Arpachshad
Arpachshad, alternatively spelled Arphaxad or Arphacsad, was one of the five sons of Shem, the son of Noah. His brothers were Elam, Asshur, Lud and Aram; he is an ancestor of Abraham. He is said by Gen. 11:10 to have been born two years after the Flood, when Shem was 100.
His name also appears in later books, including the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament.
Biblical accounts
According to the Book of Genesis he was one of the five sons of Shem. He is the twelfth name of the Genesis genealogy that traces Abrahams ancestry from Adam to Terah. Beginning with Adam, nine Antediluvian names are given that predate Noah and the Flood, and nine postdiluvian, beginning with Noah's eldest son Shem and ending with Terah.According to the text, Arpachshad's brothers were Elam, Asshur, Lud and Aram. Arpachshad's son is called Selah, except in the Septuagint, where his son is Cainan, Shelah being Arpachshad's grandson. Cainan is also identified as Arpachshad's son in Luke and in the non-canonical book of Jubilees 8:1. The Book of Jubilees additionally identifies Arpachshad's wife as Rasu'aya, the daughter of Susan, who was the son of Shem's older son Elam.
Identifications
Some ancient Jewish sources, particularly Jubilees, point to Arpachshad as the immediate progenitor of Ura and Kesed, who allegedly founded the city of Ur Kasdim on the west bank of the Euphrates – the same bank where Ur, identified by Leonard Woolley in 1927 as Ur of the Chaldees, is located.Until Woolley's identification of Ur, Arpachshad was understood by many Jewish and Muslim scholars to be an area in northern Mesopotamia. This led to the identification of Arpachshad with Urfa-Kasid – a land associated with the Khaldis, whom Josephus confused with the Chaldeans. Donald B. Redford asserted that Arpachshad is to be identified with Babylon.