How to read this Bible Noah family tree
Read the chart from the top down. Genesis gives ages, not dates, so each plate gives the name alone.
A picture is a likeness
A detail of an old woodcut, named in the credits.
A plain medallion is a name only
Most grandsons appear in Genesis only as names, so a silhouette or initials stand in.
A line down is a son
The wives of the three sons are not named, so they are not drawn.
Noah, his wife and his three sons
Lamech named his son Noah, “saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands.”1 Genesis calls Noah “a just man and perfect in his generations,” and says that he “begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”2
Into the ark went “Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them.”3 Genesis names none of the four women, so on the Bible Noah family tree Noah’s wife stands beside him as a silhouette and the wives of the sons are left off. Rashi, after Genesis Rabbah, says that Noah’s wife was Naamah, the sister of Tubal-cain.9 The Letter to the Hebrews reads the ark as an act of faith, by which Noah “prepared an ark to the saving of his house.”8
After the flood Noah planted a vineyard. Ham, “the father of Canaan,” saw his father’s nakedness, and Noah said, “Cursed be Canaan.”4 He blessed the God of Shem and said, “God shall enlarge Japheth.”4
Genesis marks the generations of Noah’s family tree by age. Lamech was a hundred and eighty-two when Noah was born, and Noah was five hundred years old when he begat his three sons.1 Noah was six hundred when the flood came, lived three hundred and fifty years after it, and died at nine hundred and fifty.34 Genesis 9:19 says that of Shem, Ham and Japheth “was the whole earth overspread.”4
The table of nations
Genesis 10 lists “the generations of the sons of Noah,” Japheth first, then Ham, then Shem, and closes, “by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.”5 Many of the names are also names of peoples and places, and the chapter speaks of them by their lands and tongues.5 The Bible Noah family tree draws every son that Genesis 10 names for each of the three brothers.
Of the grandsons, Genesis gives most room to Cush, whose son Nimrod “began to be a mighty one in the earth” and was “a mighty hunter before the Lord.”5 On Shem’s side the line runs from Arphaxad, born two years after the flood, through Salah to Eber, whose son Peleg was so named “for in his days was the earth divided.”65 Peleg’s brother Joktan had thirteen sons.5
This Bible Noah family tree keeps to the names as Genesis gives them. It does not match Gomer, Javan, Mizraim or any other name to a modern nation or race, because the chapter itself makes no such match.5
Which son was the eldest
Genesis names the sons as Shem, Ham and Japheth, and Genesis 9:24 calls the son who saw Noah’s nakedness his “younger son.”24 Genesis 10:21 is read two ways. The King James Version calls Shem “the brother of Japheth the elder,” which can make Japheth the eldest.5 The Jewish Publication Society translation of 1917 reads “the elder brother of Japheth,” which makes Shem the elder.7 The JPS also spells two names in the Hebrew way, Arpachshad and Shelah, where the King James Version has Arphaxad and Salah.7
Every person on the Bible Noah family tree
Each person has a row with the verse that names the father.
| Portrait | Person | In the sources | On the chart |
|---|---|---|---|
 | LamechFather of Noah | Son of Methuselah. Sources1 | |
 | NoahSon of Lamech | Father of Shem, Ham and Japheth. | |
| N | Noah’s wifeUnnamed in Genesis | Naamah in Rashi. | |
 | JaphethSon of Noah | Father of seven sons. Sources5 | |
 | HamSon of Noah | Father of four sons. Sources5 | |
 | ShemSon of Noah | Father of five sons. Sources5 | |
| G | GomerSon of Japheth | Genesis 10:2. Sources5 | |
| M | MagogSon of Japheth | Genesis 10:2. Sources5 | |
| M | MadaiSon of Japheth | Genesis 10:2. Sources5 | |
| J | JavanSon of Japheth | Genesis 10:2. Sources5 | |
| T | TubalSon of Japheth | Genesis 10:2. Sources5 | |
| M | MeshechSon of Japheth | Genesis 10:2. Sources5 | |
| T | TirasSon of Japheth | Genesis 10:2. Sources5 | |
| C | CushSon of Ham | Father of Nimrod. Sources5 | |
| M | MizraimSon of Ham | Genesis 10:6. Sources5 | |
| P | PhutSon of Ham | Put in the JPS. | |
| C | CanaanSon of Ham | Cursed in Genesis 9:25. | |
 | NimrodSon of Cush | A mighty hunter. Sources5 | |
| E | ElamSon of Shem | Genesis 10:22. Sources5 | |
| A | AsshurSon of Shem | Genesis 10:22. Sources5 | |
 | ArphaxadSon of Shem | Born after the flood. Sources6 | |
| L | LudSon of Shem | Genesis 10:22. Sources5 | |
| A | AramSon of Shem | Genesis 10:22. Sources5 | |
 | SalahSon of Arphaxad | Genesis 10:24. Sources5 | |
 | EberSon of Salah | Genesis 10:24. Sources5 | |
 | PelegSon of Eber | Genesis 10:25. Sources5 | |
| J | JoktanSon of Eber | Father of thirteen sons. Sources5 |
Questions about the Bible Noah family tree
What Noah’s wife was called
Genesis does not name her. Rashi, after Genesis Rabbah, calls her Naamah, the sister of Tubal-cain.
How many grandsons Noah had
Genesis 10 names sixteen, seven sons of Japheth, four of Ham and five of Shem.
Whether Shem or Japheth was the elder
Genesis 10:21 is read both ways. The King James Version can make Japheth the elder, and the JPS translation makes Shem the elder.
People and sources
A page of its own lists the nine 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.