From Eden outward

One family, moving

Sixteen stages, from the garden to Rome. Drag the handle to read the story forward: each step adds what the text says happened next, and nothing is hidden that has already happened.

• Japheth, 14 names. North and west, the coastlands
• Ham, 30 names. South and west, Egypt and Canaan
• Shem, 26 names. East and north, and the line to Abraham

Circle area is the number of names Genesis 10 lists in that branch: 1514

The seventy, and how sure we are

The circles appear when the slider reaches Babel, because that is where Genesis puts the scattering. A dot is only as good as the identification behind it, so this table says which are secure and which are the traditional guess. Egypt, Canaan, Asshur, Elam and Javan are named in enough other places to be certain. Magog, Tiras, Lud, Put and Joktan's Arabia are placed by tradition and argued over, and a confident dot should not imply confident scholarship.

The stages

Dated in Anno Mundi, years from creation, on the same reckoning as the genealogy. The exact ages run out with the patriarchs, so from the exodus onward the years are the traditional BC dates converted on the same basis the genealogy page uses, and are approximate. At this width the land itself is barely a thumbnail, so only the places a stage turns on are plotted; the towns around Jerusalem are drawn at four times this scale on the book maps.

• 1AM 0The gardenCreation, Genesis 2:8-14
• 2AM 130East of EdenAfter Cain, Genesis 4:16
• 3AM 1656The mountains of AraratThe Flood, Genesis 8:4
• 4AM 1757Babel, and the scatteringIn Peleg's days, Genesis 10:25; 11:1-9
• 5AM 2008Ur of the ChaldeansAbraham born, Genesis 11:26-31
• 6AM 2083Into CanaanAbraham aged 75, Genesis 12:1-5
• 7AM 2298Down to EgyptJoseph in Egypt, Genesis 46:1-7
• 8AM 2728Out of Egypt1446 BC, Exodus 12:37; 14:21-22
• 9AM 2768Into the land1406 BC, Joshua 3:14-17; 6:20
• 10AM 3171A city of their own1003 BC, 2 Samuel 5:6-10
• 11AM 3243The kingdom divides931 BC, 1 Kings 12:16-20
• 12AM 3452Israel carried off722 BC, 2 Kings 17:5-6
• 13AM 3588Judah carried off586 BC, 2 Kings 25:8-11
• 14AM 3636And back again538 BC, Ezra 1:1-4
• 15AM 4204The one it was all forabout AD 30, Luke 2:4-7; Matthew 28:5-6
• 16AM 4234To the end of the earthabout AD 60, Acts 1:8; 28:14-16

Where these places are

Eden is the one entry here that cannot be pinned. Genesis names four rivers and two of them are still known, which locates the garden in Mesopotamia and no closer; the point plotted above is where the rivers meet, not a claim about the garden.