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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume II

Book Fifteen — the multiplication of mankind after the flood

{And the sons of Iavan: Elisa and Tharsis, Cethim and Dodanim.}

LatineEnglish

{And the sons of Iavan: Elisa and Tharsis, Cethim and Dodanim.}1

Filii autem Iavan: Elisa et Tharsis, Cethim et Dodanim.

PRIMO Iavani filio Elisa ortos esse Graecos qui dicti sunt Aeoles plerique putarunt, haud dubie Iosephum secuti. Paraphrastes Chaldaeus, apud Ezechielem c. 27 (ubi Latinus interpres vertit, de insulis Elisa) reddidit, de insulis Italiae, idem putans Elisam atque Italiam. Certe non est improbabile Elisam et posteros eius pernavigasse totum illud mare Graecum, et insulas eius inhabitasse, et de parentis sui nomine appellasse; nec solum insulas aut loca eius maris, sed etiam ceteri maris Mediterranei. Solet enim Scriptura, cum de insulis agit, transmarinas etiam regiones intelligere, in quibus insulas maris Mediterranei comprehendit. Nec mihi videtur plane futilis eorum coniectura qui opinantur ipsum Elisam aut eius posteros, emenso Mediterraneo [mari]…
From the first son of Iavan, Elisa, most have thought that the Greeks who are called Aeolians sprang — doubtless following Josephus. The Chaldaic Paraphrast, in Ezekiel ch. 27 (where the Latin interpreter renders “of the islands of Elisa”), rendered “of the islands of Italy,” thinking Elisa the same as Italy. Certainly it is not improbable that Elisa and his posterity sailed all round that Greek sea, and inhabited its islands, and named them from their parent's name; and not only the islands or places of that sea, but also of the rest of the Mediterranean sea. For Scripture, when it treats of islands, is wont to understand transmarine regions also, among which it comprehends the islands of the Mediterranean sea. Nor does the conjecture of those seem to me wholly futile who opine that Elisa himself, or his posterity, having traversed the Mediterranean [sea]…2
…mari, extraque fretum Gaditanum evecti, pervenisse ad insulas Fortunatas, easque de nomine auctoris sui generis nominasse Eliseas aut Elisias: atque id fecisse locum fabulis poetarum inibi locantium beatorum sedes, quas illi campos Elysios nominarunt. Verum haec qualiscunque coniectatio, vel potius divinatio, cui arriserit, ei tantum esto probabilis.
…and, carried out beyond the Strait of Cadiz, came to the Fortunate Islands, and named them from the name of the author of their race Eliseas or Elysias: and that this gave occasion to the fables of the poets placing there the seats of the blessed, which they called the Elysian fields. But this conjecture of whatever sort — or rather divination — let it be probable only to him to whom it is pleasing.3
ALTER Iavani filius nominatur Tharsis. Ab hoc ortos esse Cilices non vane creditur, argumento metropolis eius regionis, totoque orbe quondam inclytae urbis, quae prisco retento vocabulo dicta est Tarsus, super omnia ortu Beati Pauli nobilitata. Nec facit contra hoc quod Tharsus sine aspiratione scribatur; solent enim Graeci, et Graecorum more Septuaginta Interpretes, in multis vocabulis ש vertere in ת. Ergo vocabulum Tharsis primo ac proprie significat Ciliciam et mare illud Cilicum. Iosephus libro octavo Antiquitatum Tharsis interpretatur regionem Indiae, id est, Auream Chersonesum; sicut etiam B. Hieronymus in Epist. 132. Septuaginta interpretes apud Esaiam vigesimo tertio, Ezechielem vigesimo septimo, pro Tharsis posuerunt Carthaginem; cui affine est, quod Chaldaica paraphrasis apud Hieremiam capite decimo, et tertio Regum capite decimo, Tharsis interpretatur Africam; at Psalmo septuagesimo secundo, Ciliciam: cum tamen et ipse et Septuaginta multis locis vertant mare. Iosephus vero lib. nono Antiquitatum, quod narratur secundo Paralipomenon capite 20 de classe regis Iosaphat, quae comparata fuerat in Mari Rubro ut iret in Tharsis, significari putavit mare Ponticum et emporia Thraciae — sed manifesto in Geographia lapsu: neque enim ex Mari Rubro classis petere poterat Pontum aut Thraciam, nisi immenso paene Oceano totoque Mediterraneo mari circumvecta.
The second son of Iavan is named Tharsis. That the Cilicians sprang from him is not vainly believed, by the argument of the metropolis of that region, the city once renowned in all the world, which, keeping its ancient name, was called Tarsus — above all ennobled by the birth of St. Paul. Nor does it make against this that Tharsus is written without the aspiration; for the Greeks, and after the Greeks' manner the Septuagint Interpreters, are wont in many words to turn ש into ת. Therefore the word Tharsis first and properly signifies Cilicia and that Cilician sea. Josephus in book eight of the Antiquities interprets Tharsis as a region of India, that is, the Golden Chersonese; as also St. Jerome in Epistle 132. The Septuagint interpreters in Isaiah 23 and Ezekiel 27 put Carthage for Tharsis; to which is akin that the Chaldaic paraphrase in Jeremiah ch. 10, and in 3 Kings ch. 10, interprets Tharsis as Africa, but in Psalm 72 as Cilicia — although both it and the Septuagint in many places translate it ‘sea.’ But Josephus in book nine of the Antiquities, [regarding] what is narrated in 2 Chronicles ch. 20 of the fleet of king Iosaphat, which had been prepared in the Red Sea to go to Tharsis, thought there was signified the Pontic sea and the marts of Thrace — but with a manifest slip in Geography: for from the Red Sea a fleet could not seek the Pontus or Thrace, except carried round by almost the whole Ocean and the whole Mediterranean sea.4
SED ut in pauca conferam quae ad notionem huius vocis pertinent: arbitror vocabulum Tharsis primo significasse Ciliciam et mare Cilicum praetentum Phoeniciae et Syriae, indeque traductum ad significandum omne mare Mediterraneum et loca eius maritima — vel quia Tharsis filius Iavan, aut eius posteri, e Cilicia profecti, totum hoc mare permensi et insulas et maritima loca pervagati, ea colonis et habitatoribus compleverunt (nam quod Cilices late mari terraque dominatos esse tradit Solinus cap. 41: Cilicia, inquit, quondam usque ad Pelusium Aegypti pertinebat, Lydiis, Medis, Armeniis, Pamphylia, Cappadocia sub imperio Cilicum constitutis); vel ex parte ad totum traductio eius nominis facta est. Nonnunquam enim quod uni alicui rei significandae primo inditum est nomen, id postea usu ipso ad alia multa significanda traducitur, ut patet in vocabulo Cethim, quod primo quidem Cyprum, inde omnes insulas ac loca maritima significavit. Et quia inter loca maritima huius maris Mediterranei celeberrima fuit olim Carthago (namque Carthaginenses diu multumque mari dominati sunt, re navali pollentes ac florentes), idcirco nonnullis locis scripturae pro Tharsis tam Graece quam Chaldaice et Latine [positum est nomen Carthaginis]…
But to bring into few words what pertains to the notion of this word: I judge that the word Tharsis first signified Cilicia and the Cilician sea stretched before Phoenicia and Syria, and thence was transferred to signify the whole Mediterranean sea and its maritime places — either because Tharsis the son of Iavan, or his posterity, setting out from Cilicia, traversed this whole sea and ranged over the islands and maritime places, and filled them with colonists and inhabitants (for that the Cilicians ruled far and wide by sea and land, Solinus relates in ch. 41: “Cilicia,” he says, “once reached as far as Pelusium of Egypt, the Lydians, Medes, Armenians, Pamphylia, [and] Cappadocia being set under the dominion of the Cilicians”); or the transfer of that name was made from a part to the whole. For sometimes a name first given to signify some one thing is afterward, by usage itself, transferred to signify many other things, as is plain in the word Cethim, which first signified Cyprus, then all islands and maritime places. And because among the maritime places of this Mediterranean sea Carthage was once most famous (for the Carthaginians long and greatly ruled the sea, being powerful and flourishing in naval affairs), therefore in some places of scripture, for Tharsis, both in Greek and Chaldaic and Latin, [the name of Carthage is put]…5
…positum est nomen Carthaginis vel Africae, ut supra diximus.
…the name of Carthage or Africa, as we said above.6
CUM autem mare Mediterraneum, quod esset amplissimum altissimumque, a Iudaeis diceretur Mare magnum, et naves magnae quae in eo mari navigabant appellarentur naves Tharsis, hinc factum est ut id nominis etiam ad Oceanum ipsum significandum (ut patet ex libris Regum et Paralipomeno) sit translatum. Sic enim intelligi potest quod scriptum est in illis libris de Classe regum Iuda quae ex Mari Rubro petebatur Tharsis, id est, mare Indicum: nam quod eo vocabulo alii exposuerint regionem Indiae, propterea non placet quibusdam viris doctis, quod non filii Iavan (id est Tharsis et eius posteri), sed filii Iectan (ut Ophir et Hevila) ad loca Indiae incolenda profecti sint; non igitur illis convenit vocabulum Tharsis. Verum de vocabulo Tharsis satis haec in praesentia, de quo etiam disputavimus lib. 12 nostrorum Commentariorum in Danielem, ut, si quae forte hic desiderabuntur, inde liceat petere.
And since the Mediterranean sea, because it was most ample and most deep, was by the Jews called the Great Sea, and the great ships which sailed in that sea were called ships of Tharsis, hence it came about that that name was transferred even to signify the Ocean itself (as is plain from the books of Kings and Chronicles). For thus can be understood what is written in those books of the Fleet of the kings of Judah which was sought from the Red Sea, [namely] Tharsis, that is, the Indian sea: for that others have expounded by that word a region of India does not please certain learned men, because not the sons of Iavan (that is, Tharsis and his posterity), but the sons of Iectan (such as Ophir and Hevila) set out to inhabit the places of India; therefore the word Tharsis does not suit them. But about the word Tharsis, enough for the present — about which we have also disputed in book 12 of our Commentaries on Daniel, so that, if any things are perhaps here wanting, it may be permitted to seek them thence.7
TERTIUS Iavani filius nominatur Cethim numero plurali, ut non tantum illum Iavani, verum et posteros eius significari intelligamus. Septuaginta Interpretes, ubicunque ponitur in Scriptura hoc nomen, vocem Hebraeam retinuerunt. Tres huius vocis significationes in sacris literis annotare licet. Primam, pro insula Cypro, ut ait Iosephus, cuius veteris appellationis vestigium extare dicit in urbe eius insulae quae vocatur Citium (unde Zeno Citicus Stoicorum princeps), et inde omnes insulas; ut pleraque loca maritima Hebraeos gentili voce Chithim appellare. Altera significatio est pro Italia, vel pro Italis seu Romanis, quae elicitur ex c. 24 libri Numerorum, ubi vaticinium Balaam his verbis reddidit Latinus interpres: Venient in trieribus de Italia, superabunt Assyrios vastabuntque Hebraeos, et ad extremum ipsi peribunt. Pro illo de Italia, Hebraice est Chithim, quam vocem Chaldaeus interpretatus est Romanos. Eadem quoque significatio elicitur ex iis verbis quae sunt apud Danielem cap. 11: Et venient super eum trieres et Romani, et percutietur. Pro illa voce, Romani, Hebraice est Cethim. Apud Ezechielem quoque cap. 27 illud, de insulis Cethim, Latinus Interpres dixit de insulis Italiae, Chaldaeus vero de Apulia. Tertia significatio eius vocis est pro Macedonia, seu potius Graecia: namque in exordio prioris libri Machabaeorum dicitur Alexander exisse de terra Cethim, id est, ex Macedonia vel Graecia; et in eiusdem libri cap. 8, Philippus et Perses, ultimi reges Macedoniae, appellantur Cethaeorum reges. Collatis igitur inter se variis scripturae locis, videtur haec vox significare insulas maris Mediterranei, praesertim autem Aegypto et Syriae obiacentes; tum etiam ulteriora maris Mediterranei, ut Graeciam et Italiam. Denique significat ea vox gentes Hebraeis transmarinas, ut sunt Europaeae gentes; scilicet accommodat se scriptura ad opinionem et sensum Hebraeorum, qui populos a se Mediterraneo mari discretos esse omnes insularum incolas putabant, ut eos qui aliunde navibus Iudaeam appellabantur: nam sicut in Italia [eos qui trans Alpes agunt]…
The third son of Iavan is named Cethim, in the plural number, so that we understand not only that son of Iavan, but his posterity too, to be signified. The Septuagint Interpreters, wherever this name is set in Scripture, retained the Hebrew word. Three significations of this word may be noted in the sacred letters. The first, for the island Cyprus, as Josephus says — of which ancient appellation he says a trace remains in a city of that island called Citium (whence Zeno of Citium, the chief of the Stoics) — and thence all islands; so that the Hebrews call most maritime places by the national word Chithim. The second signification is for Italy, or for the Italians or Romans, which is elicited from ch. 24 of the book of Numbers, where the Latin interpreter rendered the prophecy of Balaam in these words: “They shall come in galleys from Italy, they shall overcome the Assyrians and lay waste the Hebrews, and at the last they themselves shall perish.” For that ‘from Italy,’ in Hebrew it is Chithim, which word the Chaldee interpreted ‘Romans.’ The same signification is also elicited from those words in Daniel ch. 11: “And there shall come upon him galleys and the Romans, and he shall be struck.” For that word ‘Romans,’ in Hebrew it is Cethim. In Ezekiel too, ch. 27, that ‘of the islands of Cethim,’ the Latin Interpreter rendered ‘of the islands of Italy,’ but the Chaldee ‘of Apulia.’ The third signification of that word is for Macedonia, or rather Greece: for at the beginning of the first book of Maccabees Alexander is said to have come out of the land of Cethim, that is, from Macedonia or Greece; and in the same book ch. 8, Philip and Perseus, the last kings of Macedonia, are called kings of the Cethaeans. Comparing, therefore, the various places of scripture among themselves, this word seems to signify the islands of the Mediterranean sea, but especially those lying off Egypt and Syria; then also the farther parts of the Mediterranean, as Greece and Italy. Finally, that word signifies nations transmarine to the Hebrews, such as the European nations — for Scripture accommodates itself to the opinion and sense of the Hebrews, who thought all the peoples separated from them by the Mediterranean sea to be islanders, as those who from elsewhere came to Judea by ships: for just as in Italy [we call those beyond the Alps]…8
…eos qui trans Alpes agunt vocamus Tramontanos, sic Hebraei dissitas a se mari gentes insulares nominabant. Videat lector, si placet, quae de hac ipsa voce scripsimus libro 14 Commentariorum nostrorum in Danielem super illa verba capitis 11: Et venient super eum trieres et Romani, etc.
…we call those beyond the Alps ‘Tramontanes,’ so the Hebrews called the nations separated from them by the sea ‘islanders.’ Let the reader see, if he please, what we have written about this very word in book 14 of our Commentaries on Daniel, upon those words of chapter 11: “And there shall come upon him galleys and the Romans,” etc.9
QUARTUS filius Iavani nominatur Dodanim. Hunc Iosephus omisit, fortasse quod quaenam ex eo gentes ortae essent, quasve tenuissent sedes, ignoraverit. Septuaginta Interpretes eam vocem plurali numero (uti est) accipientes, et hic et in primo Paralipomenon cap. 1 interpretati sunt Rhodios; ex quo coniecturam faciunt nonnulli legendum esse non Dodanim sed Rhodanim, proclivi admodum lapsu unius literae in alteram, propter maximam similitudinem quae est inter duas literas Hebraicas (res) et (daleth). Quidam, secuti similitudinem vocis Dodanim, opinati sunt eam gentem tenuisse et condidisse Dodonam Epiri, Iovis templo et oraculo inclytam apud Ethnicos. Alii, qui legendum censent Rhodanim, istos Iavani posteros ad Rhodanum et Gallias pervenisse existimant.
The fourth son of Iavan is named Dodanim. This one Josephus omitted, perhaps because he was ignorant what nations sprang from him, or what seats they held. The Septuagint Interpreters, taking that word in the plural number (as it is), both here and in 1 Chronicles ch. 1, interpreted it the Rhodians; whence some conjecture that one should read not Dodanim but Rhodanim, by a very easy slip of one letter into another, on account of the great similarity between the two Hebrew letters (resh) and (daleth). Some, following the likeness of the word Dodanim, have opined that this nation held and founded Dodona of Epirus, famous among the heathen for the temple and oracle of Jove. Others, who think one should read Rhodanim, judge that these posterity of Iavan came to the Rhone and to the Gauls.10
Post haec subdit Moses: Ab his divisae sunt insulae gentium in regionibus suis, unusquisque secundum linguas suas et familias suas in nationibus suis. Quibus verbis videtur significare insulas gentium (id est, transmarinas Iudaeis nationes) et insulas maris Mediterranei ipsamque Europam fuisse ab his Iavani filiis occupatam; filios dico Iavani illos quatuor, Tharsis, Elisam, Cethim et Dodanim, populorum Europaeorum et insulanorum maris Mediterranei parentes. Legamus (inquit Hieronymus in Traditionibus Hebraicis in Genesim) Varronis de Antiquitatibus libros, et Sinnii Capitonis, et Graecum Phlegonta, ceterosque eruditissimos viros, et videbimus paene omnes insulas et totius orbis littora terrasque mari vicinas Graecis accolis occupatas, qui (ut supra diximus) ab Amano et Tauro montibus omnia maritima loca usque ad Oceanum possedere Britannicum. Sic Hieronymus. Alii vero filii et posteri Iaphet populos Asiaticos disseminarunt, ut supra dictum est de Gomer, Magog et Madai.
After this Moses subjoins: “By these were the islands of the Gentiles divided in their countries, every one according to his tongue and their families in their nations.” By which words he seems to signify that the islands of the Gentiles (that is, the nations transmarine to the Jews) and the islands of the Mediterranean sea and Europe itself were occupied by these sons of Iavan — I mean those four sons of Iavan, Tharsis, Elisa, Cethim, and Dodanim, the parents of the European peoples and of the islanders of the Mediterranean sea. “Let us read,” says Jerome in the Hebrew Traditions on Genesis, “the books of Varro On Antiquities, and of Sinnius Capito, and the Greek Phlegon, and the other most learned men, and we shall see almost all the islands and the shores of the whole world and the lands near the sea occupied by Greek settlers, who (as we said above) from the Amanus and Taurus mountains possessed all the maritime places up to the British Ocean.” So Jerome. But the other sons and posterity of Iaphet disseminated Asiatic peoples, as was said above of Gomer, Magog, and Madai.11

Translator’s notes

  1. Gen 10:4 (lemma). Margin: v. 4. ↩
  2. §22. Elisa — the Aeolian Greeks (Josephus); the Chaldee = Italy; they probably peopled and named the islands of the Greek and Mediterranean seas. Margin: “What nation Elisa founded.” Continues on p. 406. ↩
  3. §22 (cont.). Some even derive the ‘Elysian fields’ from Elisa (his line reaching the Fortunate Islands beyond Cadiz) — a guess Pererius leaves to taste. Margin: “The Fortunate Islands and the Elysian Fields.” ↩
  4. §23. Tharsis — the Cilicians (the city Tarsus, birthplace of St. Paul); the variants ‘India/Golden Chersonese’ (Josephus, Jerome), ‘Carthage/Africa’ (LXX, Chaldee), ‘Cilicia,’ or simply ‘sea’; Josephus's geographical slip (Pontus from the Red Sea). Margins: “What region Tharsis was, and what is signified by that word in Scripture”; Josephus; the Chaldaic paraphrase. ↩
  5. §24. Pererius's view: ‘Tharsis’ first = Cilicia/the Cilician sea (Solinus on Cilician sea-power), then by extension the whole Mediterranean and its coasts (as ‘Cethim’ went from Cyprus to all islands; and ‘Carthage’ for Tharsis). Continues on p. 407. ↩
  6. §24 (cont.). Hence ‘Carthage/Africa’ stands for Tharsis in some passages. ↩
  7. §25. ‘Ships of Tharsis’ → the Great Sea → even the Ocean (Kings, Chronicles); against reading Tharsis as ‘India’ (India was settled by Iectan's sons, not Iavan's). Cross-ref to his Daniel commentary, bk. 12. ↩
  8. §26. Cethim — three senses: Cyprus (Josephus, the city Citium → Zeno) and all islands; Italy/Rome (Num 24, Dan 11, Ezek 27); Macedonia/Greece (1 Macc — Alexander, Philip, Perseus); in sum, the Mediterranean islands and transmarine European nations (the Hebrews called all such ‘islanders’). Margins: “What nation or region is signified by the word Cethim”; Josephus. Continues on p. 408. ↩
  9. §26 (cont.). As Italians say ‘Tramontanes’ for those beyond the Alps, so the Hebrews said ‘islanders’ (cross-ref to his Daniel commentary). ↩
  10. §27. Dodanim (omitted by Josephus) — the Rhodians (LXX, reading ‘Rhodanim,’ resh/daleth easily confused); or Dodona of Epirus (Jove's oracle); or the Rhône and the Gauls. Margin: “The origin of the Rhodians.” ↩
  11. §27 (cont.). ‘The islands of the Gentiles divided’: Iavan's four sons peopled Europe and the Mediterranean islands (Jerome, citing Varro, Sinnius Capito, Phlegon — Greek settlers from Amanus/Taurus to the British Ocean); Japheth's other sons peopled Asia. Margin: Jerome. ↩