Shem

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Shem (שֵׁם "renown; prosperity; name", Standard Hebrew Šem, Tiberian Hebrew Šēm; Greek Σημ, Sēm; Arabic: سام‎ ) was one of the sons of Noah in the Bible. He is most popularly regarded as the eldest son, though some traditions regard him as the second son. Genesis 10:21 refers to relative ages of Shem and his brother Japheth, but with sufficient ambiguity in each to have yielded different translations. The verse is translated in the KJV as "Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born.". However, the Revised Standard Version gives, "To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born."

He is mentioned in Genesis 5:32, 6:10; 7:13; 9:18,23,26-27; 10; 11:10; also in 1 Chronicles 1:4.

Genesis 11:10 records that Shem was 100 years old at the birth of to Arpachshad two years after the flood, making him 98 at the time of the flood; and that he lived for another 500 years after this, making his age at death 600 years.

The children of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Aram, Arpachshad and Lud, in addition to daughters. In the New Testament, Luke lists the genealogy of Jesus from Adam through Shem, Abraham and David.

Shem was the progenitor of the south-western nations of Asia, being the father of Elam (Persia), Ashur (Assyria), Arpachshad or Arpachaxad (according to Josephus, Chaldea), from whom descended the Hebrews and Arabs, Lud (Lydia) and Aram (Syria).

Terms like "Shemites" and "sons" of an eponymous "father" in general, are not supported outside of religious studies by modern historical scholarship. In the Ancient Near East (and in the Aegean), the earliest attempts at arriving at an ethnology that would explain the contemporary sense that there were relative similarities and differences among neighboring or distant tribes, was expressed in terms of genealogy; an approach reflected in terms like "Semite" and "Hamite". Neither "Semite" nor "Hamite" are broadly used now, and are sometimes perceived as offensive, because of their "racial" connotations.

However, the adjectival forms "Semitic" and "Hamitic," are more accepted, though the vague term 'Hamitic' dropped out of mainstream academic use in the 1960s. "Semitic" remains an indispensable technical term for, in particular, the Semitic languages, as a subset of the Afro-Asiatic languages, which show the common linguistic heritage of Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Phoenician, Akkadian, and Ethiopic languages.

Semitic is also used in the fixed phrase "anti-Semitic" to refer to racial, ethnic or cultural prejudice exclusively aiming Jews.

According to some Jewish traditions^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}, Shem is believed to have been the Melchizedek, King of Salem whom Abraham is recorded to have met after the battle of the four kings.

Shem was also one of Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker's two sons in James Joyce's novel, "Finnegans Wake."

Shem

See also