John Calvin Commentary Genesis 10:1

"Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, [namely], of Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood." — Genesis 10:1 (ASV)

These are the generations. If anyone wishes to examine more accurately the genealogies related by Moses in this and the following chapter, I do not condemn their effort. And some interpreters have successfully applied their diligence and study to this point. As far as I am concerned, let them enjoy the reward of their labors.

However, it will suffice for me to allude briefly to those things I consider more useful to note, and for which I suppose Moses wrote these genealogies. First, in these mere names we still have some fragment of the world's history; and the next chapter will show how many years intervened between the date of the deluge and the time when God made His covenant with Abraham.

This second beginning of humankind is especially worthy of being known; and the ingratitude of those is detestable, who, having heard from their fathers and grandfathers about the wonderful restoration of the world in such a short time, still voluntarily became forgetful of God's grace and salvation.

Even the memory of the deluge was entirely lost by most people. Very few cared by what means or for what purpose they had been preserved. Many ages afterwards, since humanity's wicked forgetfulness had rendered them callous to God's judgment and mercy, the door was opened to Satan's lies. Through his artifice, it came about that heathen poets spread futile and even noxious fables, by which the truth concerning God’s works was corrupted.

God's goodness, therefore, wonderfully triumphed over human wickedness by granting an extension of life to such ungrateful, brutal, and barbarous beings. Now, to captious people (who nevertheless do not think it absurd to refuse to acknowledge a Creator of the world), such a sudden increase of humankind seems incredible, and therefore they ridicule it as fabulous.

Indeed, I grant that if we choose to evaluate what Moses relates by our own reason, it might be regarded as a fable; but those who do not pay attention to the Holy Spirit's design act very perversely. For what else, I ask, did the Spirit intend, other than that the offspring of three men should be increased, not by natural means or in a common manner, but by the extraordinary exercise of God's power, to replenish the earth far and wide?

Those who regard this miracle of God as a fable because of its magnitude should find it even harder to believe that Noah and his sons, with their wives, breathed while on the waters, and that animals lived nearly a whole year without sun and air. This, then, is a gigantic madness: to ridicule what is said concerning the restoration of the human race, for in that, the admirable power of God is displayed.

How much better it would be, in the history of these events—which Noah saw with his own eyes, and not without great admiration—to behold God, admire His power, celebrate His goodness, and acknowledge His hand, no less filled with mysteries in restoring the world than in creating it?

However, we must observe that in the three genealogies Moses provides, not all the heads of families are listed; but only those among Noah's grandsons who were the princes of nations are recorded. For when anyone excelled among his brothers in talent, valor, diligence, or other endowments, he obtained a name and power for himself, so that others, resting under his protection, freely conceded priority to him.

Therefore, among the sons of Japheth, Ham, and Shem, Moses lists only those who had become famous and by whose names peoples were called. Moreover, although no certain reason appears why Moses begins with Japheth and moves second to Ham, it is probable that the first place is given to Japheth's sons. This is because, having wandered over many regions and even crossed the sea, they had moved farther from their homeland. Since these nations were less known to the Jews, he therefore alludes to them briefly.

He assigns the second place to Ham's sons, knowledge of whom was more familiar to the Jews because of their proximity. But since he had determined to weave the history of the Church in one continuous narrative, he postpones the descendants of Shem, from whom the Church descended, to the last place.

Therefore, the order in which they are mentioned is not one of dignity, since Moses puts those first whom he wished to pass over quickly as being obscure. Besides, we must observe that the children of this world are exalted for a time, so that the whole earth seems as if it were made for their benefit, but their transient glory vanishes. Meanwhile, the Church, in an ignoble and despised condition, as if creeping on the ground, is nevertheless divinely preserved, until at last, in His own time, God will lift up her head.

I have already stated that I leave to others the scrupulous investigation of the names mentioned here. The meaning of some of them is clear from Scripture, such as Cush, Mizraim, Madai, Canaan, and the like.

Regarding some others, there are probable conjectures; for yet others, the obscurity is too great to allow any certain conclusion. Furthermore, the fabrications that interpreters present are, in part, greatly distorted and forced, and in part, dull and without any reasonable basis.

Undoubtedly, it seems to be an act of frivolous curiosity to search for certain and distinct nations in each of these names. When Moses says that the islands of the Gentiles were divided by Japheth's sons, we understand that the regions beyond the sea were distributed among them. For Greece and Italy, and other continental lands—as well as Rhodes and Cyprus—are called islands by the Hebrews because the sea lay between. From this we infer that we are descended from those nations.