Topic summary
Elishah
Elishah (אֱלִישָׁה’Ĕlîšāh) was the son of Javan according to the Book of Genesis (10:4) in the Masoretic Text. The Greek Septuagint of Genesis 10 lists Elisa as the son of Javan and a grandson of Japheth. In Hebrew, his name is differentiated from that of the prophet Elisha by its ending in a hei (ה) rather than an ayin (ע).
Elishah has traditionally been associated with Cypriots, as the island of Cyprus is a possible location of the Bronze Age kingdom of Alashiya. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, Elishah is to be identified with Magna Graecia and Sicels.Flavius Josephus related the descendants of Elishah to the Aeolians, one of the ancestral branches of the Greeks. Other traditions identify Elishah with Hellas and Carthage ("Elissa").
Elishah is also mentioned in the mediaevalrabbinicBook of Jasher (Hebrew transliteration: Sefer haYashar); he is said in Jasher to have been the ancestor of the "Almanim", possibly a reference to Germanic tribes (Alemanni). An older and more common tradition refers to him as a settler of Greece, particularly Elis in the Peloponnese.