Reference: Elishah

1. A son of Javan, Ge 10:4. "The isle of Elishah," which sent purple and scarlet stuffs to Tyre, Eze 27:7, are supposed to mean Greece and the adjacent islands.

the oldest of the four sons of Javan (Ge 10:4), whose descendants peopled Greece. It has been supposed that Elishah's descendants peopled the Peloponnesus, which was known by the name of Elis. This may be meant by "the isles of Elishah" (Eze 27:7).

Javan's oldest son (Ge 10:4). Eze 27:7; "purple from the isles of Elishah." As Javan represents the Ionian Greeks; so Elishah the Aeolians, whose favorite resort was to maritime situations, in Greece, Thessaly, and Asia Minor, and Lesbos and Tenedos. Hellas (Greece) and Elis in the Peloponnese are kindred Bathes.

The eldest 'son' of Javan (Ge 10:4), whence the Tyrians obtained the purple dye (Eze 27:7). The latter favours identification with S. Italy and Sicily, or Carthage and N. African coast, both districts famous for the purple dye. Elissa, or Dido, the traditional foundress of Carthage, may indicate Elissa as an early name of Carthage, and Syncellus gives the gloss 'Elissa, whence the Sikeloi.' The Targum on Ezk. gives 'the province of Italy.' The Tell el-Amarna tablets include letters to the king of Egypt from the king of Alashia, Egyptian Alsa, which has been identified with Cyprus; known to Sargon, king of Assyria, as the land of the Ionians, Javan. There are difficulties in all these identifications, possibly because the name itself denoted different districts at different epochs, and no certainty can yet be attained.

C. H. W. Johns.

Eli'shah

Eldest son of Javan, the son of Japheth. Ge 10:4; 1Ch 1:7. His descendants apparently occupied the 'isles of Elishah,' and supplied the Phoenicians with blue and purple. Eze 27:7. Josephus identifies them with the ?olians. Others connect Elishah with Elis in the Peloponnesus.

Eli'shah

(God is salvation), the eldest son of Javan.

Ge 10:4

The residence of his descendants is described in

Eze 27:7

as the isles of Elishah, whence the Phoenicians obtained their purple and blue dyes. Some connect the race of Elishah with the AEolians, others with Elishah, and in a more extended sense Peloponnesus, or even Hellas.