RIPHATH

(Riʹphath).

A son of Gomer and grandson of Japheth. (Gen. 10:2, 3; 1 Chron. 1:6) At 1 Chronicles 1:6 the Masoretic Hebrew text has “Diphath”; however, the Greek Septuagint Version, the Latin Vulgate and some thirty Hebrew manuscripts have “Riphath.” The difference in spelling is perhaps the result of a copyist’s writing the Hebrew daʹleth (ד) instead of the Hebrew rehsh (ר), the letters being very similar in appearance.

Riphath is listed among those from whom the various nations and peoples were spread about in the earth following the global flood. (Gen. 10:32) The only historical reference regarding his descendants is that of Josephus, of the first century C.E., who claims that the early inhabitants of Paphlagonia (along the S side of the Black Sea in northwestern Asia Minor) were anciently called “Ripheans.” Some scholars would also connect the name with that of the river called the “Rhebas” in that general area, while others favor a relationship with the district of “Rhebantia” in the region of the Bosporus (the land bridge connecting Asia Minor with the NE extremity of modern Greece), farther to the W. The limited mention of Riphath in the Bible record and the lack of reference to the name in available ancient secular history allows for no certain identification.