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Adam · ? — In Genesis the first human being, formed by God from the dust of the ground and placed in the Garden of Eden. With Eve, from whom all humankind is descended, he ate the forbidden fruit and was driven from the garden; he is named father of Cain, Abel and Seth and is said to have lived 930 years.

Eve · ? — In Genesis the first woman, formed as Adam’s companion and called “the mother of all living”. Tempted by the serpent, she ate the forbidden fruit and shared it with Adam, bringing their exile from Eden; she bore Cain, Abel and Seth.

Cain · ? — Firstborn son of Adam and Eve and a tiller of the soil. When God favoured the offering of his shepherd brother Abel over his own, he killed Abel in the first murder and was sent to wander as a marked fugitive — yet guarded by God from vengeance.

Abel · ? — Second son of Adam and Eve, a keeper of sheep whose offering found favour with God. His jealous brother Cain murdered him in a field — the first death in the biblical story — and his blood is said to have cried out from the ground.

Seth · ? — Third son of Adam and Eve, born after Abel’s death and seen as his appointed replacement. Through his line, rather than Cain’s, the genealogy runs down to Noah and the survivors of the flood; Genesis gives him 912 years.

Enosh · ? — Son of Seth and grandson of Adam in the line of the early patriarchs. Genesis marks his days as the time when people “began to call upon the name of the Lord” — the beginning of worship — and records a lifespan of 905 years.

Kenan · ? — Son of Enosh, a patriarch of the long-lived generations before the flood in the line from Seth to Noah. Genesis records little of him beyond his place in the genealogy and a lifespan of 910 years.

Mahalalel · ? — Son of Kenan in the antediluvian line that runs from Seth toward Noah. He appears in the genealogy of Genesis 5, where he is given a lifespan of 895 years.

Jared · ? — Son of Mahalalel and father of Enoch in the generations before the flood. One of the longest-lived of the patriarchs, Genesis gives him 962 years.

Enoch · ? — Son of Jared, set apart among the patriarchs as a man who “walked with God”. Genesis says that, rather than dying, he was taken up by God after 365 years — one of only two figures in the Hebrew scriptures said not to taste death.

Methuselah · ? — Son of Enoch and grandfather of Noah, famed as the longest-lived person in the Bible at 969 years. His name became a byword for great age; by the genealogy he died in the very year of the flood.

Lamech · ? — Son of Methuselah and father of Noah. At his son’s birth he voiced the hope that the child would bring relief from the toil of the cursed ground; Genesis gives him 777 years.

Noah · ? — The righteous man whom God chose to outlive the great flood that swept away a corrupt world. Warned beforehand, he built the ark and preserved his family and the animals; afterward God set the rainbow as a covenant never again to flood the earth. He is named father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Shem · ? — Eldest son of Noah and one of the eight who came through the flood in the ark. Genesis traces from him the Semitic peoples and the line that descends through Arphaxad to Abraham and the patriarchs of Israel.

Ham · ? — A son of Noah who survived the flood in the ark. Father of Cush, Mizraim, Put and Canaan, he is reckoned in the Table of Nations the ancestor of the peoples of Africa and of the land of Canaan.

Japheth · ? — A son of Noah and one of the flood’s survivors. In the Table of Nations of Genesis 10 he is the ancestor of the northern and seafaring peoples, his sons lending their names to far-flung nations.

Cush · ? — Son of Ham in the Table of Nations and father of Nimrod. His name is tied to the lands of the upper Nile — the region the Bible calls Cush, south of Egypt.

Mizraim · ? — Son of Ham whose name is the Hebrew word for Egypt itself. In the Table of Nations he stands as the eponymous ancestor of the Egyptian peoples.

Canaan · ? — Son of Ham who, by Noah’s curse after Ham’s offence, was made a servant to his brothers. In the Table of Nations he is forefather of the Canaanite peoples who dwelt in the land later promised to Abraham’s descendants.

Nimrod · ? — Son of Cush, described as “a mighty hunter before the Lord” and the first great potentate on earth. His kingdom began with Babel and the cities of Mesopotamia, making him the Bible’s archetype of the founder-king.

Gomer · ? — Son of Japheth in the Table of Nations, named as a forefather of peoples to the north. Later tradition associated his descendants with the Cimmerians and other northern nations.

Javan · ? — Son of Japheth in the Table of Nations, whose name is the Hebrew term for the Greeks. He is reckoned the ancestor of the Ionian and Aegean peoples.

Arphaxad · ? — Son of Shem, born two years after the flood, in the line that leads from Noah toward Abraham. He appears in the post-flood genealogy of Genesis 11.

Shelah · ? — Son of Arphaxad in the line of Shem, one of the patriarchs of the generations between the flood and Abraham listed in Genesis 11.

Eber · ? — Son of Shelah in the line of Shem, and the figure from whose name the term “Hebrew” is traditionally derived. He stands several generations above Abraham in the genealogy.

Peleg · ? — Son of Eber, in whose days, Genesis says, “the earth was divided” — often read as the scattering of peoples after Babel. He continues the line of Shem toward Abraham.

Reu · ? — Son of Peleg in the line of Shem, one of the patriarchs of the generations leading down to Terah and Abraham in Genesis 11.

Serug · ? — Son of Reu in the line of Shem, a patriarch of the generations between the flood and Abraham named in Genesis 11.

Nahor · ? — Son of Serug and grandfather of Abraham — the elder Nahor of the line of Shem, for whom Abraham’s brother was later named.

Terah · ? — Father of Abraham, Nahor and Haran. He set out from Ur of the Chaldees toward the land of Canaan but settled along the way in Haran, where he died — leaving his son Abraham to complete the journey.

Abraham · ? — The founding patriarch, called by God to leave Ur for a promised land and made the father of a great nation. He fathered Ishmael by Hagar and Isaac by Sarah, and his readiness to obey — even to the binding of Isaac — made him the model of faith for Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.

Nahor · ? — Brother of Abraham, named after their grandfather. Through his son Bethuel he was grandfather of Rebekah, and his family in Haran remained the kindred from whom Isaac and Jacob would take their wives.

Haran · ? — Brother of Abraham who died young in Ur, their homeland, before the family set out. He was the father of Lot, whom Abraham took with him on the journey to Canaan.

Lot · ? — Nephew of Abraham who travelled with him to Canaan and settled near Sodom. When God destroyed the wicked cities, he and his daughters were led to safety by angels, though his wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.

Milcah · ? — Wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, and mother of Bethuel. Through Bethuel she was grandmother of Rebekah, linking Abraham’s kindred to the wife of his son Isaac.

Bethuel · ? — Son of Nahor and Milcah and a member of Abraham’s kindred in Haran. He was father of Rebekah, who married Isaac, and of Laban, whose daughters married Jacob.

Rebekah · ? — Daughter of Bethuel, chosen at a well by Abraham’s servant to become the wife of Isaac. She left her kindred to marry her cousin and bore the twins Esau and Jacob — and, favouring Jacob, helped him win his father’s blessing over his elder brother.

Laban · ? — Son of Bethuel and brother of Rebekah, who lived in Haran. His nephew Jacob laboured fourteen years for his daughters Leah and Rachel; their tangled dealings, marked by trickery on both sides, fill much of Jacob’s story.

Sarah · ? — Wife of Abraham and matriarch of the covenant line. Long childless, she gave her maid Hagar to Abraham, then in her old age miraculously bore Isaac, the promised son; she is the first of the matriarchs of Israel.

Hagar · ? — Egyptian handmaid of Sarah, given to Abraham and mother of his firstborn Ishmael. Cast out into the wilderness with her son, she was met by God’s angel, who promised that Ishmael too would become a great nation.

Keturah · ? — The wife Abraham took after Sarah’s death. She bore him six more sons, among them Midian, ancestor of the Midianites — peoples reckoned among the nations descended from Abraham.

Ishmael · ? — Firstborn son of Abraham, by Hagar. Sent away into the wilderness as a boy yet blessed by God, he became — by the promise — the father of twelve princes, and is honoured by tradition as an ancestor of the Arab peoples.

Isaac · ? — Son of Abraham and Sarah, born to them in old age as the child of promise. Bound on the altar by his father in the great test of faith and then spared, he became the second patriarch, married Rebekah, and fathered the twins Esau and Jacob.

Midian · ? — A son of Abraham by Keturah and ancestor of the Midianites, a desert people. They appear later in scripture as both adversaries and kin of Israel — it was a Midianite priest, Jethro, whose daughter Moses married.

Esau · ? — Elder of the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah, a hunter who came from the womb first. He sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for a bowl of stew and lost his father’s blessing by Jacob’s deceit; he became the ancestor of the Edomites.

Jacob · ? — Younger twin of Isaac, who gained both his brother Esau’s birthright and their father’s blessing. After wrestling with God he was renamed Israel; by his two wives and their maids he fathered the twelve sons whose names became the tribes of Israel.

Leah · ? — Elder daughter of Laban, married to Jacob through her father’s deception in place of her sister Rachel. Though the less-loved wife, she was fruitful, bearing six of Jacob’s sons — including Levi and Judah — and his daughter Dinah.

Rachel · ? — Younger daughter of Laban and the wife Jacob loved, for whom he laboured fourteen years. Long barren, she at last bore Joseph, then died giving birth to Benjamin on the road to Bethlehem, where Jacob set up a pillar over her grave.

Bilhah · ? — Maidservant of Rachel, given to Jacob when Rachel could not conceive. She bore him two sons, Dan and Naphtali, who were counted as Rachel’s and became eponyms of two of the twelve tribes.

Zilpah · ? — Maidservant of Leah, given to Jacob to bear children on Leah’s behalf. She was the mother of Gad and Asher, two of the twelve sons whose names became tribes of Israel.

Reuben · ? — Firstborn of Jacob, by Leah, and eponym of one of the twelve tribes. He forfeited the privileges of the firstborn for an offence against his father, yet it was he who tried to save his brother Joseph from being killed.

Simeon · ? — Second son of Jacob, by Leah, and eponym of one of the twelve tribes. With his brother Levi he avenged their sister Dinah in a violent assault on the city of Shechem, drawing their father’s rebuke.

Levi · ? — Third son of Jacob, by Leah, and ancestor of the tribe set apart for the priesthood. From his line came Moses, Aaron and the Levites who served at the tabernacle and the temple.

Judah · ? — Fourth son of Jacob, by Leah, and ancestor of the royal tribe of Israel. He persuaded his brothers to sell Joseph rather than kill him; from his line descend King David and, in Christian tradition, the Messiah.

Issachar · ? — Fifth son of Jacob, by Leah, and eponym of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. The blessing of Jacob likens his tribe to a strong donkey settling down in a pleasant land.

Zebulun · ? — Sixth son of Jacob, by Leah, and eponym of one of the twelve tribes. Jacob’s blessing foretold that his people would dwell by the seashore and become a haven for ships.

Dinah · ? — Daughter of Jacob and Leah. Her abduction by a prince of Shechem drove her brothers Simeon and Levi to take a bloody revenge upon the city — one of the darker episodes of Jacob’s household.

Joseph · ? — Favourite son of Jacob, by Rachel, sold into Egyptian slavery by his jealous brothers. Rising from prison to become Pharaoh’s governor through his gift for interpreting dreams, he saved the region from famine and was reconciled with the brothers who had betrayed him.

Benjamin · ? — Youngest son of Jacob, born to Rachel as she died in childbirth. The cherished child of his father’s old age, he was eponym of one of the twelve tribes — from which, generations later, came Israel’s first king, Saul.

Dan · ? — Son of Jacob by Rachel’s maid Bilhah and eponym of one of the twelve tribes. Jacob’s blessing called his tribe a serpent by the path and a judge of his people.

Naphtali · ? — Son of Jacob by Rachel’s maid Bilhah and eponym of one of the twelve tribes. Jacob’s blessing likened him to a hind let loose, swift and free.

Gad · ? — Son of Jacob by Leah’s maid Zilpah and eponym of one of the twelve tribes. Jacob’s blessing played on his name, foretelling a people raided yet raiding back in turn.

Asher · ? — Son of Jacob by Leah’s maid Zilpah and eponym of one of the twelve tribes. Jacob’s blessing promised that his land would yield rich food and “royal delicacies”.

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The Bible: Adam to the Twelve Tribes

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