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  • From: Peter_Kirk AT sil.org
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Gen 10:21
  • Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 01:15 -0500 (EST)


An interesting question has just been put to me concerning Genesis
10:21:

Is Japheth older or younger than Shem?

According to the accents of the Masoretic Text, NIV (also KJV, NKJV)
is correct: "21 Sons were also born to Shem, whose older brother was
Japheth; Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber." LXX and (so I
am told) older Jewish commentators support this view.

But all other modern translations I have at hand (in various
languages) translate something like NRSV "To Shem... the elder brother
of Japheth".

MT is ...):AXEY YEPET HAG.FDOWL, with a disjunctive accent (Tipha) on
):AXEY and a conjunctive accent (Mereka) in YEPET.

Elsewhere Shem is always the first listed. He seems to have had at
least the right of the firstborn (from the perspective of the
"Semitic" writers). But was he necessarily actually the firstborn?
Might a "Japhethite" commentator prefer to interpret Japheth as the
eldest?

Any comments?

Peter Kirk





  • Gen 10:21, Peter_Kirk, 10/20/1998

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