Putting Adam's Descendants in Order Quiz

Chapter 4 of the book of Genesis recounts how Adam and Eve had their sons Cain and Abel after they had been exiled from the Garden of Eden by God. When the sons were older Cain killed Abel and for this was condemned by God to become a wanderer. After the murder Adam and Eve had a third son, Seth.

Genesis chapter 5 states that Adam was 130 years old when Seth was born and that both Cain and Seth had children and the same chapter records their descendants for the next few generations. However, later books of the Old Testament give details of how the line started by Seth actually continued from father to son for thousands of years.

Enoch was the great-great-great-grandson of Seth in a direct father to son line. Chapter 5 of Genesis recounts how, like his father Adam, who lived for 930 years, Seth was long-lived and only died when he was 912 years old.

This trait of longevity was continued by several generations of Seth's male descendants. In chronological order these were Seth's son Enosh, his grandson Kenan, great-grandson Mahalalel and great-great-grandson Jared. Mahalalel lived for 895 years while the other three each lived for over nine hundred years. Enoch was Jared's son and is described in Genesis chapter 5 as being faithful to God, who took him when he was a comparatively young 365 years old.

Methuselah is written about in chapter 5 of Genesis in the Old Testament and was the son of Enoch, born when his father was 187 years old. He was the great-great-great-great-grandson of Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve who was born after their son Cain had killed his brother Abel.

Recorded as being the longest-lived person in the Bible, Methuselah did not die until he was aged 969. Although his father Enoch lived for 'only' 365 years, most of their paternal male ancestors had lived to be nearly or (mainly) over nine hundred so that Methuselah was not unusual in respect of his lifespan.

Genesis chapter 5 records how Methuselah, known as the oldest person in the Bible, had a son named Lamech. Lamech lived for 777 years and his son Noah was born when he was 182 years old. In a direct line of father to son descendants, Noah was the great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson of Seth, Adam and Eve's third son.

Chapter 6 of Genesis tells of how God was disgusted by people's wickedness and intended to destroy all but the righteous Noah and his immediate family by causing a flood. God instructed Noah to build an enormous ark and use it to save his family and the world's animals from this flood that was going to cover all the earth.

Chapters 7 and 8 of the book of Genesis recount how Noah followed God's instructions to build an ark as a flood would be coming to kill most people on earth. When he was 600 years old Noah took his wife and his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth and their wives into the ark as well as pairs of each type of animal. They stayed on the ark for many months until the floodwaters had subsided and the ground was dry again.

Only a few generations of Ham's and Japheth's descendants are shown in the Bible but Genesis Chapter 11 details Shem's descendants for a number of generations (and later parts of the Old Testament describe how this father to son line continues). Shem's son Arphaxad was born when his father was 100 years old but from Arphaxad onwards the next seven males who continued the direct father to son line were all born when their fathers were between 29 and 35 years old. In chronological order starting with Arphaxad's son, they were Shelah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor and Terah.

Genesis chapter 11 shows that Terah was the great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson of Shem and he became the father of Abram when he was over 70 years old. When Abram was born they lived in the city of Ur but Terah later took the adult Abram, Abram's wife Sarai and Abram's nephew Lot and their families to live in Harran, where Terah eventually died.

The other three and their households then went to Canaan, as instructed by God, and later the childless Abram and Sarai separated from Lot and went to live near Hebron, as described in Chapters 12 and 13 of Genesis. Chapter 17 of the same book describes how, after a number of years when Abram was 100 years old and Sarai was 90, God told him to change their names to Abraham and Sarah and Abraham did this. God also promised they would have a son together and said that he should be called Isaac.

Chapter 21 of Genesis recounts how Abraham and Sarah had the son God had promised them and named him Isaac, as God wanted them to do. Abraham's brother Nahor also had a son, Bethuel, who became the father of Rebekah, as described in Genesis chapters 22 and 24. Chapter 25 of the same book states that Isaac and Rebekah later married and had twin sons named Jacob and Esau.

When Isaac was dying he wished to give the older son Esau his blessing, as Genesis chapter 27 shows. However, with Rebekah's help Jacob tricked his father into thinking that he was Esau and received the blessing instead, so making him the master over Esau. Chapter 28 of Genesis recounts how Isaac advised Jacob to travel to the home of his mother's brother Laban and to marry one of Laban's daughters. Jacob made the journey and, as described in chapter 29, eventually married both of Laban's daughters, who were named Leah and Rachel.

Judah was the fourth son of Jacob and Leah and chapter 38 of the book of Genesis recounts how he too fathered a number of children, including a son named Perez. Jacob, by then renamed Israel by God, and all of his other children and their families later moved to Egypt to join his son Joseph there, as Genesis chapter 46 describes. Exodus chapter 12 states that some 430 years later their descendants followed Moses out of Egypt and the book of Joshua tells of how some 40 years afterwards later generations reached and then occupied the promised land of Israel.

Chapter 4 of the book of Ruth in the Old Testament records how the father to son line of descent from Adam continued from Perez. In chronological order starting with Perez' son, the males who continued the line were Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon and Boaz. Boaz was the great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson of Jacob/Israel and married Ruth, who was originally from the land of Moab.

As recounted in the book of Ruth chapter 1, Naomi was a widow who had been living in the land of Moab but returned to her homeland of Israel with her Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth, who was also a widow. Although Naomi encouraged Ruth to stay in her own country, Ruth insisted her place was with her mother-in-law.

Chapter 2 of Ruth shows that Boaz was related to Naomi's late husband and was a prosperous farmer in Bethlehem. He saw Ruth picking up barley grains left behind by the harvesters in one of his fields and he was kind to her, giving her food and allowing her to carry on gleaning the leftover wheat and barley grains. Ruth chapter 4 tells how Boaz eventually bought Naomi's late husband's land and, with it, Ruth to be his wife. They had a son named Obed and he in turn had a son called Jesse who grew up to also become a farmer in Bethlehem.

Book 1 of Samuel chapter 16 describes the prosperous Jesse as having eight sons, with David being the youngest who spent his time in the fields looking after his father's sheep. God sent the priest Samuel to visit Jesse in order to anoint David as the successor to king Saul.

David became a part-time armour-bearer and lyre-player to Saul and, according to chapter 17 of 1 Samuel, volunteered to fight Goliath, a massive Philistine warrior, when the Philistine army gathered to attack Saul's army. David managed to kill the giant with a stone from his sling. Chapter 2 and 5 of 2 Samuel describe how in the course of time David succeeded Saul as king of Judah and then of Israel. He moved to Jerusalem and had a number of sons with his wives and concubines, including his son Solomon with his wife Bathsheba, as 2 Samuel chapter 12 recounts.

When David was nearing death he appointed Solomon as his successor, as described in chapter 1 of 1 Kings, while chapter 2 recounts how Solomon established himself as a powerful king of Israel. He became known for his wisdom with 1 Kings chapter 10 showing that even the Queen of Sheba heard of his reputation and visited him to seek his advice.