1:1
Yosippon opens by tracing the families of the earth from Noach and his sons, assigning peoples to lands according to the genealogical map inherited from Bereshiyt and later historical learning.
1:2
Particular attention falls upon Yafet’s descendants, because the chronicle will follow Yavan, Macedonia, Italia, Rome, and the powers that later collide with Yehudah.
1:3
The author binds scriptural genealogy to the geography known in his own age, identifying peoples, islands, coasts, and kingdoms through medieval Ivrit historical vocabulary.
1:4
This opening is therefore both biblical genealogy and a tenth-century Jewish map of the nations; its identifications are source-layer geography rather than a modern ethnic atlas.