Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Walter Mattfeld" <mattfeld AT mail.pjsnet.com>]

I thank Dr. Safren for the corrections. It is however my understanding that
the Persians are represented in Genesis under the label of Madai/Medes.

The below is an excerpt from some of my research on this subject:

Genesis' list of Japhetic descendants (Ge. 10:2-5) does not suggest a power
that might have ruled over Canaan with Judah (or Israel) in the pre-exilic
or exilic periods. Although some have suggested the Philistines because of
their archaeologically attested Aegean connections, Genesis, however,
eliminates them from consideration, making them the descendants of the
accursed Ham.

It is only in the post-exilic era that we enounter several possible
candidiates, firstly, the Medes, if we allow that the Persians were
confusingly referred to by that name. For example, Cook has noted that
Greeks, Jews, Egyptians, and Minaeans all called the Persians Medes:

"But while Herodotus is careful in distinguishing individual Medes and
Persians, the Greeks generally continued to know the great power in Asia as
the Medes; and Herodotus himself often speaks of the Medes when he is
referring to 'the enemy' or putting words in the mouths of other people such
as the queen of the Massagetai. And it is not only the Greeks; Jews,
Egyptians (who also used the word Mede as a term of abuse), and even the
Minaeans from southern Arabia continued almost indefinitely to speak of the
Medes and not of the Persians." (pp.42-3 ,J.M. Cook, The Persians, Barnes &
Noble, [1983]1993).

Even the Romans called the Nations east of the Tigris Medes:

"It is important to notice the use of the names Medus and Medi by the Roman
poets, for the nations of Asia east of the Tigris in general, and the
Parthians in particular." (p.427, Media," William Smith, A Classical
Dictionary of Biography, Mythology and Geography, London, John Murray, 1875)

All the best,

Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
Walldorf by Heidelberg
Baden-Wurttemburg
Germany