Biblical terminology for race
Since early modern times, a number of biblical ethnonyms from the Table of Nations in Genesis 10 have been used as a basis for classifying human racial and national identities. The connection between Genesis 10 and contemporary ethnic groups began during classical antiquity, when authors such as Josephus, Hippolytus and Jerome analyzed the biblical list.
The first depiction of historical ethnology of the world separated into the biblical sons of Noah: Semites, Hamites and Japhetites, 1771, Gatterer's Einleitung in die Synchronistische Universalhistorie. Gatterer explains that modern history has shown the truth of the biblical prediction of Japhetite supremacy (Genesis 9:25–27). Click the image for a transcription of the text.
Woodcut from the Nuremberg Chronicle, showing Shem, Ham and Japheth over their corners of the world
Flavius Josephus was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing The Jewish War, he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of priestly descent and a mother who claimed royal ancestry.
Imaginary portrait by Thomas Addis Emmet, 1880
Galilee, site of Josephus's governorship, before the First Jewish–Roman War
The works of Josephus translated by Thomas Lodge (1602)
1581 German translation of Josephus' The Jewish War in the collection of the Jewish Museum of Switzerland
