Protestant missions were in 1870 supported in Japan by three American denominations: the Preslnterian I Church, the Dutch Reformed Church, and the Protes- ! tant Episcopal Church. Several missionaries teach sec- I ular branches in the government schools. Progress has I been made with the translation of the Bible into.Japan- j ese, and Bible-classes have been formed, but up to 1871 i but few of the natives had made a profession of Chris- : tianity. The Presbyterian missionaries, who had sta- I tions at Yokohama (begun in 1850) and Yeddo (begun in 18G9),had, according to their report of 1870, baptized three natives. The Protestant Episco]ial Church sup- ported one missionary bishop and one missionar}'. See Charleroix et Crasset, Histoire de Japan (Paris, 1754) ; Sir Rutherford Alcock, The Capital of the Tycoon (Lond. 1863); Siebold, Nipon; Archiv zur Eeschreibvng von Japan (Levd. 1832-51); American Annual Cyclopedia, 1868,1870." (A.J.S.)
JAPHA
782
JAPHLET
Japha. See Japhia, 3.
Ja'pheth (Heb. Ye'pheth, ^?^ in pause Ya'pheih, TE^, \vii\ti-gpreadinff [conip. Gen. ix, 27], although some make it signify /««>, referring to the light complexion of the Japhethites ; Sept. 'Id^eB ; Josephus 'Ia<pk^ag, Ant. I, 4, 1), one of the three sons of Noah, mentioned last in order (Gen. v, 32 ; vi, 10 ; vii, 13 ; ix, 18 ; x, 1 ; 1 Chron. i. 4), although it appears from Gen. x, 21 (comp. ix, 24) that he was the eldest of Noah's sons, born one humlred years before the flood (Jlichaelis, Sjncil. ii, 66). B.C. 2616. He and his wife were two of the eight per- sons (1 Pet. iii, 20) preserved in the ark (Gen. vii, 7). Ill Gen. X, 2 sq. he is called the progenitor of the exten- sive tribes in the west (of Europe) and north (of Asia)— of the Armenians, Medes, Greeks, Thracians, etc. (comp. SvnceUus, Chron. p. 49 ; Mala, Chronofjr. p. 16 ; see Tuch oil ver. 27). See Ethnography. De Wette (Kritik; p. 72) justly repudiates the opinion of the Tarr/urnhn, both Jonathan and Hieros., who make Japheth the progeni- tor of the African tribes also. The Arabian traditions (D"Herbelot,5«Mo^A. Orient.) attribute to Japheth won- derful powers (WeU., Biblische Ler/enden, viii, 46), and enumerate eleven of his sons, the progenitors of as many Asiatic nations, viz. Gin or Dshin (Chinese), Seklah (Slavonians), Manshuge, Gomari, Turk (Turks), Kha- lage, Khozar, Ros (Russians), Sussan, Gaz, and Torage. In these traditions he is called Ahoultierk (Hottinger, Hist. Orient, p. 37). To the seven sons of Japheth men- tioned in Gen. x, 2 and 1 Chron. i, 5, the Sept. and lAise- bius add an eighth, Elishu, though not found in tlie text. Some (Buttmann, Mytholor/. i, 222 ; Bochart, Phctl. iii, 1 ; and Hasse, Entdeckunr/, ii, 131) identify Japheth with the 'luTziTOQ of Greek fable, the depository of many ethno- graphical traditions (see Smith's Diet, of Classic. Bioc/r. s. V. Japetus), while others, again, connect him with He- reus, mentioned by the ancient historian Sanchoniathon. His act of filial pietj-^, in conjunction with Shem, as re- lated in Gen. ix, 20-27 (where some understand the clause, " He shall dwell in the tents of Shem," to refer to God, and not to Japheth), became the occasion of the prophecy of the extension of his posterity (see Heng- stenljerg's Christologij, i, 42). See Shejf.
Japheth ben-Ali ha -Levi (called in Arabic Ahu-Ali Hassan ben-Ali al-Levi al-Bozrii), a very able Karaite grammarian and commentator on the Old Test., flourished at Bassra, in Arabia, during the latter half of the 10th century. He is reputed to have written a history of the Karaites (q. v.), of which traces still re- main (see Rule, Karaites, p. 106), and commentaries which cover twenty MS. volumes preserved in Paris and Leyden. He distinguished himself by his literary labors, and obtained the honorable appellation of T^b^H PllSil, the great teacher, and a place among those who are mentioned in the Karaite Prayer-book. The late emi- nent Orientalist Mmik brought, in 1841, from Egypt to the royal library at Paris, eleven volumes of this commen- tary, five of which are on Genesis and many sections of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers; two volumes are on the Psalms, one is on Proverbs, and one on the Five Me- gilloth. They are written in Arabic, preceded by the Hebrew text and an Arabic translation. The indefati- gable Pinsker has examined the entire twenty volumes, and made extracts from them. This work, of such gi- gantic magnitude, although it has exercised great in- fluence on the development of Biblical exegesis (as may be concluded from the fact that Ahen-Ezra had them con- stantly before him when writing his expositions of the O. T., and that he quotes them with the greatest re- . spect), has not as yet been pidjlished, and we have still only the fragments which Aben-Ezra gives us. Japheth was also an extensive polemical writer, and engaged in controversies with the disciples of Saadia (q. v.) ; but for polemics he does not seem to have possessed the proper requisites. See Ginsburg in Kitto, s. v. ; Jost, Isruelitische Annalen (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1841), p. 76 ; Barges, Rabbi Japhet ben-Ueli Bassorensis Karuitis
in Psal. Commentarii Prefutio (1846) ; Pinsker, Likkute Kadnwuiiit (Vienna, 1863), p. 169; Supplement, p. 181, etc. ; Griitz. Crsclilrhte der Juden, v, 342. (J. H. W.)
Japheth ben-Said, a descendant of the above, and anotlier great Karaite, in all probability also born at Bassra, flourished about 1160-1200. Besides the cel- ebrated work in defence of Karaism entitled Ila-A tukat ha-Tora, which he is supposed to have written about 1167, he wrote commentaries on the Pentateuch and other books of the O. T. Pinsker fancies, and not with- out reason, that this is the Japheth whom the Karaites describe as the instructor of Aben-Ezra, and asserts that Ezra's quotations from the commentary on Exod. iv, 20 ; viii, 13 ; ix, 16 ; x, 5, 21, belong to this Japheth, and not to the former. His commentaries are still in MS., both in the Paris and Leyden libraries. See Pinsker, Likkute Kadmoniot, p. 222 sq. and 185 sq.. Supplement ; Griitz, Geschichte der Juden, vi, 305 sq. ; Kitto, Bibl. Cyclop, s. V. See Karaites.