Genesis 10:4 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

Elishah, the father of the Grecians properly so called, who have preserved his name and remembrance in the cities Elis and Elissus, in a tract of ground called Elias, and in the Elysian fields. And from these came the \'c6olians, a people of the Lesser Asia, where many of the Grecian colonies were seated. Tarshish was father of the Cilicians, from whom their chief city Tarsus, in Hebrew Tarshish, took its name; see Ezekiel 27:12 Jonah 1:3 Acts 22:3; and from whom the whole Mediterranean Sea is called Tarshish, because the Cilicians were in a great degree masters of that sea. Kittim, or, Chittim, the father of the Macedonians, and Italians too, as may be gathered from hence, because both their countries are called by the name of Chittim; Macedonia, /APC 1Ma 1:1 8:5, and Italy, Numbers 24:24 Daniel 11:30. See also Isaiah 23:1 Jeremiah 2:10. Besides that there are other evidences in profane writers that the Italians came from the Grecians. Dodanim is called also Rodanim, 1 Chronicles 1:7. See Riphath in. \Genesis 10:3\ His posterity is uncertain. Most probably he was seated near his brethren in some part of Greece. And the Greeks seem to have worshipped him under the name of Jupiter Dodonaeus, whose famous oracle was in the city Dodona.

Genesis 10:4

4 And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.a