Note 73 — 3. THE SEMITIC RACE.[73]
Reading edition
The Semitic race extended from the Mediterranean sea on the west to the confines of Persia on the East, and doubtless possessed great variety of feature and complexion. They derive their collective name from Shem, “from whom, in the table of nations in the book of Genesis, entitled Toldoth Beni Noah, many of them are declared to have descended.” Prichard, Researches, II., p. 208, 2d ed. The principal of these nations, adds Dr. Prichard, were those of Elam, to the north-west of the Persian Gulf; the Assyrians; the Chasdim, or Chaldeans, who are the ancestors of the Hebrews and Arabs; the Lydians; and the Syrians, or people of Aram. They are also called, collectively, Syro-Arabian nations.
The Jews were immensely numerous in Egypt during the Ptolemaic and Roman epochs. Vide Josephus, Book XII., chap. ii—Sharpe, Egypt under the Romans, p. 13.