On the Origins or the Antiquity of the Hebrew Language

Therefore, to return to the matter, all profane authors mention Iapetus as the most ancient of their race. He begat these children: Gomer, Magog, Medai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. Gomer begat these: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarma. Javan, however, begat Elisha, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. Let us speak of all of them. Josephus says that the Galatians were once called Gomerites from Gomer; I think that name perished in that incursion of the Britons and Gauls through all of Europe even into Asia. I would easily believe, however, that the Comari peoples, pertaining to the Assyrians and Medes, were named from him by affinity of the letter. Pomponius Mela mentions them in the Mediterranean parts of Asia. Ptolemy says the city of Gomara pertains to the Assyrians. Magog had named the Magogians or Massagetae or Magagetae, the Scythians. They were called Scythians by the Greeks (changing t to th), because they would frequently use skins for clothing on account of the immense cold; for skytos is called leather in Greek. Medai named the Medes. Javan, the Ionians. By which name all the Orientals today call all the Greeks alike, just as they do the Hebrew. From Tubal, whom some call Jobal, the Spaniards and Italians were once named. It is no wonder such antiquity lost its place among the allurements of the Latin language. Already in the times of Josephus they were called Iberians, a name which is now completely unknown to the common people. I do not find which peoples Meshech named, unless by affinity of the name I believe those to be the Moschi whom Mela mentions in Asia with his Corsites, Phoristes, Riphaces, Rhophanes, Dahae, Bomareis, and names of that kind, which are far harsher than these and known only by name. I say without a source, even if the name does not immediately come to mind, that the Muscovites came from them. Tiras gave the name to Thrace. Who among the Greeks celebrates these names most frequently? Yet they are ignorant of their origin, and they know nothing in all these things except to refer those things, the origin of which escapes them, to a fabricated genealogy of certain gods. The first son of Magog, or Massagi, called the Ashkenazim "Germa-"