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
- The patriarchsAbraham to Joseph3 written lives, 1 in the register
- The conquest and the judgesJoshua to Samuel1 written life
- The united kingdomSaul, David and Solomon1 in the register
- Judah, the southern throneRehoboam to Zedekiah10 written lives
- Israel, the northern throneJeroboam to Hoshea6 written lives, 1 in the register
- The kingdom years, both thronesdated by century, not by reign1 written life
- Exile and returnBabylon to the Persian years1 in the register
- Jesus and the Gospelsthe birth to the ascension3 written lives, 3 in the register
- The church, from Acts onwardPaul, his circle and the letters2 in the register
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.
3 written lives, 1 in the register
JacobA supplanter transformed by grace into Israel, prince with God. His twelve sons became the twelve tribes of Israel, and despite his deceptions, God chose him to carry the covenant promisesRembrandt van Rijn, Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (c. 1659)
JosephJoseph rose from pit to palace through God's providencePeter von Cornelius, Joseph Interpreting Pharaoh's Dream
JobA blameless man who suffered catastrophic lossLéon Bonnat, Job
The register: 1 more 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 written life
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The united kingdom
Three reigns over one nation, with the prophets who stood beside them. The throne is given, built up, then split at Solomon's death.
1 in the register
The register: 1 names in this era, each with the passages that hold them
Judah, the southern throne
The line of David held Jerusalem for twenty reigns, from the split under Rehoboam to the fall of the city, with the prophets sent to them.
10 written lives
- JehoshaphatGodly king who strengthened Judah spiritually and militarily, but made unwise alliances with wicked kings of Israel
- Jehoram of JudahSon of Jehoshaphat who married Ahab's daughter Athaliah and led Judah deeply into Baal worship
Joash of JudahThe child king hidden in the Temple who was crowned at age seven and repaired the Temple under the guidance of the priest JehoiadaFrancesco Hayez, The Coronation of Joash- JothamOne of the consistently good kings of Judah who grew powerful because he walked steadfastly before the LORD. He built the Upper Gate of the Temple and defeated the Ammonites but never entered the Temple as his father had done
JosiahThe greatest reforming king of Judah who became king at eight years old, began seeking God at sixteen, and at twenty-six found the Book of the Law. He led the most sweeping religious reform in Judah's history and held the greatest Passover since the time of SamuelUnknown, Josiah Hearing the Book of the Law
JeremiahJeremiah, son of the priest Hilkiah of Anathoth, prophesied through Judah's last forty years (c. 627-586 BC) and on into the Babylonian exileRembrandt, Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem- Jehoahaz of JudahThe seventeenth king of Judah, who reigned three months before Pharaoh Neco deposed him and carried him to Egypt, where he died, the first king of Judah to die in exile
- JehoiakimInstalled as king by Pharaoh Neco, Jehoiakim was a ruthless ruler who burned Jeremiah's scroll, killed the prophet Uriah, and imposed heavy taxation
- JehoiachinReigned only three months before surrendering to Nebuchadnezzar and being exiled to Babylon for 37 years
JoelJoel son of Pethuel prophesied after a devastating locust plague in Judah, interpreting it as a prefiguring of the greater "day of the LORD." His prophecy of poured-out Spirit (Joel 2:28-32) is cited by Peter at Pentecost (Acts 2:16-21) as the inaugural text of the church's ageMichelangelo, The Prophet Joel
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.
6 written lives, 1 in the register
- Jeroboam IThe founder of the Northern Kingdom of Israel who led the ten tribes in revolt against Rehoboam
Joram of IsraelThe ninth king of Israel who removed the pillar of Baal his father had erected but kept the golden calves of JeroboamGustave Doré, A Famine in Samaria, The Holy Bible (1866)
JehuAnointed by Elisha's messenger to destroy Ahab's house, Jehu executed Joram, Jezebel, all seventy sons of Ahab, and destroyed Baal worship in IsraelGustave Doré, Jehu's Companions Find Jezebel's Remains, The Holy Bible (1866)- Jehoahaz of IsraelThe eleventh king of Israel, oppressed by Syria throughout his reign until Israel's army was reduced to almost nothing
- Jehoash of IsraelThe twelfth king of Israel who visited the dying prophet Elisha and received the arrow prophecy of partial victory over Syria
- Jeroboam IIThe thirteenth king of Israel with the longest reign of any northern king (41 years), who restored Israel's borders to their greatest extent since Solomon
The register: 1 more names in this era, each with the passages that hold them
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 written life
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.
1 in the register
The register: 1 names in this era, each with the passages that hold them
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.
3 written lives, 3 in the register
John the BaptistJohn the Baptist, son of the priest Zechariah and Elizabeth, was the forerunner of Christ, the Elijah who was to come, whose baptism in the wilderness announced that the kingdom was at handLeonardo da Vinci, Saint John the Baptist
James, Son of ZebedeeJames, son of Zebedee and brother of John, was part of Jesus' innermost circle of three, present at the transfiguration and in GethsemaneRembrandt, Saint James the Greater.jpg?width=640)
John the ApostleJohn was a 'son of thunder' who became the apostle of loveEl Greco, Saint John the Evangelist
The register: 3 more names in this era, each with the passages that hold them
JoannaWife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and one of the women healed by Jesus who followed him and ministered to the mission out of their own substance (Luke 8:3). She is among the women who find the tomb empty and report to the apostles (Luke 24:10)2 passages.jpg?width=640)
Joseph of NazarethCarpenter of Nazareth, a just man of David's line; husband of Mary and legal father of Jesus, obedient to the angelic word in taking Mary, naming Jesus, and guarding the child in Egypt
Judas IscariotThe disciple who kept the purse and betrayed Jesus; "he went out straightway: and it was night" (John 13:30)
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.
2 in the register
The register: 2 names in this era, each with the passages that hold them
- James, the Lord's BrotherNot a follower during Jesus' ministry, and the leader of the Jerusalem church afterwards; the most rigorously observant figure in the leadership, and the one who pronounced that the Gentiles should not be troubled
- John MarkCousin of Barnabas and the young man who left the first journey at Perga; the disagreement over taking him again split Paul and Barnabas — and Paul later asked for him as useful for ministering
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.