Shem
Shem (
שֵׁם "renown; prosperity; name",
Standard Hebrew Šem,
Tiberian Hebrew Šēm;
Greek Σημ,
Sēm; ) was one of the
sons of Noah in the
Bible. He is most popularly regarded as the eldest son, though some traditions regard him as the second son. Genesis 10:21 refers to relative ages of Shem and his brother Japheth, but with sufficient ambiguity in each to have yielded different translations. The verse is translated in the
KJV as "Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of
Japheth the elder, even to him were children born.". However, the
New American Standard Bible gives, "Also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, and the
older brother of Japheth, children were born."
He is mentioned in
Genesis 5:32, 6:10; 7:13; 9:18,23,26-27; 10; 11:10; also in
1 Chronicles 1:4.
Genesis 11:10 records that Shem was 100 years old at the birth of to Arpachshad two years after the flood, making him 98 at the time of the flood; and that he lived for another 500 years after this, making his age at death 600 years. With such numbers, calculations such as those of
Archbishop Ussher would suggest that Shem was still alive when
Jacob and
Esau were born.
The children of Shem were
Elam,
Asshur,
Aram,
Arpachshad and
Lud, in addition to daughters. In the
New Testament, Luke lists the genealogy of
Jesus from Adam through Shem,
Abraham and
David.
Shem was the progenitor of the south-western nations of
Asia, being the father of Elam (
Persia),
Ashur (
Assyria),
Arpachshad or Arpachaxad (according to
Josephus,
Chaldea), from whom descended the
Hebrews and
Arabs,
Lud (
Lydia) and
Aram (
Syria).
Terms like "Shemites" and "sons" of an
eponymous "father" in general, are not supported outside of religious studies by modern historical scholarship. In the
Ancient Near East (and in the
Aegean), the earliest attempts at arriving at an
ethnology that would explain the contemporary sense that there were relative similarities and differences among neighboring or distant tribes, was expressed in terms of
genealogy; an approach reflected in terms like "Semite" and "Hamite". Neither "
Semite" nor "Hamite" are broadly used now, and are sometimes perceived as offensive, because of their "
racial" connotations.
However, the adjectival forms "
Semitic" and "
Hamitic," are more accepted, though the vague term 'Hamitic' dropped out of mainstream academic use in the
1960s. "
Semitic" remains an indispensable technical term for, in particular, the
Semitic languages, as a subset of the
Afro-Asiatic languages, which show the common linguistic heritage of
Hebrew,
Arabic,
Aramaic,
Phoenician,
Akkadian, and
Ethiopic languages.
Semitic is also used in the fixed phrase "
anti-Semitic" to refer to racial, ethnic or cultural prejudice exclusively aiming Jews.
According to some Jewish traditions, Shem is believed to have been the
Melchizedek, King of Salem whom Abraham is recorded to have met after the battle of the four kings.
Shem was also one of Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker's two sons in James Joyce's novel, "
Finnegans Wake."
*Noble arab families related to Noah [
1]
*
Sons of Noah*
Wives aboard the Ark*
Subarians*
Finnegans Wake
