In my last post I made the comment that I can trace my family back to Gomer. I have had four e-mails, from people who didn't wish to make comments in the comments section of the blog, asking me to explain the significance of this comment. To encourage comments in their proper place I will not answer those e-mails but will explain the significance of Gomer here!
If a pub quiz question was asked According to be Bible who is the nearest common ancestor of all people? Most teams would answer Adam, but they would be wrong! In Chapter 6 of the book of Genesis every man woman and child is wiped off the face of the earth apart from Noah, his wife and kids. So we are all, most recently, descended from Noah - not Adam!
And this is where Gomer comes in. Noah had three named boys, Ham, Shem and Japheth, and tribal names for the old world are based on myths about the descent of Noah. Notably in recent current affairs the protagonists in Gaza are called Hamas, being the descendant of Ham. Those who don't like what the the Jews are doing are called anti-semitic - people who don't like the descendants of Shem.
Japheph had a son called Gomer, and Gomer's descendants are called Gomri, or to use the modern spelling Cymru - the Welsh word for Wales! And yes I can find old genealogies that prove that I am descended from Gomer!
The descent from Gomer myth also leads to two other myths that are still heard today. One being that Welsh is the oldest spoken language in Europe and the other being that Welsh is the language of Heaven.
Hebrew is, obviously, the language of Heaven, and being the language used by Adam and Eve the oldest language in the world. But before the Ben-Yehuda led revival in the last century, the language of Shem had died out as a spoken language centuries ago.
The descendants of Ham had turned Muslim - there was no way that any good Christian could accept that THEY spoke the language of Heaven.
So we are left with the descent of Japheph and the Gomeri. William Salesbury, the earliest Welsh author proved a relationship between Welsh and Hebrew, which showed that Welsh was the nearest spoken language still in existence to that spoken by Adam and Eve and that Welsh was both the oldest spoken language and the nearest spoken language to the language of Heaven.
People like Mathew Arnold subsequently used Darwin to debunk the heavenly antecedents of the Welsh language, and to make the continuation of the use of the language unpopular in the 19th century, which is one of the reasons why I have never warmed to Darwinism - despite the fact that I have a closer family connection to Charles Darwin than I have to Gomer ap Japheth
So now you know! Please make comments in the comments section in future. The e-mail address is there for legal reasons and not for private debates!!!
You can't be serious?
ReplyDeletegreat post, very educational
ReplyDelete"Hebrew is the language of heaven", take that to any serious examination, and it becomes a ludicrous statement.
ReplyDeleteThe human race has been here for millions of years, and even at the "time" of Noah, there was human activity in Asia, America, and Europe/Scandinavia.
This is proven by excavation and discovery.
We humans are not descended from Noah, Adam, or even "God".
We are an evolved animal, from the ape, and prior to that, from marine creatures.
Please stop peddling this piffle, young impressionable minds may be reading!
Gosh, Alwyn - not everyone can trace himself back to Gomer.
ReplyDeleteA very interesting post. I would love to hear more about your ancestry, I find genealogy fascinating. I haven't found anything nearly so interesting whilst researching my family!
ReplyDeleteWhat an unfortunate name you have chosen for yourself logicalinformation. Darwin's On the Origin of Species will celebrate 150 years since publication at the end of this year. So it is logical to appreciate that alternates to Darwin's views were held before 1859, and that those alternatives informed people's understanding of the world. The idea that William Salisbury's treaties on the origins of the Welsh language and people, or that the genealogical heralds of the Welsh Gentry should be informed by Darwin defies all logic.
ReplyDeleteThanks to all for the responses. To Anon 09/01/09 13:00 and logicalinformation, I would point out the use of the term "myth" in the post. The name Cymru has nothing to do with Gomer, there is very little relationship between the Welsh language and the Hebrew language. But as anon 10/01/09 20:21 points out it is a fact that people did believe these myths to be true and that has affected the history and traditions of Wales - and true or not the consequences of those myths remain with us.
ReplyDeleteIf Elizabeth I hadn't believed that Welsh was the nearest language to that spoken by Adam and Eve she wouldn't have reversed her fathers repression of the language, she wouldn't have agreed to the Translation of the book of Common Prayer and the Bible into Welsh, and Welsh would have gone the way of Cornish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx.
A related myth is that Wales is a singing nation. If Welsh is the nearest living spoken language to that used by Angels, and Angels sign then Welsh people must sing too!
If you put a bug in my bathroom you would know that this myth has no basis in fact. But the existence of the myth has aided the Eisteddfod singing tradition which in its turn has given a boost to the fortunes of Only Men Allowed, Rhydian Roberts, Paul Pott, Katherine Jenkins, Bryn Terfel and others.
James and Cherry you would be surprised how "easy" it is to trace one's ancestors back to Adam and Eve. I promise to explain how in a future post.
did japheth have a son called tubal,who populated
ReplyDeletewestern europe?
did japheth have a son called tubal,who populated
ReplyDeletewestern europe?
Yes, I believe that Tubal is considered to be the ancestor of the the inhabitants of the Iberian peninsula.
japheth had seven sons and many for get the connection of preflood blood lines to the irish, Gaedheal was a child of gomer through the scythians and the inventor of celtic language irish and welsh are the 2 that are hole toungs showing thier relation the connection of hebrw is the friendship with moses when our island was promissed ...KELTOI
ReplyDelete