Japheth Japheth Japheth (, "Yefet"; ""; ), is one of the three sons of Noah in the Book of Genesis, where he plays a role in the story of Noah's drunkenness and the curse of Ham, and subsequently in the Table of Nations as the ancestor of the peoples of the Aegean, Anatolia, and elsewhere. In medieval and early modern European tradition he was considered to be the progenitor of European and, later, East Asian peoples. The meaning of the name Yafet/Yefet (יָפֶת/יֶפֶת) is disputable. There are two possible sources to the meaning of the name. Japheth first appears in the
Shinar the Tower of Babel after the Great Flood. After the Flood, the sons of Shem, Ham, and Japheth stayed first in the highlands of Armenia and then migrated to Shinar. In "Genesis" 14:1,9, King Amraphel rules Shinar. Shinar is further mentioned in "Joshua" 7:21; "Isaiah" 11:11; "Daniel" 1:2; and "Zechariah" 5:11, as a general synonym for Babylonia. "Jubilees" 9:3 allots Shinar (or, in the Ethiopic text, "Sadna Sena`or") to Ashur, son of Shem. "Jubilees" 10:20 states that the Tower of Babel was built with bitumen from the sea of Shinar. David Rohl theorized that the Tower was actually located in