Joktan
{{Short description|Son of Eber in the bible}}
{{Redirect|Obal|the urban-type settlement in Belarus|Obal (urban-type settlement)}}
Joktan (also written as Yoktan; {{Hebrew Name|יָקְטָן|Yŏqṭan|Yāqṭān}}; {{langx|ar|يقطان|translit=Yaqṭān}}) was the second of the two sons of Eber (Book of Genesis 10:25; 1 Chronicles 1:19) mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. He descends from Shem, son of Noah.
In the Book of Genesis 10:25 it reads: "And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name was Joktan."
Joktan's sons in the order provided in {{bibleref|Genesis|10:26-29}}, were Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab.
In Pseudo-Philo's account (ca. 70), Joktan was first made prince over the children of Shem, just as Nimrod and Phenech were princes over the children of Ham and Japheth, respectively. In his version, the three princes command all persons to bake bricks for the Tower of Babel; however, twelve, including several of Joktan's own sons, as well as Abraham and Lot, refuse the orders. Joktan smuggles them out of Shinar and into the mountains, to the annoyance of the other two princes.[http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/bap/bap21.htm Pseudo-Philo]
South Arabian narrative
File:Pre_Islamic_Arabian_Tribes_(Harold_Dixon).svg, showing the presence of the Arab tribes in West Asia, 1914]]
File:Dhamar Ali Yahbur (bust).jpgThere is an Arab tradition that Joktan was the progenitor of all the purest tribes of Southern Arabia.{{Citation |last=Easton |first=Matthew George |title=Joktan |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Easton's_Bible_Dictionary_(1897)/Joktan |work=Easton's Bible Dictionary |access-date=2022-03-11}} Joktan has been identified with Qahtān (Arabic: قحطان), the ancestral figure of Qahtanites, in traditional Arab genealogy.{{Cite web |title=JOKTAN - JewishEncyclopedia.com |url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8746-joktan |access-date=2022-03-11 |website=www.jewishencyclopedia.com}} Three of Joktan's sons have connections to South Arabia. Sheba is identified as the ancient South Arabian kingdom of Saba.Finkelstein, Israel; Silberman, Neil Asher (2007). David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible's Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition. Simon & Schuster. p. 171. Hazarmaveth (Biblical Hebrew: חֲצַרְמָוֶת, tr. Ḥăṣarmāweṯ; Arabic: حضرموت) has been identified with the South Arabian region of Hadhramaut and according to various Bible dictionaries, the name "Hazarmaveth" means "court of death" which reflects a meaning similar to the Arabic folk etymologies of the region.{{Cite web |title=Hazarmaveth - Smith's Bible Dictionary - Bible Dictionary |url=https://www.christianity.com/bible/dictionary/smiths-bible-dictionary/hazarmaveth.html |access-date=2022-03-11 |website=www.christianity.com}} Hadoram according to Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan is interpreted as denoting "the south" and it was a fortress to the south of Yemen's Sana'a.{{Cite web |title=Some interpret this as denoting 'the south.' This was a fortress to the south of San'a (Kesseth HaSofer). See 1 Chronicles 18:10; Zechariah 12:11. |url=http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=1&CHAPTER=10#C186 |access-date=2022-03-11 |archive-date=2005-11-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051130022520/http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=1&CHAPTER=10#C186 |url-status=dead }}
East Asians theory
File:The World as Peopled by the Descendants of Noah Shewing the Countries Possessed by Shem, Ham & Japhet and their posterity after the confusion of tongues..jpg's 1823 map of the descendants of Noah's sons, showing Joktan and his sons as having populated eastern Asia: Havilah is Tibet, Sheba is Deccan, Jobab is Mongolia, Obal is China, Abimael is Indochina, Diklah is Japan, and Ophir is Indonesia, particularly the Maluku Islands.|left|227x227px]]Theories (based on a literal reading of {{bibleref|Genesis|10:30}}, which states that Joktan's descendants migrated eastward){{Cite book |last=Ridpath |first=John Clark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZwA2AQAAMAAJ |title=Universal History: Great Races of Mankind |date=1896 |publisher=Jones |pages=466 |language=en}} suggested that Joktan is the progenitor of the east Asians and the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with the Yucatan Peninsula supposedly being named after Joktan.{{Cite web |title=ORIENTAL ORIGINS IN THE BIBLE |url=http://www.eifiles.cn/oo-en.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707031041/http://www.eifiles.cn/oo-en.htm |archive-date=2011-07-07 |access-date=2025-06-05 |website=www.eifiles.cn}}{{Cite web|url=https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/History/History-idx?type=turn&entity=History.McIntosh.p0040&id=History.McIntosh&isize=text|title=History: The origin of the North American Indians with a faithful description of their manners and customs, both civil and military, their religions, languages, dress, and ornaments: To which is prefixed a brief view of the creation of the world ... Concluding with a copious selection of Indian speeches, the antiquities of America, the civilization of the Mexicans, and some final observations on the origin of the Indians: Introduction}}{{cite journal|last1=Shalev|first1=Zur|title=Sacred Geography, Antiquarianism and Visual Erudition: Benito Arias Montano and the Maps in the Antwerp Polyglot Bible|journal=Imago Mundi|date=2003|volume=55|page=71|doi=10.1080/0308569032000097495|s2cid=51804916|url=http://research.haifa.ac.il/~zshalev/Articles/IMundi-2003-Montano.pdf|access-date=2017-01-17|archive-date=2021-02-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225102322/http://research.haifa.ac.il/~zshalev/Articles/IMundi-2003-Montano.pdf|url-status=dead}} One early proponent of this theory was the theologian Benito Arias Montano, who proposed a link between the names of Ophir, Joktan's son, and Peru. Modern proponents of this idea include the young Earth creationist geneticist Nathaniel Jeanson, who identifies him as the progenitor of numerous east Asian Y-chromosomal haplogroups.{{Cite book |last=Jeanson |first=Nathaniel |title=Traced: Human DNA's Big Surprise |date=2022 |publisher=New Leaf Publishing Group |isbn=978-1-68344-291-2 |edition=1st |location=Erscheinungsort nicht ermittelbar}}
See also
References
{{EBD poster|Joktan}}
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Category:Book of Genesis people