Person Old and New Testament
Shelah
Also known as Shelah =ESV, NIV, KJV; Salah =KJV, NIV; Sala =KJV
Shelah, son of Arpachshad and ancestor of Abraham in Luke's genealogy. Mentioned in 8 verses across 3 books, first at Genesis 10:24.
Why it matters. Son of Arpachshad and ancestor of Abraham
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-30 by the FaithGraph team
About Shelah
Shelah was the son of Arpachshad (or Arphaxad) and the grandson of Shem, according to Gen.10.24 and Gen.11.12. He was born when Arpachshad was 35 years old and lived for 433 years (Gen.11.12-15). Shelah was an ancestor of Abraham and is included in the genealogies of Genesis 10, 11, and 1Chronicles 1.
In Luke's genealogy of Jesus, Shelah is mentioned as the son of Cainan, who was the son of Arpachshad (Luk.3.35-36). This differs from the Old Testament genealogies, which list Shelah as the son of Arpachshad. The reason for this discrepancy is uncertain, but it may reflect variant traditions or textual issues.
Description from STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, lightly reformatted. This is background reference material, not Scripture and not a FaithGraph editorial claim.
Connections
No reviewed connections yet.
Family
Family links from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0). Where the dataset marks an identification as uncertain, the mark is kept. Matthew and Luke give different genealogies for Jesus; see the Lineage page, which never merges them.
Appears in Scripture
Named in 8 verses across 3 books. Occurrence data from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0); references only, no translation text.