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Understanding the Bible |
17. GENESIS ORIGINS
The chart below may be helpful in clarifying the relationships between the early Bible characters, and in particular shows the progress of the covenant family promised to Abraham, culminating in Jesus Christ Himself. The names in bold belong to the covenant family as it progresses from one generation to the next.
The Bible Time-line on the web page of that name gives the chronology of the O.T. in greater detail. After exploring the chart on this page you may go to that page by clicking here.
| ADAM | |||||||||||
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| Other sons | ------------ | SETH | |||||||||
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| NOAH | |||||||||||
| (6:9,10) | | | (10:1-32) | |||||||||
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| JAPHETH | --------- | HAM | ------------- | SHEM |
Father of |
Semites |
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| CANAAN | TERAH |
Father of |
Abraham |
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| Canaanites | 11:10-32 | ||||||||||
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| HARAN | ----------- | NAHOR | ---------- | ABRAHAM | (c.2000 to 1850)* | ||||||
| | | | | ---------> | Midianites | ||||||||
| LOT | | | ||||||||||
| | | ISHMAEL | ------------ | ISAAC | (c. 1900 -1750) | --------- | Other sons | |||||
| MOAB | ------- | AMMON | (25:12-17) | (25:19,20) | |||||||
| Moabites | Ammonites | | | | | ||||||||
| Ishmaelites | ESAU | ---------- | JACOB | (c.1800- 1700) | |||||||
| (36:1-43) | (Israel) | ||||||||||
| Edomites | (46:8-27) | ||||||||||
| and | | | See note 3 | |||||||||
| Amalekites | | | ||||||||||
| | | (c.1750 -1650) | ||||||||||
| Reuben | Simeon | Levi | Judah | Zebulun | Issachar | Dan | Gad | Asher | Naphtali | Joseph* | Benjamin |
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| MOSES | | | Manasseh | ------- | Ephraim | | | ||||||
| (c.1280) | | | | | |||||||||
| David | (c.1010- 970) | | | |||||||||
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| Solomon | | | ||||||||||
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| JESUS | (Matt.2:6) | (Phil.3:5) | PAUL |
NOTES:
1. * Joseph demonstrated the covenant promise to Abraham that his offspring would be a blessing to the nations, by being a blessing to the nation of Egypt. This pre-figured, but only in a primitive way, what Jesus the Christ - Abraham's ultimate offspring - would do by His Death and Resurrection for the people of all nations.
2. * Dates from New Bible Dictionary, IVP, Leicester UK
3. At this point in the history of God's chosen family, it came under danger from famine. Would God's special family to whom He had made such promises really die out? It was through the ascendance of Joseph to high authority in Egypt that the family was saved! Only the family of 70 went down into Egypt (Gen.46:27), but something like a million emerged by the Exodus 400 years later.