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JAVAN* (Place)
Location commonly identified with Greece. The name is linguistically associated with Ionia, a region in westernmost Asia Minor that was colonized by Greeks. By extension, Javan came to be applied to Greece itself. In most occurrences in the Greek translation of the Bible, Javan appears as “Hellas,” Greece.
Some hints as to its location are given as early as the “table of nations,” where Javan appears as the fourth son of Japheth (Gn 10:2; cf. 1 Chr 1:5); moving west from Gomer, this tends to place it in Europe. Japheth is also said to be the father of Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim or Rodanim (Gn 10:4; 1 Chr 1:7). The connections of these areas or peoples is well known.
Most of the references to Ionia (Greece) are in the prophetic books. In Isaiah 66:19 Javan is named along with Tarshish, Put, Lud, and Tubal as places to which the glory of the Lord will be declared. These are taken as a representative of the distant nations.
In a lengthy prophecy against Tyre, Ezekiel refers to Javan, Tubal, and Meshech as those who traded slaves and bronze vessels for the merchandise of Tyre (Ez 27:13), while in Joel 3:6 Tyre is condemned for having sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks. In Ezekiel 27:19 the Hebrew text reads “Vedan and Javan from Uzal.” This is translated as “Greeks from Uzal” in the NLT (see also mg). The nasb states, “Vedan and Javan paid for your wares from Uzal”; the KJB reads “Dan also and Javan.” The rsv (see also mg) follows the Greek translation: “wine from Uzal.”
The references to Javan in Daniel clearly mean Greece. The he-goat who represents the king of Greece (Dn 8:21) is Alexander the Great, whose empire was divided among his four generals upon his death. The prince of Greece in Daniel 10:20 is parallel to the prince of Persia in Daniel 10:13, 20. It has been suggested that “prince” means guardian angel, but the prince of Persia’s opposition to the archangel Michael makes it evident that “prince” is a demonic spirit of high rank (cf. Eph 6:12). Conflict between Persia and Greece is predicted in Daniel 11:2, while the following verse tells of the success of Alexander the Great and the breakup of his empire.
See also Greece, Greek.