In 1976, the author Alex Haley released an award-winning book titled Roots: The Saga of an American Family. It traced his ancestry back 200 years and seven generations to Kunta Kinte, a Gambian youth who had been abducted and sold as a slave to work on the plantations in America. The book’s success may reflect a deep longing within the human soul to know where we came from. It is why many seek to trace their family history.

The people of the Old Testament were no different. In fact, they were experts at keeping careful records of their genealogies, through which they could trace their roots and families over thousands of years. Today’s passage is one such genealogy, tracing the generations ranging from Shem to Abraham.

The first Shem-record in Genesis 10:21–31 served to identify the Semites (which included Israel) as a geopolitical entity on the map of the ancient world. This second record, in Genesis 11:10–26, is aimed at situating one individual—Abraham, the founding father of the Israelites—in his relation to Noah, God’s chosen founder of a renewed human race.

In fact, the author of the account is concerned with showing how Abraham was in many respects similar to Noah, who pleased God greatly and became a source of His salvation. If Noah was of the tenth generation from Adam, the founding father of the human race, Abraham was of the tenth generation from Noah, the founding father of a renewed human race.¹ And just as Noah had three sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—Abraham came from a family of three sons: his brothers were Nahor and Haran.

The genealogy in Genesis 11:10–26 is similar to the genealogy of the pre-flood ancestors in Genesis 5:1–32. Each entry is worded the same way, only omitting the last line: “Altogether . . . lived a total of . . . years and then he died.” The first list in Genesis 5 highlights the ultimate mortality of humans despite their long lifespans. The second list in Genesis 11 drops that morbid note and the entries breathe life and optimism, even as lifespans have drastically fallen.

The contrast in lifespans in the two lists is unmissable. The pre-flood generations were marked by long lives (ranging from 777 to 969 years), whereas the post-flood generations had shorter lifespans (dropping from 600 to 148 years, vv. 10–11, 24–25). It suggests that humanity is experiencing the consequences of sin.

It is also significant that Terah becomes the father of Abraham at the age of 70 (v. 26). In the Bible, the number seven—and multiples of it—have a special significance, symbolising fullness, completion, or fulfilment (recalling that the creation account spanned seven days). The age at which Terah fathers Abraham suggests that despite the tragic effects of sin on human lifespans, God is at work again: He has recommenced His plan for the salvation of the world. This decisive move, which would culminate with the coming of our Saviour the Lord Jesus, would begin with Terah’s chosen son Abraham.

¹ Gordon J. Wenham, Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 1: Genesis 1–15 (Waco, Texas: Word, 1987), 252: “Noah and Terah each stand at the beginning of a new age. But whereas Noah was the hero of the subsequent narrative, here it is Terah’s son Abram that takes the limelight.”