Bereshit (parsha) lived 500 years, he had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. God set the days allowed to man at 120 years. Divine beings admired and took wives from among the daughters of men, who bore the Nephilim, heroes of old, men of renown. The ninth open portion (, "petuchah") ends here. As the reading continues with the maftir () reading that concludes the parashah, God saw how great man's wickedness was and how man's every plan was evil, and God regretted making man and became saddened. God expressed an intention to blot men and animals from the earth, but Noah
Japheth as having been composed in stages beginning with the time of Solomon, when the Philistines still existed (they vanish from history after the Babylonian conquest of Canaan). However, Genesis 10:14 identifies their ancestor as Ham rather than Japheth. For those who take the genealogies of Genesis to be historically accurate, Japheth is commonly believed to be the father of Europeans. The link between Japheth and the Europeans stems from Genesis 10:5, which states: According to that book, Japheth and his two brothers formed the three major races: William Shakespeare's play "Henry IV, Part II" contains a wry comment about people