Riphath ( Hebrew: ריפת) was great-grandson of Noah, grandson of Japheth, son of Gomer (Japheth's eldest), younger brother of Ashkenaz, and older brother of Togarmah according to the Table of Nations in the Hebrew Bible ( Genesis 10:3, 1 Chronicles 1:6). The name appears in some copies of 1 Chronicles as "Diphath", due to the similarities of the characters resh and dalet in the Hebrew and Aramaic alphabets.
Analysis
His identity is "completely unknown." [1] [2]
He was supposed by Flavius Josephus to have been the ancestor of the "Riphatheans, now called Paphlagonians". Hippolytus of Rome made him the ancestor of the Sauromatians (as distinct from the " Sarmatians", whom he called descendants of Riphath's elder brother, Ashkenaz).
Riphath has often been connected with the Riphean Mountains of classical Greek geography, in whose foothills the Arimaspi (also called Arimphaei [3] or Riphaeans [4]) were said to live. [5] These generally regarded as the western branch of the Ural Mountains. [6]
August Wilhelm Knobel proposed that Riphath begat the Celtic peoples, who according to Plutarch had crossed from the Riphaean Mountains while en route to Northern Europe. [7] Smith's Bible Dictionary also forwards Knobel's notion that the Carpathian Mountains "in the northeast of Dacia" is the site of the Riphath or Riphean Mountains. [8]
Some versions of the Middle Irish work Lebor Gabála Érenn give as an alternate name "Riphath Scot" son of Gomer, in place of Fenius Farsa, as a Scythian ancestor of the Goidels.
References
- ^ Quote ("completely unknown") in Donald E. Gowan (1988). From Eden to Babel: A Commentary on the Book of Genesis 1-11. W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-8028-0337-5.
- ^ Riphath is also unknown according to Claus Westermann (1 January 1984). Genesis 1-11: A Commentary. Augsburg. p. 506. ISBN 978-0-281-04033-9.
- ^ Pliny, Nat. Hist. l.6.c.2.
- ^ Mela, De Situ Orbis, l.1.c.2.
- ^ Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible, Genesis 10:3.
- ^ The Natural History of Pliny. Vol II. Note 148.
- ^ Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis 10:3.
- ^ Smith, W (1863). A Dictionary of the Bible. p. 1045.