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In Genesis 11, Arphaxad is the father of Shelah. The Greek Septuagint translation and Jubilees add a generation, inserting Kainan. Luke appears to follow this tradition instead of the Hebrew text, listing Kainan as Shelah’s father.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 11:12
Hebrew Bible
11 And after becoming the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters. 12 When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah. 13 And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Genesis 11:12
Septuagint
11 And Shem lived, after he had fathered Arphaxad, five hundred years, and fathered sons and daughters, and died. 12 And Arphaxad lived one hundred and thirty-five years, and fathered Cainan. 13 And Arphaxad lived after he had fathered Cainan, four hundred and thirty years, and fathered sons and daughters, and died. And Cainan lived one hundred and thirty years and fathered Shelah; and Cainan lived after he had fathered Shelah, three hundred and thirty years, and fathered sons and daughters, and died.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Jubilees 8:1
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
1 In the twenty-ninth jubilee, in the first week, [1373] in its beginning Arpachshad took to himself a wife and her name was Rasu'eja, the daughter of Susan, the daughter of Elam, and she bore him a son in the third year in this week, [1375] and he called his name Kainam. 2 And the son grew, and his father taught him writing, and he went to seek for himself a place where he might seize for himself a city.
Date: 170–125 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Luke 3:36
New Testament
34 the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, 35 the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, 36 the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, 37 the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Kenan,
Date: 75–85 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Following this, the author narrates the next generation of humanity among Noah’s descendants: Rasu'eya, daughter of Susan: See Jubilees 4:13-15. This name seems to represent “desirable,” She gave birth to a son … Kainan: He is not mentioned in the Masoretic Text, Genesis 11:12, but he does appear in the Septuagint version (compare Luke 3:36); there Kainan is the father of Shelah, making Arpachshad Shelah’s grandfather instead of his father, as in the Masoretic Text ..."
James L. Kugel, A Walk through Jubilees: Studies in the Book of Jubilees and the World of Its Creation (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 75.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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