Riphath

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 were usually identified with the Ural Mountains by authors such as Pliny the Elder.

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. [6] 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. [7]

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
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Pliny, Nat. Hist. l.6.c.2.
  4. Mela, De Situ Orbis, l.1.c.2.
  5. Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible, Genesis 10:3.
  6. Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis 10:3.
  7. Smith, W (1863). A Dictionary of the Bible. p. 1045.
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