Robert Filmer and model of all government. In the beginning God gave authority to Adam, who had complete control over his descendants, even over life and death itself. From Adam this authority was inherited by Noah. Here Filmer is most likely to be quoting the legend of Noah sailing up the Mediterranean and allocating the three continents of the Old World to the rule of his three sons. This assumes that from Shem, Ham and Japheth the patriarchs inherited the absolute power which they exercised over their families and servants, and that it is from these patriarchs that all kings and governors
Levi ben Japheth Levi ben Japheth Levi ben Japheth (Heb. Levi ben Yafet ha-Levi; Arab. Abu Sa'id Levi ibn Yafat was a Karaite Jewish scholar who flourished, probably at Jerusalem, in the first half of the eleventh century CE. Although, like his father Japheth ben Ali, he was considered one of the greatest authorities among the Karaites, who called him "al-Shaikh" (the master), no details of his life are to be found in the Karaite sources. There even exists confusion in regard to his identity; in some of the sources he is confounded with his brother, or his son Sa'id (comp. Pinsker, "Liqqute