rdfs:comment
| - There are disputes about how many of the peoples of the Earth this story was intended to cover, and as to its accuracy. Many Jews, Christians, and Muslims retain the belief that the table applies to the entire population of the earth, while others read it as a guide only to local ethnic groups. In the Biblical view, the listed children of Japheth, Shem and Ham correspond to various historic nations and peoples. In the typical interpretation, these sons of Noah correspond to three races: European, Semitic, and African. Alternate divisions claim: Euro-asian Japhet, Semitic Shem, and African Ham.
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abstract
| - There are disputes about how many of the peoples of the Earth this story was intended to cover, and as to its accuracy. Many Jews, Christians, and Muslims retain the belief that the table applies to the entire population of the earth, while others read it as a guide only to local ethnic groups. In the Biblical view, the listed children of Japheth, Shem and Ham correspond to various historic nations and peoples. In the typical interpretation, these sons of Noah correspond to three races: European, Semitic, and African. Alternate divisions claim: Euro-asian Japhet, Semitic Shem, and African Ham. Secular scholarship rejects the historicity of the list, and holds instead that the genealogy is merely a traditional one, aimed at explaining the relations between the ethnic groups of the ancient Near East, perhaps re-edited at the time of the text's final composition in the 7th century BC.
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