Japheth and the Eastern Orthodox Church

While speculation on the movements of people groups who tribally descend from the names given as sons and grandsons of Japheth in Genesis 10 will play a role in how I justify this thesis.  The theory itself is predicated on suggesting that your religion (or the religion of your culture if you yourself are non religious) should be more of a factor then your biological ancestry in deciding which Genesis Patriarch you are a Son of Biblically.

And with that in mind Genesis 9 pays special attention to Prophesying that the house of Japheth will one day dwell in the Tents of Shem, via the Tabernacle tents can Biblically be an idiom of religious observance.

By Eastern Orthodox I mean Christian Churches or Congregations that uphold all Seven Ecumenical Councils as authoritative but also descend from the Eastern rather than Western side of the 1054 Great Schism.

The people most universally agreed to descend from Japheth are the Hellens/Greeks via Javan.  Today that is Modern Greece and Cyprus, (and maybe also some nations north of Greece) and includes Hellenic minorities in Turkey, Alexandria, Antioch, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine & Jordan and other regions.  That happens to correspond to the generally most well known sub Church of the Eastern Orthodox, The Greek Orthodox Church.

The second most significant congregation of the Eastern Orthodox Communion is the Russian Orthodox Church.  I have a post strongly arguing that Magog is Russia.  In which I also placed Meshech and Tubal in Georgia and argued for associating Gomer with Ukraine and the House of Togarmah with people groups who lived in parts of Russia, Ukraine and Georgia.  Both of whom are also majority Eastern Orthodox nations.  But I’m now also thinking of perhaps placing Togarmah in Belarus which takes us even further North.  Note that "Mtskheta-Tbilisi" is in the official title of the Archbishop of Georgia.

Tiras the youngest son of Japheth is often identified with Thrace, the core Thracian nation of classical Antiquity was basically modern Bulgaria but at its greatest extent perhaps included pieces of every country bordering Bulgaria, all of which are Eastern Orthodox.  Actually I'm finding the Thracians might have extended more into Romania and Moldova more then I originally thought.

I think an argument could be made for identifying the Southern Carpathian Mountains with the Riphean Mountains of Ancient Hellenic Geography, which thus works for identifying Riphath with Romania and perhaps also Moldova.

Ashkenaz I kind of want to place near Ukraine in all of that context.  But I’m also thinking they could just be more Eastern Orthodox minorities within Turkey.  The City of Nicaea is on the shore of a Lake called Ascanius.  Nicaea was the seat of the 1st and 7th Ecumenical Councils, played a role in the First Crusade and was the capital of the Greek Eastern Empire while Constantinople was occupied by the Latins after the Fourth Crusade.  That could be a good argument for making the Patriarch of Constantinople himself the Patriarch of Ashkenaz.

Germanic Jews are called Ashkenazim because of a Rabbinic tradition of associating Ashkenaz with western Germany and Northern France.  But this tradition didn’t start till the 11th century and why it developed isn’t clear.  Before that Rabbinic traditions usually placed Ahskenaz first in Scythia (same region Josephus placed Magog, in modern Russia and Ukraine) and then later identified them with the Slavs.  The Slavic peoples are mostly Eastern Orthodox.  But I’m now tempted in this context to identify Ashkenaz as specifically Serbia and/or Bulgaria, placing them next to Riphath.

After giving it more thought I'm starting to lean towards Russia being Magog and the other Slavic Churches being Gomer and his Sons while the Romanian Orthodox Church is Tiras.  Or maybe Ecclesiastically the Slavs are just Gomer and Togarmah (or Gomer via Togarmah) as those names are paired together in Ezekiel 38 allowing Riphath to still be Romania.  And Tiras can be Albania since the Orthodox Church of Albania's bishop is called the Archbishop of Tirana, Durres and Albania.  Many Linguists do believe Albanian is the modern descendent of the language of the Ancient Thracians.

Madai is perhaps the most difficult son of Japheth to fit into this model.  We could say he represents Eastern Orthodox minorities who exist in former regions of the Medo-Persian Empire, like the Antiochian Orthodox Church and Eastern Orthodox Communities in Egypt, Sinai and Jerusalem.  But maybe also Madai being the most separated from the other sons of Japheth resulted in him being the only one left out and so Madai is still Zoroastrianism.  Either way the various Muslims of Iran I think are the spiritual descendants of Semites.

Apparently some Kurdish Christians have been Eastern Orthodox, though most have preferred the “Nestorian” Church.  And I have in the past on this blog speculated on the theory that the Kurds partly descend from the Medes, while also partly descending from Israelites.

What gives this thesis interesting implications for Prophecy is that I’ve kind of argued for the Eastern Orthodox Church possibly being the religion through which The Antichrist will rise to power in posts like the one on the Vicar of Christ Doctrine and where I argue for Justinian being a key to understanding Daniel 7.  Meanwhile I also have a post arguing for Iapetos a Greek form of Japheth being the name 666 points to.

I don’t want this theory being used to demonize the Eastern Orthodox however, as often happens with those looking to Catholicism or Islam for The Antichrist.  The Eastern Orthodox are fellow true Believers who I feel have at times been better stewards of The Gospel then any of us Western Christians.  If this is what happens it’ll be The Antichrist taking advantage of what they’ve gotten wrong as well as what they’ve gotten right.

David Bentley Hart is a Greek Orthodox whose main criticism of his own denomination is their tendency to wind up serving the state, which he sees manifesting today in how Putin is using the Russian Orthodox Church.  He doesn’t seem like someone who’s eschatology is Futurist and so wouldn’t endorse my theory for that reason but it’s something to note.

You might say that the Eastern Orthodox has been no less Statist than the Western Churches.  However the messy relationship between Church and State in Catholic and Protectant nations has mostly been Churches bending the state to their will, for better or for worse.  It is the Eastern Orthodox who have been most inclined to simply do what the Emperor says, even when that Emperor is ofically an Atheist like Stalin.

Below the Jump Break is some supplementary speculation that isn't actually important.

I've decided to try linking each of the Five Patriarchs of the Byzantine Church with a Son of Japheth but excluding the two commonly paired together and placed under the Principality of Magog in Ezekiel 38.  

The Patriarch of Constantinople who is "first among equals" is Gomer as the Firstborn and closely tied to Ascanius and has direct authority over some Ukrainian Orthodox Communities.  Perhaps that pretty much all Orthodox Communities in "The West" are directly under this one is why Gomer and Ahskenaz came to be associated with Germany and France in Medieval Rabbinic Tradition?

The Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia is Magog.  The Patriarch of Antioch I shall identify with Madai since his title claims authority over all of the East.  The Greek Patriarch of Alexandria is Javan since during the Hellenistic Era Alexandria became the true cultural center of Greek culture.  The Church of Greece itself is Rodonim since modern Greece does include Rhodes and The Church of Cyprus is Kittim and perhaps also Elishah.  BTW I'm working on a hypothesis about the Alexandrian Church being Cyrpiot in origin.

This leaves the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem as Tiras which I know seems weird at first.  On a Symbolic level his domain was the last region to obtain a Japhethitic population (even the domain of Alexandria had pre Alexander Greeks via Cyrene) so that's why it's the youngest son.  Tiras is etymologically a very unique word in Biblical Hebrew not appearing in this exact form outside the Table of Nations and the only similar word is the name Tiria in 1 Chronicles 4:16 a son of Caleb.

I've become skeptical of the Tiras = Thrace assumptions, at least he's not only Thrace.  Identifying them with the the Tyrrhenians/Tyrsenians, who are associated with certain Pre-Roman populations of Italy including the Etruscans fits better in my view.  So the idea that descendants of them might have contributed significantly to Roman colonies like Caesarea and Aelia Capitolina is possible, as well as the soldiers of the "Italian Band" of Acts 10.

Or I could instead associate the Four Ecumenical Patriarchs who's Rites are all Greek ones with the Four sons of Javan.  

Anticoh and Alexandria's Churches both have ties to Cyprus so they would be Kittim and Elishah.  

Jerusalem would be Tarshish since 1 Chronicles 7:10 also links the name of Tarshish to Benjamin, the Teresh of the Sea Peoples could also be a factor in that.

That would leave Constantinople as Dodanim/Rodanim.  In the Lamsa translation of the Peshita this name is given as Doranim.  Dodona is the location in Greece the Dodanim reading points to, while the Rodanim/Rodioi reading points to Rhodes, both those places were Dorian during classical antiquity.  Byzantium, Chalcedon and Nicomedia were founded as colonies of the Dorian city of Megara.