Generations of Noah Nations is substantially the same as that in the Hebrew text, but with the following differences: In the First Epistle of Peter, 3:20, Saint Peter noted that eight righteous persons were saved from the Great Flood, referring to Noah's family members. The Genesis flood narrative tells how Noah and his three sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, together with their wives, were saved from the Deluge to repopulate the Earth. The 1st-century Jewish-Roman historian Josephus, in "Antiquities of the Jews" Book 1, chapter 6, was among the first of many who attempted to assign known ethnicities to some of the names
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