How has Wikipedia's Japheth article changed?

Wikipedia's first sentence called it "one of the sons of noah in the bible". Today it says "one of the three sons of noah in the book of genesis". We saved the article's opening at 6 moments between 2005 and 2025, and every claim links the exact revision.

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How Wikipedia rewrote the Japheth article

The opening as it read in 2005

Japheth ( יֶפֶת / יָפֶת "Enlarge", Standard Hebrew Yéfet / Yáfet , Tiberian Hebrew Yép̄eṯ / Yāp̄eṯ ) is one of the sons of Noah in the Bible . He is most popularly regarded as the youngest son, though some traditions regard him as the eldest son.¹ In Arabic citations his name is normally given as Yafet ibn Nuh (Japheth son of Noah).² Hence the term 'Japhetic' was formerly used to refer to European peoples. The term was also applied by William Jones and other pre- Darwinian linguists to what later became known as the Indo-European language group. In a different sense, it was also used by the Soviet linguist Nikolai Marr in his Japhetic theory . The link between Japheth and the Europeans stems from Genesis 10:5, which states that the sons of Japheth moved to the "isles of the gentiles," commonly believed to be the Greek isles. In the Bible, Japheth is ascribed seven sons: Gomer , Magog , Tiras , Javan , Meshech , Tubal , and Madai . The intended ethnic identity of these 'descendents of Japheth' is not known for certain. However, those accepting the genealogies as historically accurate identify historical nations as descendents of Japheth and his sons—a practice dating back at least to the classical encounters of Jew with Hellene, for example in Josephus 's Antiquities of the Jews , I.VI.122 ( Whiston ). Josephus wrote: "Japhet, the son of Noah, had seven sons: they inhabited so, that, beginning at the mountains Taurus and Amanus, they proceeded along Asia, as far as the river Tanais (Don), and along Europe to Cadiz; and settling themselves on the lands which they light upon, which none had inhabited before, they called the nations by their own names." Josephus subsequently detailed the nations supposed to have descended from the seven sons of Japheth. In the same vein, Georgian nationalist histories associate Japheth's sons with certain ancient tribes, called Tubals ( Tabals , Tibarenoi in Greek) and Meshechs (Meshekhs/Mosokhs, Moschoi in Greek), who they claim represent non-Indo-European and non-Semitic, possibly "Proto-Iberian" tribes of Asia Minor of the 3rd - 1st millennias BC . In the nineteenth century, Biblical syncretists associated the sons of Noah with ancient pagan gods. Ham was associated with the ancient Egyptian god Chem , though Chem's name is now thought to be a Victorian transcription error for a deity properly pronounced Min . Japheth was identified by some scholars with figures from other mythologies including Iapetos , the Greek Titan , the Indian Dyaus Pitar , and the Roman 'Iu-Pater' or 'Father Jove', which became Jupiter . The resemblances may be mere coincidence, and the actual Indo-European etymology of Latin Iuppiter or Iūpiter , i.e. 'Jupiter', is * dyeu-p(e)ter , "O father Jove" [the symbol "(e)" has been used here for the shwa].³

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 15913818.

The opening as it stood in 2010 15 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear

Shem , Ham and Japheth. Japheth ( Hebrew יפת, Yafet, Greek Ἰάφεθ, Iapheth , Latin Iafeth or Iapetus , Turk Yafes , Arabic يافث) is one of the sons of Noah in the Hebrew Bible . In Arabic citations, his name is normally given as Yafeth bin Nuh (Japheth son of Noah).

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The opening as it stood in 2015 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear

Japheth / ˈ dʒ eɪ f ɛ θ / ( , Yapheth , Modern Hebrew: Yefet ; Iapheth ; or Iapetus ; ) is one of the sons of Noah in the Abrahamic tradition . In Arabic citations, his name is normally given as Yafeth bin Nuh ("Japheth, son of Noah"). In Biblical as well as Quranic tradition, Japheth is considered to be the progenitor of European, and some Asian, peoples. In medieval Europe various nations and ethnicities were given genealogies tracing back to Japheth and his descendants. Religious syncretists later adopted the euhermistic argument that Japheth's memory was distorted into mythical figures such as Iapetus and Neptune . The 1557 Anno Mundi birthdate for Japheth is based on the standard Massoretic text as represented in the Authorized Version. Septuagint and Samaritan texts have different values. See Chronology of the Bible .

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The opening as it stood in 2020 8 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear

Biblical figure For other uses, see Japheth (disambiguation) . Japheth / ˈ dʒ eɪ f ɛ θ / ( Yép̄eṯ , in pausa Yā́p̄eṯ ; Iápheth ; ), is one of the three sons of Noah in the Book of Genesis , in which 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 Sea , Anatolia , and elsewhere. In medieval and early modern European tradition he was considered to be the progenitor of European and, later, East Asian peoples.

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 964580632.

The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023

Biblical figure For other uses, see Japheth (disambiguation) . Japheth / ˈ dʒ eɪ f ɛ θ / ( Yép̄eṯ , in pausa יָפֶת ‎ Yā́p̄eṯ ; Iápheth ; ) is one of the three sons of Noah in the Book of Genesis , in which 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 Sea , Anatolia , and elsewhere. In medieval and early modern European tradition he was considered to be the progenitor of the European peoples , while Islamic traditions also include the Chinese people among his descendants.

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The opening as it stood in 2025

Biblical figure, son of Noah For other uses, see Japheth (disambiguation) . Japheth / ˈ dʒ eɪ f ɛ θ / ( Hebrew : יֶפֶת Yép̄eṯ , in pausa יָפֶת ‎ Yā́p̄eṯ ; Greek : Ἰάφεθ Iápheth ; Latin : Iafeth, Iapheth, Iaphethus, Iapetus ; Arabic : يافث Yāfith ) is one of the three sons of Noah in the Book of Genesis , in which 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 Sea , Anatolia , Caucasus , Greece , and elsewhere in Eurasia . In medieval and early modern European tradition he was considered to be the progenitor of the European peoples .

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