world, it's surprising that he fell into this circumstance. And furthermore, what's interesting is of the 300 years following, we have no record.

Isn't that interesting? Noah has no witness after this act. The last event in Noah's life we have is this rather discouraging scene recorded in chapter 9. The last 300 years or so, or 350 years of Noah are blank, in effect.

And I think that's sobering. It's also kind of interesting as just an observation here is that Noah lived 950 years. We're going to discover that people after the flood lived shorter lives. This long life associated with Noah and Methuselah and the rest of these guys, pre-flood, the antediluvian people, was a pre-flood association.

And the canopy theory is widely held by biblical scholars is that there was an absence of radiation, what have you, other circumstances that led to this long longevity. And it's interesting that the shorter longevity didn't start immediately after the flood.

Noah himself was apparently not significantly affected by the post-flood conditions because he lived 350 years later. In fact, and I should also mention the genealogies in Genesis 5 and Genesis 11 are very, very controversial.

The Genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11

There are many good scholars that believe that those genealogies are not tight genealogies, that is they're not exclusive, father-son, father-son, father-son genealogy. It turns out in the ancient languages, particularly Hebrew, there isn't really a word for grandson.

You are the son of your great-grandfather as far as the linguistics are concerned. And so when you say someone, like if you use Matthew's genealogy or so-and-so begot someone, that generally implies direct succession.

It doesn't have to, but it generally does. But just being the son of somebody could... There are cases, and I think we've alluded to those in the past, in the Zechariah study that came up, where someone is regarded as the son of his grandfather, where his grandfather was a notable priest and he was a priest, there was a father in between that sort of goes without a lot of comment.

The point is, there's a big controversy as to whether the genealogies in Genesis 5 and Genesis 11 are tight or not. If they're tight, then we can use them for some chronology and some dating studies. If they're not tight, they raise all kinds of other questions.

And there are good scholars on both sides of that question. There are many, many scholars that are very conservative in their biblical viewpoint that still feel that there are gaps in Genesis 5 and Genesis 11.

I personally have waded through a lot of literature on the subject, and I also... Let me finish the sentence. There are also many conservative, sound, profound scholars that believe the genealogies are tight.

And in the absence of an abundance of information to the contrary, I would lean to a tight genealogy for a lot of reasons. But the subject is not crisp, clear, unequivocally arguable, and I don't think...

I think it would get into a very dry, technical, laborious study to get into that and try to show you both sides, because that hangs on very heavy technicality. So I'm personally regarding them as tight, but I think it's fair to point out that there are many scholars that don't believe they are.

If they are tight genealogies, then there's some very interesting things. Noah lived until Abraham was 58 years old. That's interesting. Shem, Noah's son, lived 502 years after the flood, and that means he lived till after Terah, Abraham's father, died.

So Abraham's father very reasonably could have had a dialogue with Shem. In fact, even Noah could have lived until Terah was 128 years old. Depends on how some of those dovetail, and we tend to think of thousands of years, because we have this whole conditioning of the geologists that there are thousands of years intervening here.

Not really. It's kind of interesting. But getting back to this business here, we now have this rather unsavory circumstance between Ham... And it's interesting that the writer here, being Moses, emphasizes Canaan here.

Ham had other sons, and we're going to get into that, but the son that is conspicuously of interest is Canaan. And another thing that really confuses the scholars, and here again we don't have a lot to go on, is why Canaan, the son of Ham, was cursed for what apparently Ham did.

That's a heavy trip, because you can get into volumes on this subject. Many people try to make the curse on Ham somehow relate to black peoples, and that's naive. We're going to see that when we get to the table of nations.

That is not at all what's here. That's not at all what the scripture lays on us. It is something you run into in incompetent literature of the past. But the curse here, incidentally, isn't on Ham. Strangely enough, the curse is on Canaan.

Now, some scholars believe that curse is on Canaan generically, also includes the other sons of Ham. And others feel it's specifically Canaan, that it's in the son of Ham that the curse is laid. Others ascribe the curse on Canaan as simply a prophecy, not necessarily accruing because of Ham's sin.

Follow me? We're going to run into that in Genesis 49, where Jacob pronounces a prophecy on each of the twelve sons. And some of them are really quite cryptic, and we'll have a delightful time going through that when we get to Genesis 49, because indeed some of it is very graphic and really quite fascinating.

But again, it's a prophecy, not a curse. And this idea here of what's going on here, we tend to read it as a consequence of the sin. But that's a little tough, because it's the son of the sinner that's being cursed.

And another view that the scholars have is that the curse that's being pronounced here is simply a prophecy, that Canaan is going to be cursed. And we're going to see why. Canaan's going to do his thing, in the sense of the kinds of things he leads to.

Because he's going to have a guy by the name of Nimrod and all of that, and so forth. Or rather, Canaan's going to end up, excuse me, Canaan's going to be the servant of service. They are going to serve Shem.

The Curse of Canaan and Its Misuse

Let's go through a little more cautiously, verses 24 through 29. And Noah woke from his wine, knew, and he knew what his younger son had done to him. That's the verse that gives rise to scholars believing that there was something more than just the fact that he was uncovered.

And he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants. By the way, this is the first place that the word servant appears in the Scripture. And if you're a student of the book of Revelation, you know that the first mention is usually considered a significant thing in the Scripture.

If you have a mystical view of the Scripture, the place that a word first occurs is often very, very suggestive. A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And that's exactly what we're going to find from Canaan.

We're going to find that, in fact, they are in servitude under Israel. Let me skim ahead here a little bit. In Joshua chapter 9, verse 27, the Gibeonites make their deal. And as a result, are in servitude.

In Judges chapter 1, verse 28, and all the way as recently as Solomon in 1 Kings 9, 20 and 21 and so on, we have the Canaanites being in subjugation under Israel. And so most scholars would see that as fulfilled in that particular sense.

When we get into Genesis 10, we'll get into the Canaanites more thoroughly. He said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. Now here's where Shem, that's why this passage may not necessarily be a response to the foregoing.

It's an occasion where Noah prophesies on his sons. And he speaks of his grandson, really, Canaan, son of Ham. Now he speaks of Shem. Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. It's interesting that Shem is identified here, then, as the channel through which God will be honored.

He is, of course, the channel through which the Messianic line flows. Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. And Canaan shall be his servant. And that's the three passages, just a sampling I gave you, speaks of Canaan being the servant of Shem.

God shall enlarge Japheth. Now that's a pun, incidentally. That's a pun. We had some people at the Arrowhead Conference fascinated that there are puns in the Bible. The Bible is full of puns, not necessarily humorous puns, just plays on words.

The Lord being called a Nazarene and a branch. The Lord being called the Lamb of God, in effect, is a pun in the sense of a double use of the word. Here we have, in effect, a pun because the word Japheth means to enlarge.

That's what the word itself means. God shall enlarge Japheth. And he shall dwell in the tents of Shem. He shall tabernacle with Shem. And Canaan shall be his servant. Canaan comes off poorly here. Because he's serving everybody.

And on the one hand, that is interesting to track the Canaanite families. But it's also been a passage of much abuse. Because much of the defense of slavery in the earlier history of our country was based on the notion that the black peoples were descendants of Canaan.

And were based on this. And that turns out, as we'll get into, to be a little naive. Anyway, then we get into this interesting comment. Noah lived after the flood 350 years. And all the days of Noah were 950 years.

And he died. To me, that's the most dismal part of the passage. It is a little discomforting to read about the strange incident that occurs earlier. But it's also disturbing to hear a guy that has had those experiences for 300 years has nothing else to report.

I think that's interesting. Okay, now we're going to get into chapter 10. And chapter 10 is an interesting chapter. You might label chapter 10 the Table of Nations. It is called that by many Bible scholars.

The Table of Nations

As we go through other passages of prophecy, all through from the scripture, we will constantly have reference to Genesis chapter 10. Because it's the Table of Nations. We're going to have the genealogies of Noah here.

And now these are the generations, the Toledot, of the sons of Noah. There's a very interesting thing. We'll discover there are 70 families listed here. And what makes that interesting, when we get to Genesis chapter 46, we'll discover that the same number of families as there were children of Israel that entered into Egypt from Canaan.

And we're going to discover in Deuteronomy that that probably was not an accident. The Lord pointed at the boundary. And we'll get back to that as sort of a conclusion thing before we're all finished.

Oh, one other thing I wanted to do before we leave chapter 9. You know, it's interesting to keep our antennas tuned to parallels. And not to make a big thing of it, but just as sort of an exercise. If we had a class and I was going to assign you homework, I would suggest that between now and next Monday night, that you find 10 ways that Noah and Adam were alike.

Or were in a parallel situation. Now, since I'm not going to be here next Monday night, it would be unfair not to be able to grade the papers, so I'll give you a clue as to what some of the things you'd obviously have put on your papers if I gave you that assignment.

Parallels Between Adam and Noah

Of those 10 things, the first thing you might observe, that in Genesis chapter 1, verse 12, Adam followed. Adam was on the earth after the earth emerged from the waters. And we find that Noah was on the earth, obviously, after the earth emerged from the waters.

We also learn from Genesis chapter 1, verse 28, that Adam was appointed the Lord of creation. It was given to him to run it. And, of course, in Noah chapter 9, verse 2, he was given, to him was delivered all things.

To Adam he was instructed, again in Genesis chapter 1, that he was blessed and he was to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. And that was the same instruction that was given to Noah in chapter 9, verse 1.

So, in that sense, they're in very parallel situations, isn't it? They're parallel in some other ways, too. Adam was placed in a garden to dress and keep it. And Noah became a farmer, a husbandman, planted the vineyard.

It's interesting, they both blew it when they partook of some fruit. Isn't that interesting? I was a little way out, okay. Now the word will get around town that Chuck Missler says you shouldn't eat fruit, right?

But it's interesting because it was indeed in a garden that Adam transgressed and fell by partaking of fruit. And Noah, it was a product of the vineyard that caused him to be, that occasioned his problem.

Sin, in both cases, exposed their nakedness. Adam in chapter 3, verse 7, and Noah in chapter 9, verse 21. In both cases, they were covered by another. Obviously in a different sense altogether, but just as an observation.

And in Adam's case, there was a terrible curse pronounced on his posterity. They were, that's mentioned in Romans chapter 5, verse 12. And of course, with Noah too, you'll find that same thing developed in Genesis 24, among other places.

There's also something else that's interesting. Adam had three sons, Cain, Abel, and Seth. And it was in the third son that the Messianic line was established. Noah has three sons, and in the order that they're named, Japheth, Ham, and Shem.

It's in Shem's line that the Messianic line is established. And of course, in each case, their fall is the occasion of a major prophecy. In Adam's case, of course, the prophecy of redemption in chapter 3, verse 15.

And in Noah's case, here we have a prophecy concerning the destiny of his three sons. And we'll understand the destiny of his three sons better when we see who their offspring are and what comes out of that.

I don't know if that's a big deal, but it's something that I thought I should share with you as just an exercise. And it's the kind of thing that is sometimes very fruitful to be alert to. Some other parallels you can draw is, as you go further here, Ham's primary sin was not to honor his father.

Setting aside this homosexual issue, one way or the other, the main issue, even if you have a more conservative view of the thing, clearly Ham's sin, the issue here, is one of honoring his father. And that was Adam's problem, too.

The Peoples Descended from Japheth

Okay. Now let's see what we can make of chapter 10. And chapter 10 is almost an irresistible chapter to bore you to tears with long lists of where all these tribes went and who they became. And that, of course, has seven versions because each different ancient historian has a slightly different twist on them.

And it can get on and on and on. So what I'm really going to try to do tonight is give you the highlights on the presumption that those of you that aren't that interested will be greatly relieved by that treatment.

And those of you that are really interested can dig into the dusty shelves of a good library and become an expert on just who these people are. And so, chapter 10, Table of Nations, verse 1. Now these are the Toledoth, the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Now see, in this case, the order's the other way around. The most important first. We know that the younger son was Ham, right? And yet Ham's in the middle. So it's Shem, Ham, and Japheth. It's a different order.

And you might always be sensitive to that, by the way. As we go through Genesis, you're going to discover that the order of different things is never casual. Especially the twelve tribes. They're always listed in a different order, and each time it's for a reason.

Anyway, unto them were sons born after the flood. The sons of Japheth. Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Yavan, and Tubal, and Meshach, and Tyrus. The sons of Japheth, first of all, is that group of tribes that you and I, in general, will probably easily relate to because they are really what we think of the Indo-European nations.

And Gomer is tracked by most of the authors as the forebearer of the Cimmerians, which became later the Indo-European tribes. And we're going to discover here shortly, we're going to get to Gomer's sons.

Okay, in verse 3. And the sons of Gomer, Ashkenaz, Ripheth, and Togarmah, are his three sons. Now, the Ashkenazi, there's some controversy about this, but it generally is regarded as the predecessors to the Germans.

And in the Hebrew traditions, that concept is especially strong, as the German Jews were referred to as the Ashkenazi. The Ashkenaz, apparently, is the ancient Germanic peoples. Now, Ripheth is one of those that we don't really know a lot about.

It turns out that Ripheth, though in one reckoning, a corruption of that word, is the word that some scholars believe the word Europe came from. Interesting, it's just a linguistic thing. That's not obvious from the English, but it's an etymological study that's kind of interesting.

Togarmah is the name that even today the Armenians refer to themselves. They refer to themselves as the House of Togarmah. The only controversy about that is that Togarmah, as it occurs in scripture, may be broader.

The Armenians may be only one group, one subset of the House of Togarmah. But the fact that they attract themselves to the House of Togarmah is visible even to this day. Okay, let's just go down the root thing here, where it gives the genealogy of the sons.

The next one we have, the sons of Yavan, or Javan. Yavan is the Ionians or the Greeks. It's interesting that the Greeks regard themselves as the sons of Iapetos, I-A-P-E-T-O-S, if you want to write it out in our alphabet, which is another name for Japheth, and his son being Yavan, or Yavan being the forebear of the Greeks, even in their culture today.

So Yavan you'll find links to the Greeks. Elisha, this is a different Elisha than you're thinking of in terms of the Hebrew name, but Elisha is a corruption of that, or an etymological derivation of that, becomes Hellas, or the word from which we get Hellenic.

It's linked to that, believe it or not. Now Tarshish is a tough one. There's been a lot of interest in trying to establish where Tarshish really was. It occurs all through the Bible, and it's always a place a long way away.

And it's in Isaiah 66, verse 19, and Psalm 72, 10 are a couple of examples, but there are many, in which we're fascinated to find out what Tarshish is really all about. Many scholars associate Tarshish with one of the islands in the Mediterranean, relatively nearby.

Some scholars that are a little more venturesome feel that it might have been Spain, or a settlement in Spain. All we really know from Ezekiel 27, there's a passage which causes us to believe that Tarshish was a source of silver, iron, tin, and lead.

Now we do know that Tarshish was only available by sea. We know that from the book of Jonah. Remember Jonah, to flee his ministry that God had called him to, took a ship, the ship that had all the problems with the big fish and all that, was on its way to Tarshish, wherever that was.

And also Solomon boasted of a fleet of ships that were to Tarshish, 1 Kings 10, 22. Now, students of the details of those stories, even the Solomonic fleet was a smelting fleet. Tarshish is clearly a source of tin.

So the main clues as to where Tarshish is, hangs on the idea of it being a source of tin. And several of the places that are closer in are possible sources of tin. But some scholars, not a large number, but there are some scholars that attribute Tarshish to the British Isles.

Britannia was named Britannia, as its name derives from its early source of tin, at a time when that was very, very valuable. Or still is, I don't mean to imply it isn't, but I mean when that was its major stock in trade.

Now, incidentally, as just another aside, that may seem very strange to us as just students of early history. But those of you that are students of Stonehenge know that at the time of Stonehenge, the archaeological evidence there indicates that at the time of Stonehenge, which was about 1500 BC, the peoples there enjoyed worldwide trade.

There are artifacts from the Middle East and from India and elsewhere at Stonehenge. One of the great mysteries of Stonehenge is the cultural opportunity it provided for... It was apparently a very well-known temple.

And there are references to it in the ancient literature. So one possibility, by no means a conclusively provable thing, is that Tarshish was a label for a culture in the British Isles. As a source of tin, as one that was available only by an extended sea voyage, and it would fit what we do know about Tarshish.

But it's by no means conclusively ascertainable. Okay. And then we've got the Kittim and the Dunham. And I'm not sure I've got all of these laid out here. But I skipped over a few that I'm sure is of great interest to you, because that's the detailed...

We'll shortly get into the Sons of Ham. Before we leave the Sons of Japheth, we've mentioned a couple of others. There's one by the name of Magog. And I assume some of you have heard of Magog. People who have absolutely no interest in the book of Genesis, chapter 10, are fascinated to find out who Magog is.

And that, of course, accrues because of the fascinating references in Ezekiel 38 and 39. By no means the only place that Magog appears in the Scripture. And I might mention that a Babylonian king writing to an Egyptian pharaoh, I've forgotten the year, but a very, very early record, makes reference to Magog in such a way that he dwells north of the Black Sea, which is kind of interesting.

Magog is regarded by most scholars as the ancestor from which the Scythians came, which are the forebears of the Russians, or at least some of the tribes that make up what we think of as the Soviet Union.

Now, also associated with Magog, we have a couple of other names, Tubal and Meshech. Now, Meshech is linked to the Muscovy, which is a word that is indigenous to Russia, and that linguistic root is pretty clear.

Tubal links to Tobolsk. It's the Tabirinians of Herodotus or the Tabileans of the Assyrian documents. And again, both the Meshech and the Tubal references are regarded as the Muscovy by Saragon II. He was the great conqueror of the Assyrian Empire.

Even in the Ezekiel passage, this group, Magog, Meshech, Tubal, their chief is spoken of as the chief of Rosh, and the word Rosh there is the same linguistic root from which the word Russia derives her name.

So Meshech, Tubal, and Magog are linked tribally to the area that we think of as the Soviet Union. Now, the Medi are clearly the Medes. They're brought west of the Caspian Sea. They appear as early as a group actively in history, 900 B .C., and of course at 700 B .C. or so become the beginnings of the Medo-Persian Empire and become very prominent in the Book of Daniel and so forth.

Tyrus is mentioned here in verse 2. Tyrus is associated with the Etruscans of early Italy in several ways, for what that's worth. So as we think of Japheth, we think of him as the Indo-European nations.