Madai (, ; , ) is a son of Japheth and one of the 16 grandsons of Noah in the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible.
Associated nations
Medes and related Iranian nations
Biblical scholars have generally identified Madai with the Iranian
Medes of much later records. The Medes, reckoned to be his offspring by
Flavius Josephus and most subsequent writers, were also known as
Madai, including in both
and
Hebrew language sources.
Also linked with Madai is the city of Hamadan.
The Kurds, Balochs, Azeris (before Turkification) still maintain traditions of descent from Madai.[Mahir A. Aziz, 2011, The Kurds of Iraq: Ethnonationalism and National Identity in Iraqi Kurdistan, p. 47.]
Others
Some scholars in more modern times have also proposed connections with various earlier nations, such as
Mitanni,
[Emmet John Sweeny, Empire of Thebes, Or Ages in Chaos Revisited, 2006, p. 11.] Matiene, and
Mannai.
In the Book of Jubilees
According to the
Book of Jubilees (10:35-36), Madai had married a daughter of
Shem, and preferred to live among Shem's descendants, rather than dwell in his allotted inheritance beyond the
Black Sea (seemingly corresponding to the
British Isles),
so he begged his brothers-in-law, Elam, Asshur and
Arpachshad, until he finally received from them the land that was named after him, Media.
Another line in Jubilees (8:5) states that a daughter of Madai named Milcah (Aramaic: Melkâ) married Cainan, who is an ancestor of Abraham also mentioned in the Septuagint version of Genesis and in the Gospel of Luke (3:36).
Purported link with Medos and Medea
Medus (Μηδος), and his mother
Medea, were also reckoned to be the ancestors of the Medes in classical Greek mythical history. Christian scholars have proposed linking Hebrew
Madai and Greek
Medos since at least the time of Isidore of Seville
Etym, ca. 600 AD.
