Getting Wider

In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;

Genesis 7:13

I know before we had talked about the family trees and how that if Noah had a wife, she would have appeared beside him on the tree. But she doesn't have a name. This was very common to find when reading the genealogies recording of in Scripture. They left off the women altogether only in notable cases to refer to them later. Here's what it would look like if we had included the women.

Noah -------- Noah's wife

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Shem (Shem's wife) Ham (Ham's wife)

Okay, I'll admit that's a bit confusing.

Let's try that one again.

(Noah's parents) (Noah's wife's parents)

Noah ----------------------- Noah's wife

Shem ------------------------------------------------Shem's wife

Ham--------------------------------------------------Ham's wife

Japheth----------------------------------------------Japheth's wife

Where would all the son's wives parents go? Do you know? You're supposed to add in another tree for each wife and their family to each son. Then you can even show the different trees all holding hands. Everyone's related in a way, but there's still some distance between them. In time, the family tree starts looking like quite the forest which can best be viewed all together. This arrangement might be complicated but it's far better than most people do, putting everyone all on the same tree whether husband or wife's family or not. See how the family tree can get big and very confusing rather quickly. Then what would the relatives be?

Noah's mother would be his wife's mother in law.

Noah's father would be his wife's father in law

Some cultures refer to these as parents which is also correct. Shem would be a son of both just as the other two would be. Then the wives would have a father-in-law and a mother-in-law and be to them daughters-in-law. Between the siblings and their wives, it would be brothers in law and sisters in law. But again, some families are kept close and so refer to themselves without the in-law portion.