Arpachshad

Arpachshad ( – ʾArpaḵšaḏ, in pausa  – ʾArpaḵšāḏ; – Arphaxád), alternatively spelled Arphaxad or Arphacsad, is one of the postdiluvian men in the ShemTerah genealogy. The name is recorded in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament of Christian Bible) and subsequently copied in different biblical books, including the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament. Biblical accounts According to the Book of Genesis he was one of the five sons of Shem (the son of Noah). He is the twelfth name of the Genesis genealogy that traces Abrahams ancestry from Adam to Terah (cf. ). Beginning with Adam, nine Antediluvian names are given that predate Noah and the Flood, and nine postdiluvian, beginning with Noah's eldest son Shem and ending with Terah. According to the text, Arpachshad's brothers were Elam, Asshur, Lud and Aram. Arpachshad's son is called Selah, except in the Septuagint, where his son is Cainan, Shelah being Arpachshad's grandson. Cainan is also identified as Arpachshad's son in Luke and in the non-canonical book of Jubilees 8:1. The Book of Jubilees additionally identifies Arpachshad's wife as Rasu'aya, the daughter of Susan, who was the son (or daughter in some versions) of Shem's older son Elam. (Arpachshad's mother is named in this source as Sedeqetelebab; for competing traditions on the name of Shem's wife see wives aboard the Ark.) Identifications Some ancient Jewish sources, particularly Jubilees, point to Arpachshad as the immediate progenitor of Ura and Kesed, who allegedly founded the city of Ur Kasdim (Ur of the Chaldees) on the west bank of the Euphrates (Jubilees 9:4; 11:1–7) – the same bank where Ur, identified by Leonard Woolley in 1927 as Ur of the Chaldees, is located.