The lineage of Italians, according to various historical and biblical interpretations, can be traced back to Japheth, one of Noah's three sons. This connection is primarily established through Japheth's descendants who are associated with regions that later became part of Europe, including Italy.

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The Generations of Noah, also known as the Table of Nations in Genesis 10 of the Hebrew Bible, outlines the dispersion of Noah's descendants after the Great Flood.[1] This genealogy lists Noah's three sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—as the progenitors of all human peoples.[1] [2]

Japheth's descendants are broadly associated with the peoples of the Aegean Sea, Anatolia, the Caucasus, and Europe.[3] [4] Specifically, the Roman-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews, connected Japheth's son Javan with the Ionians and all Grecians, and his grandson Tarshish with the Tharsians, whose city Tarsus was in Cilicia.[5] Later interpretations further elaborate on these connections. For instance, some Jewish traditions, as cited in the Aramaic Targum of Pseudo-Jonathan ben Uzziel and elaborated by scholars like Don Isaac Abarbanel, suggest that the descendants of Tarshish eventually settled in Tuscany and Lombardy, contributing to the populations of cities like Florence, Milan, and Venice.[1] [6]

In the 7th century AD, Hispano-Roman archbishop and scholar Isidore of Seville, in his encyclopedic work Etymologiae, traced the origins of most European peoples back to Japheth.[4] This assertion was widely adopted and developed by scholars across Europe into the 19th century, reinforcing the idea of Japheth as the progenitor of European nations, including those that would form Italy.[4]

While the Bible itself does not explicitly name "Italians" as direct descendants of Japheth, the broader ethnological interpretations and historical traditions consistently link Japheth's lineage to the European continent, thereby encompassing the ancestral lines that would eventually form the Italian people.

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