IAPHETH (Hebr. Jepheth, Jāpheth, Septuagint: Ἰάφεθ). — Son of Noah, younger than Sem (Gen. 10:21, according to the Hebrew text) and older than Cham (Gen. 9:24), progenitor of the populations to the west and north of Palestine (Gen. 10:2–5), including the Cimmerians (Gomer), the Medes (Madai), and the Greeks, or Ionians (v. ERIVAN). In general, however, the Aryan-European race is usually regarded as descended from I.
The prominent episode associated with his name is that of the paternal blessing bestowed upon him and Sem on the occasion of the incident that gave the two brothers the opportunity to manifest their respect for their father Noah: “May God enlarge (Hebr. japht) I., and may he dwell in the tents of Sem, and may Canaan be their (Sem’s and I.’s) slave” (Gen. 9:27); this is understood as a prediction of the demographic and civil expansion of the Aryan-Europeans, but at the same time of their religious subordination to the Semites, from whom they in fact received Christianity.
Some comparatists in ethnology and literature admit a relationship between the biblical I. and the Greek Iapetus (Ἰαστνός), who, through Prometheus and Deucalion (cf. Hesiod, Works and Days, 5, 50), has, like I., a connection with a universal flood.