Javan

From Bible Exegesis

jā´van (יון, yāwān, meaning unknown):

(1) The fourth “son” of Japheth (Genesis 10:2), whose descendants settled in Greece, i.e., Ionia, which bears the name of Javan in Hebrew. Alexander the Great is called the “king of Javan” (rendered “Grecia,” Daniel 8:21; Daniel 10:20; compare Daniel 11:2; Zechariah 9:13). This word was universally used by the nations of the East as the generic name of the Greek race.

In Genesis 10:2, Genesis 10:4 = 1 Chronicles 1:5, 1 Chronicles 1:7 Septuagint Ἰωυάν, Iōuán; Isaiah 66:19; Ezekiel 27:13 Septuagint Ἑλλάς, Hellás, Greece); Daniel 8:21 m; Daniel 10:20; Daniel 11:2; Zechariah 9:13; Joel 3:6 (Hebrew 4:6) Septuagint ὁι Ἑλληνες, hoi Héllēnes, i.e. “Greeks”), “son” of Japheth, and “father” of Elisha, Tars, Kittim, and Rodarim, i.e. Rhodes (incorrectly “Dodanim” in Genesis 10:4). Javan is the Greek Ἰάων, Iáōn or Ἰάων, Iá(v)ōn, and in Genesis and 1 Chronicles = the Ionian Greeks of Asia Minor, probably here = Cyprus. The reference in Ezekiel 27:13 (from which that in Isaiah 66:19 is copied) is the country personified. In Joel the plural יונים, yewānīm, is found. In Dan the name is extended to the Greeks generally. Corroboration of the name is found in Assyrian (Schrader, editor, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, II, 43). “The Persian Yauna occurs in the same double reference from the time of Darius; compare Aesch. Pers., 176, 562” (Skinner, Gen, 198). In Egyptian the word is said to be yevan-‛n'a; in the Tell el-Amarna Letters Yivana is mentioned as being in the land of Tyre. See HDB, II, 552b.

(2) A town or district of Arabia Felix, from which the Syrians obtained iron, cassia, and calamus (Ezekiel 27:19); the name is missing in Septuagint.