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Bible Encyclopedias
Javan
The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia
or Name of one of the seven sons of Japheth, given in the list of nations (Genesis 10:2,4; comp. 1 Chronicles 1:5,7), and as such the progenitor of Elisha, Tarshish, the Hittim, and the Dodanim (Rodanim). The word corresponds to the Greek ἸÏν, the plural of which is ἸονεÏ, with the digamma between the a and o (see Homer's "Iliad," 13:685). The Greek name denotes the Ionians, settled, when the list of Genesis was written, on the mainland of Greece and on the islands of the Ãgean Sea as well as along the coast of Asia Minor. The Greeks were designated by this name in Assyrian ("Ya-wa-nu" [Greece], "Yawnai" [Greek]; Schrader, "K. A. T." 2d ed., pp. 87 et seq.) and in Old Persian, and the name was used in this sense by the Syrians, the Arabs, and the Egyptians. The question is still open whether in the Old Testament "Javan" connotes the Greeks, in keeping with this usage of other ancient peoples, or merely the Ionians proper. According to Stade ("De Populo Javan," Giessen, 1880), the term stands for the Ionians of Asia Minor in all pre-Persian passages of the Old Testament (e.g., Ezekiel 27:13; Isaiah 66:19, and therefore also in Genesis 10:2,4). It has the wider significance in Joel 3:6 (Persian age), Zechariah 9:13, and Daniel 8:21.
In these passages the context shows merely that a distant country is meant (Isaiah 66:19) into which Israelites were sold as slaves (by the Phenicians and Philistines; Joel 3:6). Something of this kind is certainly also referred to in Zechariah 9:13; in fact Ezekiel (27:13) speaks of "Ionian" (or Greek) slave-trading in the markets of Tyre. In Ezekiel 27:19 the word "Javan" is either a corruption of the text (in view of the circumstance that in verse 13 it is used in a clearly different meaning from that required here; see Cornill, "Ezekiel," pp. 351 et seq.), or it designates an Arabic people. Glaser ("Skizze der Gesch. und Geographie Arabiens," 2:428) suggests that in this verse it is the name of the place called "Jain," not very far from Medina.
In Talmudic literature "Javan" stands unquestionably for Greece (e.g., in Yoma 10a); "lashon Yewanit" means the Greek language. In late Hebrew "Javan" denotes the Russians, because they belong to the Greek Catholic Church; therefore Nathan Nate Hanover calls his description of the Chmielnicki persecution "Yewen Meáºulah," punning on Psalms 69:3. In Yiddish literature and in the parlance of the Russian Jews "Javan" (pronounce "Yoven") denotes the soldier. So Perez in his sketch "Der Meshullaḥ": "Bei Yoven is a gut Cheder" = "Military service is a good training."
- Ed. Meyer, Die Heimat der Ionier, in Philologus, new series, 3:479 et seq.;
- Fr. Lénormant, Histoire Ancienne de l'Orient, 1:296, Paris, 1881;
- idem, Les Origines de l'Histoire, etc., , 2:1-29, Paris, 1884;
- Fr. Delitzsch, Wo Lag das Paradies? pp. 248-250, Leipsic, 1881;
- W. Max Müller, Asien und Europa, p. 370, ib. 1893;
- Stade, De Populo Javan, Giessen, 1880 (now incorporated in Reden und Abhandlungen, ib. 1899);
- Ed. Meyer, Gesch. des Altertums, 1:490-494, 2:433,685 et seq., Stuttgart, 1883-84.
These files are public domain.
Singer, Isidore, Ph.D, Projector and Managing Editor. Entry for 'Javan'. 1901 The Jewish Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tje/j/javan.html. 1901.
