Generations of Noah in the tradition, being claimed as the ancestors of much of northern Europe. According to Joseph Blenkinsopp, the 70 names in the list express symbolically the unity of humanity, corresponding to the 70 descendants of Israel who go down into Egypt with Jacob at and the 70 elders of Israel who visit God with Moses at the covenant ceremony in . Chapters 1–11 of the Book of Genesis are structured around five "toledot" statements ("these are the generations of..."), of which the "generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth" is the fourth. Events before the Genesis flood
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