The Empires of the Bible from the Confusion of Tongues to the Babylonian Captivity

JAVAN

33. From Javan came the Greeks; for in the Hebrew, Daniel 8:21 reads “king of Javan;” 10:20 “prince of Javan;” and 11:2 “realm of Javan;” instead of “king,” “prince,” and “realm” of “Grecia” or “Greece.” The Revised Version gives Javan in the margin of each of these places. EB 14.3

34. “This name, or its analogue, is found as a designation of Greece not only in all the Shemitic dialects, but also in the Sanscrit, the Old Persic, and the Egyptian, and the form Iaones appears in Homer as the designation of the early inhabitants of Attica.... The occurrence of the name in the cuneiform inscriptions of the time of Sargon, in the form of Yavnan, or Yunan, as descriptive of the isle of Cyprus, where the Assyrians first came in contact with the power of the Greeks, further shows that its use was not confined to the Hebrews, but was widely spread throughout the East.” ¹³ EB 14.4

35. The name of Grecia embraced Macedonia, Epirus, Thessaly, Acarnania, AEtolia, Locris, Doris, Phocis, Boeotia, Euboea, Attica, Megaris, Corinthia, Achaia, Elis, Arcadia, Argolis, Messene, and Laconia. And this is the country of Javan. Under Alexander the Great the people of Javan spread their empire over all countries from the Adriatic Sea to the River Hyphasis, and their power was recognized by all known nations of the world. Out of Javan, also, went the people who inhabited Italy, and who, under the name of Rome, grew to such power that “to be a Roman was greater than to be a king,” and who spread their iron empire over all the world. EB 14.5

36. Javan had four sons—Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. EB 15.1

37. Elishah was the father of the AEolians, who inhabited parts of Thessaly, Boeotia, AEtolia, Locris, Elis, and Messene, and formed the first great body of Grecian colonists that established themselves on the coast of Asia Minor. “Elishah is Hellas; that is, Greece.”—Lenormant. ¹⁴ EB 15.2

38. Tarshish.—The people and country of Tarshish were far off from Palestine, and toward the west. For we read that under Solomon “the king’s ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram; every three years once came the ships of Tarshish bringing gold, and silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.” Huram was Hiram, king of Tyre. Tyre lay on the Mediterranean, and for ships to go from Tyre to Tarshish in a voyage of three years they would have to go west. Again, Jonah was commanded to go from Palestine to Nineveh, which was on the Tigris away to the northeast. But Jonah refused to go, and rose up to flee “from the presence of the Lord.” As his purpose was to escape going to Nineveh, it would be the most natural thing to flee in the opposite direction as far as possible. So we read that “Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.” Joppa also was on the Mediterranean and was then the principal port of Palestine. In Isaiah 66:19 Tarshish is named with other places and isles, that were “afar off.” In Ezekiel 27:12, the Lord says to Tyre, “Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.” EB 15.3

39. All these evidences make it positive that Tarshish was “afar off” to the west from Palestine; that it was reached by ships; and that it was so largely devoted to shipping as to be almost proverbial. Tartessus, which lay at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, in Spain, was the chief seat of Tarshish, the son of Javan. Thus the ships of Tartessus (Tarshish) could gather silver from the rich mines of Spain; tin from the mines of Cornwall in Britain; ivory, apes, and peacocks from Africa; and make the voyage once in three years from Tyre and back again. Lenormant allows that the Tyrrhenians of Italy may also have been the children of Tarshish. It is certain that they were the descendants of Javan. EB 16.1

40. Kittim, or Chittim, the third of the sons of Javan, inhabited the islands of the Grecian archipelago, Cyprus, and even others of the Mediterranean Sea, and Corea at the southeast corner of Asia Minor. Isaiah 23:1, 12 shows that Chittim was a resting-place for the ships of Tarshish; Jeremiah 2:10 and Ezekiel 27:6 speak of “the isles of Chittim;” and Daniel 11:30 speaks of “the ships of Chittim;” all showing that Chittim was in the isles of the Mediterranean Sea. EB 16.2

41. Dodanim was the ancestor of the Dardanians, one portion of whom dwelt in a tract called from them Dardania, in the neighborhood of ancient Troy, on the southern coast of the Sea of Marmora. Another, and the main body, people Illyria, or Illyricum, the country bordering on the Adriatic Sea opposite Italy. From there some of their tribes went into Italy, of whom the Liburni and the Veneti are particularly mentioned. “The celebrated name of Venetia was diffused over a large and fertile province of Italy, from the confines of Pannonia to the River Addua, and from the Po to the Rhaetian and Julian Alps.”—Gibbon. ¹⁵ When Attila invaded Italy, A. D. 453, spreading devastation everywhere, “many families of Aquileia, Padua, and the adjacent towns, who fled from the sword of the Huns, found a safe though obscure refuge in the neighboring islands.” ¹⁶ There and by these, the city of Venice was afterward built. EB 16.3