How to print the Bible family tree PDF
The PDF button draws the chart on one A3 page in portrait, the shape of the chart, with the credit of every picture under it. It prints on A4 or Letter as well when the printer is set to fit the page. The PNG suits a slide or a handout. To change the chart before printing, open it in the editor and add a name, a note or a branch.
Under the chart the file lists the source of every picture. The line follows Genesis 5 and 11, Genesis 25 to 38, Ruth 4 and Matthew 1, so a class can read each generation against the verse it comes from, and the notes beside the line show where to look for the names the page leaves out.
A picture is a likeness
A detail of an old painting or woodcut, named in the credits.
A solid line is a marriage
Boaz and Ruth, David and Bathsheba, Joseph and Mary.
A line down is a child
A solid line joins a parent to a child. A dotted line passes over generations the chart leaves out.
A note counts a gap
The Bible names more generations there than the chart draws.
Download the Bible family tree PDF
Press PDF over the chart to save the Bible family tree as one A3 page, turned to fit the chart, with the credit of every portrait printed under it. Press PNG for the same chart as a picture for slides or notes. Both files are free and are drawn from the chart as this page publishes it, so changes made in the preview stay out of them. The people on the chart, the sources and this page as a reference in four styles are on its page of people and sources.
From Adam to Jacob
The Bible family tree starts with the list of Genesis 5, which runs father to son from Adam through Seth to Noah and his sons.1 Genesis 11 carries the line of Shem on to Terah and to Abraham.2 The chart leaves out the seven generations between Seth and Noah and the eight between Shem and Abraham, draws a dotted line across each gap and counts the names left out in a note. The Genesis family tree draws those names.
Abraham’s son Isaac married Rebekah, who bore the twins Esau and Jacob.3 Ishmael, Abraham’s elder son by Hagar, stands to the side. Jacob’s fourth son by Leah was Judah, and the line runs on through him.4 The Abraham, Isaac and Jacob family tree draws all twelve sons.
From Judah to King David
Tamar, the widow of Judah’s firstborn son Er, bore Judah the twins Pharez and Zarah.5 The book of Ruth closes with the line from Pharez to David, “Pharez begat Hezron,” down to “Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David.”6 Between Pharez and Boaz it names Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon and Salmon.6 The chart joins Boaz to Judah and Tamar by a dotted line across those six generations, so that Tamar does not read as his mother.
Boaz married Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, and the women of the town said “there is a son born to Naomi.”6 They called him Obed, “the father of Jesse, the father of David.”6 Obed is not drawn, so a dotted line runs from Boaz and Ruth to their grandson Jesse.
From King David to Jesus
Matthew follows the kings from David and Bathsheba through Solomon, and names twenty-four generations between Solomon and Joseph, “the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus.”8 Luke runs the line the other way, through David’s son Nathan, with thirty-nine names between Nathan and Joseph.9 The chart follows Matthew and draws Nathan as a side branch.
Both Gospels make Joseph the father of Jesus in law. Luke writes that Jesus was “(as was supposed) the son of Joseph,” and the chart draws that link as a legal father’s.98 The family tree of Jesus sets the two lists side by side and gives the old explanations of the difference.
Where the Jewish and Christian Bibles end the line
The Hebrew Bible carries David’s house past the exile in 1 Chronicles 3, through Jeconiah and Zerubbabel to the sons of Elioenai, and stops there.7 The genealogies from Joseph to Jesus come from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and the lower part of this Bible family tree follows the Christian canon. Aish gives the Jewish reading, that the Messiah must descend from David on his father’s side, which a birth without a human father would not give.10
Every person on the Bible family tree
Each person has a row with the verse that names the parents.
| Portrait | Person | In the sources | On the chart |
|---|---|---|---|
| G | GodCreator, a name plate | Formed Adam of the dust and made Eve of his rib, Genesis 2:7 and 2:22. Father of Jesus in Christian belief, Luke 1:35. | |
 | AdamThe first man | Genesis 5:1-5. Sources1 | |
 | EveWife of Adam | Mother of Seth. Sources1 | |
 | SethSon of Adam | Genesis 5:3. Sources1 | |
 | NoahSon of Lamech | Genesis 5:29. Sources1 | |
 | ShemSon of Noah | Genesis 5:32. | |
 | AbrahamSon of Terah | Genesis 11:26. Sources2 | |
 | SarahWife of Abraham | Mother of Isaac. | |
 | IshmaelSon of Abraham | Son of Hagar. Sources3 | |
 | IsaacSon of Abraham | Father of Esau and Jacob. Sources3 | |
 | RebekahWife of Isaac | Genesis 25:21. Sources3 | |
 | EsauElder twin | Genesis 25:25. Sources3 | |
 | JacobYounger twin | Genesis 25:26. Sources3 | |
 | LeahWife of Jacob | Mother of Judah. Sources4 | |
 | JudahSon of Jacob | Genesis 29:35. Sources4 | |
 | TamarMother of Pharez | Genesis 38:29. Sources5 | |
 | BoazSon of Salmon | Ruth 4:21. Sources6 | |
 | RuthWife of Boaz | Ruth 4:13. Sources6 | |
 | JesseSon of Obed | Ruth 4:22. Sources6 | |
 | King DavidSon of Jesse | Ruth 4:22. | |
 | BathshebaWife of David | Mother of Solomon. | |
 | King SolomonSon of David | Matthew 1:6. Sources8 | |
| N | NathanSon of David | Luke 3:31. | |
 | JosephHusband of Mary | Matthew 1:16. Sources8 | |
 | MaryMother of Jesus | Matthew 1:16. Sources8 | |
 | JesusSon of Mary | Matthew 1:16, Luke 3:23. |
Questions about the Bible family tree PDF
Whether the Bible family tree PDF is free
Yes. The PDF and the PNG are free to save and print, and need no account.
How many generations run from Adam to Jesus
Luke 3:23-38 names seventy-five generations from Joseph back to Adam. The chart draws twenty-five people and counts the rest in notes.
Which genealogy the chart follows from David
Matthew 1, through Solomon. Luke 3 runs through Nathan, who stands to the side.
People and sources
A page of its own lists the 12 numbered sources this article cites. It also gives the credits of the portraits and this page as a reference in the APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard styles, ready to copy.