People and genealogy
The people of Scripture
The people this site has written or filed, set in the period each one stands in, from before Abraham to the letters of the apostles.
Summary
111 lives are written here in full, and 117 more names carry a register row with the verses that hold them. Five studies take a whole group at once and are counted apart.
- Genesis opens with every nation. It narrows to the family God calls in Abraham.
- The family goes into Egypt, comes out under Moses, and takes the land under Joshua.
- Judges lead until Israel asks for a king. Then 39 reigns follow the split.
- Assyria takes the north and Babylon the south. Persia sends the people home.
- The Gospels open four hundred years later. The Twelve carry the story into Acts.
The people by era
Show the groups
- Five walks across the familyeach takes a whole group at once0 group studies
- Before AbrahamAdam to the tower2 in the register
- The patriarchsAbraham to Joseph1 in the register
- Egypt and the wildernessMoses to the plains of Moab1 in the register
- The conquest and the judgesJoshua to Samuel1 in the register
- Israel, the northern throneJeroboam to Hoshea3 written lives
- The kingdom years, both thronesdated by century, not by reign1 in the register
- Exile and returnBabylon to the Persian years3 written lives
- Jesus and the Gospelsthe birth to the ascension1 in the register
- The church, from Acts onwardPaul, his circle and the letters5 in the register
- Named elsewhere in Scripturethe record gives no date1 in the register
Before Abraham
The first eleven chapters of Genesis, from the garden to Babel. The rest of Scripture keeps looking back to these names.
2 in the register
The register: 2 names in this era, each with the passages that hold them
EnochThe seventh from Adam who “walked with God, and he was not; for God took him” — translated without death, a pattern of the resurrection (Heb 11:5)6 passages
Eve“The mother of all living” — deceived at the Fall, yet the woman whose seed is promised the victory over the serpent (3:15, 20)17 passages
The patriarchs
One family across four generations, carrying a promise it could not keep, and Job, whom the record sets in the same age. Every later covenant is spoken back to these names.
1 in the register
The register: 1 names in this era, each with the passages that hold them
Egypt and the wilderness
The generation that left Egypt, took the law at Sinai, and died in the desert. Its leaders and its rebels are both here.
1 in the register
The register: 1 names in this era, each with the passages that hold them
The conquest and the judges
The land taken, then nearly lost again, under leaders God raised one at a time. Ruth belongs to these years.
1 in the register
The register: 1 names in this era, each with the passages that hold them
Israel, the northern throne
Nine dynasties rose and fell in two hundred years, each judged by the calves at Bethel and Dan. Elijah and Elisha were sent against this throne.
3 written lives
- ElahThe fourth king of Israel who reigned only two years and was killed while drunk by his chariot commander Zimri, fulfilling the prophecy against Baasha's house
ElijahElijah the Tishbite was the prophetic voice against the Baal worship that Ahab and Jezebel established in the northern kingdom (c. 874-853 BC). His contest with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, the fire he called down, his departure in a chariot of fire, and his appearance with Moses at the Transfiguration make him the prophetic pattern beside MosesGiuseppe Angeli, Elijah Taken Up in a Chariot of Fire
ElishaElisha son of Shaphat was Elijah's successor and received a double portion of his master's spirit (2 Kings 2:9). His ministry ran through the reigns of four northern kings, from Ahab's house to Jehu's, and the text records about twice as many miracles for him as for Elijah, parallel in form and larger in reachPieter Fransz. de Grebber, Elisha Refusing Gifts from Naaman (c. 1630s)
The kingdom years, both thrones
Names the record sets in the kingdom years without naming a throne. The prophets here are dated by century, not by the king they served.
1 in the register
The register: 1 names in this era, each with the passages that hold them
Exile and return
The people who kept faith in a foreign court, and the ones who came back to build. Two empires and their kings stand here too.
3 written lives
EzekielEzekiel son of Buzi, a priest, was among the exiles deported to Babylon in 597 BC. Called in the fifth year of his exile, he prophesied to the community by the river Chebar for at least twenty-two years, with visions of the wheels, the valley of dry bones, the restored temple, and the river flowing from itMatthäus Merian the Elder, Ezekiel's Vision.jpg?width=640)
EstherA Jewish orphan who became Queen of PersiaArtemisia Gentileschi, Esther before Ahasuerus
EzraA priest and scribe who led a second wave of exiles back to Jerusalem, devoted to studying, obeying, and teaching God's Law. He confronted the returned community's intermarriage with pagan nations and, with Nehemiah, restored the public reading of ScriptureGustave Doré, Ezra Kneels in Prayer (1866)
Jesus and the Gospels
The Twelve stand here, where a reader first meets them, with the family, the friends, the rulers who tried Jesus, and the witnesses of the resurrection.
1 in the register
The register: 1 names in this era, each with the passages that hold them
The church, from Acts onward
Paul and his circle, the men and women of Acts, and the churches the letters were written to. The Twelve stand one period back, where they were called.
5 in the register
The register: 5 names in this era, each with the passages that hold them
- EpaphrasColossae's founding evangelist, the beloved fellow-servant from whom the church learned the gospel (Col 1:7), always striving in prayer for the Lycus Valley churches (4:12-13); Paul's fellow-prisoner in Philemon 233 passages
- EpaphroditusThe Philippians' messenger and minister to Paul's need — brother, fellow-worker, fellow-soldier — who was sick nigh unto death and gambled his life for the work of Christ (Php 2:25-30)5 passages
- ErastusThe city treasurer of Corinth who sent greetings in Romans (16:23) — possibly the official named in a Corinthian pavement inscription3 passages
- EuniceTimothy's Jewish mother (Acts 16:1; 2 Tim 1:5), through whom he knew the sacred writings from a babe (2 Tim 3:15)2 passages
- EuodiaPhilippian laborer in the gospel, exhorted with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord (Php 4:2-3) — women who labored with Paul, whose names are in the book of life
Named elsewhere in Scripture
Names the record places by book rather than by reign. Their pages say what Scripture says and leave the date open.
1 in the register
The register: 1 names in this era, each with the passages that hold them
Keep studying
On this page
Where they stood3
The written lives come from this site’s own character pages. The register rows come from its person dossiers. The number in a register row is how many passages Orville J. Nave lists under that name in Nave’s Topical Bible (1896), a public domain work.