Alice C. Linsley
The earth was not re-populated by Noah's sons after a worldwide flood, but there is genetic evidence that these archaic rulers did have many children. Their R1 DNA has been found from Lake Chad to the Nile Valley to Europe and China.
The Hungarians, for example, claim to be descendants of Noah's son Japheth. In the Hungarian origin stories, Nimrod had two sons: Magor and Hunor. Magor is the equivalent of the Afro-Asiatic name Magog and the Hungarian word Magyar. Magyar is the name for the Hungarian people. Some Magyar still live in the Upper Nile area where they are called the Magyar-ab, the Magyar tribe.
This study compared the Y-DNA of Hungarians with other Finno-Ugrian populations to understand why modern Hungarians have so little of the typical Uralic haplogroup N1c. A few individuals from a 10th-century cemetery were tested and half of the individuals belonged to N1c. Ob-Ugrian is in the the macro-haplogroup N, with its sibling M, and is a descendant of haplogroup L3, originating in the Nile Valley. The Ob River is the main river of Western Siberia. It originates far to the south in the Altai Mountains and flows northward until it empties into the Kara Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean). Ob is an Afro-Asiatic word meaning ruler. Some rulers among the ancient Horites had the title Oba and the first ruler of Petra in Horite Edom was called Obadas.
According to Toomas Kivisild "the lack of L3 lineages other than M and N in India and among non-African mitochondria in general suggests that the earliest migration(s) of modern humans already carried these two mtDNA ancestors, via a departure route over the Horn of Africa." Kivisild notes that the DNA is consistent with the caste practice of endogamy.
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| Tree of Life on Magyar sabertache (tarsoly) plate |
Genesis tells us that Noah had three sons: Ham, Shem and Japheth. To these sons and their wives were born diverse peoples who we call "Afro-Asiatics." At the point in history of Noah's sons, they are more African than Asiatic, as is evident by the name given to Ham's son "Kush" (Gen. 10:6), the ancestral head of the ancient Kushites or Nubians who ruled the Upper Nile region. Ham is also the ancestral head of peoples identified with ancient Egypt, Ethiopia and Canaan.
It was the custom of these rulers to have 2 wives in separate households on a north-south axis. This made it easier for the rulers to control and tax commercial traffic moving through their territories. Remembering that Noah and his sons lived in the part of Africa through which the Nile flowed northward from its headlands in Nigeria, we can understand the practicality of this custom. In Canaan the commercial traffic moved in a north-south direction also.
In Genesis, 3 sons represent a tribal unity and there are many such units listed. Consider these 3-clan confederations:
Jubal, Jabal and Tubal-Kain
Ham, Shem and Japheth
Haran, Nahor and Abraham
Yisbak, Esau and Jacob
Og, Magog and Gog
Uz, Buz and Huz
Within these confederations three priest lines consistently intermarried. So the lines of Ham and Shem intermarried and the lines of Nahor and Abraham intermarried. It appears that Japheth's descendants moved out of the Upper Nile area into Europe and the Near East.
Ham
Ham was the father of great kingdom-builders whose territories spread from Nigeria to southern India. Kush was one of Ham's sons and Kush fathered the rulers Raamah and Nimrod by 2 different wives. Nimrod build a vast kingdom in the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley and Raamah's kingdom stretched from Tyre and Sidon to the cities of the Dead Sea Plain. Raamah's sons were Sheba and Dedan, who intermarried with the people of Shem. Genesis 10 tells us that Nimrod's son by his patrilineal cousin was Asshur, but this son technically belonged to the House of Shem. Likely Arpachshad was Nimrod's son by his half-sister wife.
Shem
Shem's descendants intermarried with the descendants of Ham. Rulers of Shem's house include Asshur, Arpachshad, Selah, and Eber. Eber's two sons were Peleg and Joktan (see diagram). These were born of different wives and the Bible tells us that a "division" took place in this generation (Gen. 10:25). One of Joktan's sons was Sheba, the grandson of Sheba the Elder, the grandson of Kush, the son of Ham. Sheba the elder's brother was Dedan. The Dedanites were the first to use Old Arabic script. The Asshurites and the Elamites used a different script so it is clear that there was a division linguistically.
Japheth
The descendants of Japheth are found in Europe, Turkey, Pakistan, Mongolia and the Upper Nile. This explains the linguistic similarity between some Afro-Asiatic names and some Turkish, Pashtun and Mongolian names, including Jochi, Beri, Malik and Khan. Khan was originally a title meaning king. Today it is a common surname in Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Mongolia. It is equivalent to the Afro-Asiatic Kain or Kayan.
Genghis Khan married a woman of the Olkut’Hun, or Ogur Hun meaning the Hun clan/community. The word ogur means clan/community and appears to be equivalent to the Pashto orkut, meaning community. So ogur, orkut and olkut are cognates and likely related to the Kandahar dialect, which has Tir-hari as a principal dialect. Tir is a form of the name Tiras, mentioned in Genesis 10 and hari is a form of the word for Horite, which relates to Horus and his devotees. It appears that Genghis Khan married into a community with connections to Abraham's Horite Hebrew people.
In Genesis 9:27, we are told that "God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem." This doesn't support the view that Japheth and Shem were separated by great distances. It appears that the two lineages dwelt together and intermingled. The descendants of both Japheth and Shem are found in Europe, Turkey (ancient Anatolia), Pakistan, Bactria, Mongolia and the Upper Nile. This explains the linguistic similarity between some Afro-Asiatic/Semitic names and names/titles in Turkish, Pashtun and Mongolian, including Jochi (Joktan/Yaqtan), Beri, Malik and Khan. Khan was originally a title, meaning king. Today it is a common surname in Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Mongolia. The biblical equivalent is Cain or Qayan. Some of the Pashtun tribes adopted Malik as the ruler's title instead of Khan. Malik is equivalent to the Afro-Asiatic/Semitic Melek, meaning king.
Related reading: Where Dwelleth Japheth; Haplogroups of Interest to Biblical Anthropologists; Was Earth Repopulated By Noah's Descendants?; Who Were the Horites?; The Extent of Noah's Flood; The Lines of Ham and Shem Intermarried; Y-Chromosome Haplotypes in Egypt; African Religion Predates Hinduism
