Shem, Firstborn of the New Earth

Long before the Flood swallowed the old world, the three sons of Noah—Japheth, Shem, and Ham—were born into a generation that had nearly forgotten God. Their births occurred during the final century before the Deluge, a time when the giants ruled with violence, when sorcery and forbidden knowledge spread through the cities of Cain, and when the blood of the righteous cried continually from the ground (Genesis 6:1–5; Jasher 4:16–22; Jubilees 5:1–9). Yet Noah’s three sons walked with their father in righteousness. Ancient writings testify that they offered acceptable sacrifices, kept the ordinances of the fathers, and refused the corruption of the giants and their dominion (1 Peter 3:20; Jubilees 7:20–29; Jasher 5:12–17).

Though Scripture names only three sons of Noah, ancient records preserve the memory that Noah had other children—some who turned aside to wickedness, following the seductions of the cities, and others who were preserved with the righteous. Several early traditions also recall that Ham was born of a different mother than Japheth and Shem, a detail implied in the wording of Genesis, which distinguishes “the sons of Noah” from “Ham the father of Canaan” (Genesis 9:18–19; Genesis 10:21; Genesis Rabbah 36:3). These accounts further state that some members of Noah’s extended household walked in the spirit of Enoch and were caught up—translated as Enoch’s company had been lifted from the earth before the Flood (Cave of Treasures 23; Ethiopic traditions on the House of Enoch; 1 Enoch 39:1). Thus Japheth, Shem, and Ham were not Noah’s only children, but they alone, with their wives, were chosen to enter the ark because of their righteousness and because God had appointed them to establish the new world.

From their youth, Noah instructed his sons in the ordinances, labors, and holy order that had descended from Adam. He taught them the law of sacrifice, the stewardship of the land, the consecration of increase, and the covenant of the firstborn—commandments preserved through the patriarchal line from Adam to Seth, and from Seth to Noah (Genesis 5:1–32; Jubilees 4:23–26; Book of Adam and Eve 29–34). They learned the histories of their fathers: Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, and Lamech—men who had walked with God before the world turned to utter corruption (Genesis 5:1–32; Sirach 44:16; Jubilees 4:1–33).

Thus when the Flood came, Japheth, Shem, and Ham entered the ark not as untested youths but as seasoned disciples of the Ancient Order. They were righteous men, trained in priesthood ordinances, offering sacrifice with precision, and living the agrarian covenant-life that Adam had received at the beginning. They were chosen by God, not merely born into Noah’s house, but found worthy to preserve the earth’s covenant seed (Genesis 7:1; Jubilees 7:20–29; 1 Peter 3:20).

When the waters of the Flood withdrew and the ark came to rest upon the mountains of Ararat, the earth lay silent beneath the new sun. Noah stepped forth as father of a renewed world, and behind him followed his sons—Japheth, Shem, and Ham—each nearly a century in age, each trained from youth in the ordinances, labors, and holy order that had descended from Adam (Genesis 8:4; Genesis 9:18–19; Jubilees 7:20–29). But among these three, one stood chosen to bear the covenant forward: Shem, the firstborn in righteousness, the heir of the priesthood, and the vessel appointed to preserve the Ancient Order upon the new earth (Genesis 9:26; Genesis Rabbah 36:3).

The priesthood Shem inherited was not newly given but ancient—stretching back through all the patriarchs of the first world. For Adam received the garment from God when he was driven out of Eden (Cave of Treasures 12; 2 Enoch 31:3), and it became the sign of divine appointment, the token of the covenant, and the symbol of the firstborn order. Adam gave it to Seth; Seth to Enos; Enos to Cainan; Cainan to Mahalaleel; Mahalaleel to Jared; Jared to Enoch; Enoch to Methuselah; Methuselah to Lamech; and Lamech to Noah, who preserved it through the waters of the Flood (Book of the Bee 21; Cave of Treasures 14–16). Before Noah’s death he placed the garment into the hands of Shem—Melchizedek—the heir of righteousness and the keeper of the patriarchal priesthood (Book of the Bee 21; Genesis Rabbah 46:7).

At no time did this sacred chain pass through Nimrod or the kingdoms of Ham’s line. Legends claiming that Nimrod seized Adam’s garment or possessed patriarchal authority arose only in later corrupt and polemical traditions, contradicting the earliest preserved witnesses of the fathers (Genesis Rabbah 46:7; Cave of Treasures 14–16; Book of the Bee 21). The true record affirms that the garment and covenant lineage passed solely through the righteous line of Adam → Seth → Enos → Cainan → Mahalaleel → Jared → Enoch → Methuselah → Lamech → Noah → Shem, and from Shem to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Book of the Bee 21; Jubilees 8:19). Any account placing this sacred stewardship in the hands of the wicked reflects the corruption of texts by generations influenced by idolatry, empire, and the designs of men. God has preserved the truth in fragments across the ages, and it is by the Spirit—who inspired the patriarchs—that these truths are understood again in the last days (1 Corinthians 2:10–14; Jubilees 1:27–29; Testament of Levi 18:2–4).

Shem’s appointment as firstborn did not begin after the Flood, nor only at Noah’s death, but was evident in his early life. Born between Japheth and Ham (Genesis 10:21), Shem proved himself the most faithful of Noah’s sons. He mastered the sacred writings, kept the ordinances without deviation, and walked in the spirit of Enoch, “whose ways were right before the Lord” (Jubilees 7:38–39; Genesis Rabbah 30:7). Even before the ark was completed, Noah entrusted to Shem the stewardship of the tablets of the fathers and the records of the priesthood (Jubilees 10:1–14; Syriac Chronicles of the Patriarchs).

Thus Shem received not only the rites of sacrifice and the genealogies of the fathers, but also the physical token of the covenant that linked him directly to Adam and all the patriarchs who had walked with God. In due time the garment passed from Shem to Abraham, and from Abraham to Isaac and Jacob, according to the order of the firstborn, preserving the Ancient Order through the chosen lineage (Book of the Bee 21; Jubilees 19:23–28). The genealogical and priestly chain remained whole, unbroken, and undefiled.

Noah blessed Shem openly before his brethren, declaring, “Blessed be the LORD God of Shem” (Genesis 9:26). This blessing did not merely honor Shem; it established the divine decree that the Most High would dwell in Shem’s tents, that the holy records and ordinances would remain in his keeping, and that the covenant of the fathers would pass to him without interruption (Genesis Rabbah 36:3; Jubilees 7:16–17).

From the first days after the Deluge, Shem ministered at Noah’s side. Together they erected altars of unhewn stone, offering the firstlings of their flocks as Adam had done in Eden, as Abel offered before the cherubim, and as Enoch and Methuselah had taught in former times (Genesis 8:20–21; Jubilees 7:1–5; Jasher 5:13–36). The covenant of sacrifice—the law that blood belongs to God—was renewed upon the new earth, and Shem performed its ordinances with exactness.

Shem inherited the sacred genealogy from Adam, the covenant writings preserved by the fathers, the wisdom of the pre-Flood patriarchs, and the prophetic warnings given to Noah concerning the nations that would arise after the Flood (Jubilees 4:21–26; Jubilees 10:1–14). These records formed the foundation of the Ancient Order—the divine pattern of family, priesthood, stewardship, and sacrifice that united heaven and earth until the world turned to wickedness.

For a brief season after the Flood, the families of Noah remained united in the high valleys of Ararat. They built terraced fields, sowed grain, planted vineyards, tended flocks, and worshiped at the appointed times and seasons established by Adam and renewed by Noah (Genesis 9:20; Jubilees 6:1–10; Upper Tigris EB I–II agricultural sites). Archaeological evidence from this region reveals early agrarian settlements, high-altitude villages, and terraced cultivation consistent with a unified pastoral society in the immediate post-Flood centuries (Sagona, Archaeology of the Caucasus; Wilkinson, Upper Tigris Settlements; Nissen, Early History of the Ancient Near East).

But harmony did not endure. Ham’s transgression brought more than a curse upon his youngest son; it marked the beginning of open rebellion against the patriarchal order (Genesis 9:20–25; Genesis Rabbah 36:7). When Ham departed from Noah’s presence, he settled in the rich lowlands toward Egypt and the south. From his sons came the first kings and city-builders of the new world. Mizraim founded Egypt, and from his line arose the early Pharaohs—rulers who exalted themselves as gods and whose temples and monuments filled the Nile valley (Genesis 10:6,13–14; Josephus, Antiquities 1.6.2). Cush established the kingdoms of Ethiopia and Arabia. Out of Cush came Nimrod, the first tyrant after the Flood, who began his dominion in Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, the cities of Shinar (Genesis 10:8–12; Jasher 7:23–33; Jubilees 10:18–27).

These cities were not mere dwellings but the beginning of a new order on the earth—an order of walls, kings, taxation, idol worship, standing armies, and forced labor. Ancient tablets from the Early Dynastic and Akkadian periods describe temples, ziggurats, and royal households that ruled through hierarchy and tribute, paralleling the biblical picture of Nimrod’s world (ED II–III royal inscriptions; Akkadian imperial texts; Nissen, Early Ancient Near East). Through wealth, spectacle, and power, the sons of Ham drew multitudes after them.

The influence of Ham’s cities spread northward and eastward, tempting even the descendants of Shem and Japheth to abandon the agrarian covenant-life taught by Noah and to imitate the nations around them—just as Israel in later ages desired to “be like all the nations” and demanded a king (1 Samuel 8:5,19–20; Ezekiel 20:32; Jubilees 10:18–20). Some resisted, clinging to the tents, the altars, and the stewardship of the land. Others, seduced by prosperity and the promise of power, departed from the mountains and settled among the kingdoms of Shinar and Egypt. They took up crafts, trade, and mercenary service, exchanging patriarchal freedom for the wealth and bondage of urban life—a pattern repeated throughout sacred history whenever God’s people looked away from the covenant and toward the thrones of men (Genesis Rabbah 37:2; Jubilees 10:28–34).

But Shem stood firm. He taught that the agrarian life was not poverty but stewardship; not weakness but obedience to the original pattern established by God in the beginning. The earth was the Lord’s, and man was commanded to labor, consecrate, and keep it in righteousness (Genesis 1:28; Genesis 2:15; Jubilees 7:20–29). As the nations turned toward the ambitions of Nimrod and the grandeur of the cities, Shem preserved the Ancient Order as a living testimony that the ways of heaven do not change.

In the early years after the Flood, the families dwelt in the terraced highlands near Ararat, working the soil enriched by the retreating waters. They sowed grain, planted vineyards, tended their herds, and gathered for worship at the appointed times and seasons established from the beginning (Genesis 9:20; Jubilees 6:1–10). Archaeological remains from the Ararat–Upper Tigris region—early agrarian settlements, terraced fields, and high-altitude pastoral villages—reflect precisely this pattern of life (Upper Tigris EB I–II sites: Wilkinson, Tigris Settlements; Sagona, Archaeology of the Caucasus; Pollock, Ancient Mesopotamia).

Yet as generations passed and the tribes multiplied, ambition began to take root among the nations. The humility of the mountain valleys gave way to the schemes of city-builders. Nimrod’s shadow lengthened across the land, and the children of the Flood turned again toward the very ways that had brought destruction upon their fathers (Genesis 11:1–4; Jubilees 10:20–28).

It was in these days—when the memory of the Flood was fading and the pride of kings was rising—that Shem, the firstborn of the reborn earth, stood as the appointed watchman. He alone preserved the light of the firstborn priesthood while the nations drifted toward darkness. He alone kept the covenant intact while rebellion spread. And he alone maintained the Ancient Order that had descended from Adam, guarded through Noah, and renewed upon the fresh earth.

Soon the world would gather in rebellion on the plains of Shinar. Soon the tongues of men would be confounded, the nations scattered, and the first empire of the new world brought low. And in the midst of that scattering, Shem—Melchizedek—would establish the high place that would become Salem, the city of peace.

Thus the first chapter of the new world closes with a clear division: between the tents of Shem and the cities of Nimrod, between covenant and dominion, between the Ancient Order and the rising empires of men. In this great division lie the seeds of all sacred history to come.