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Jared | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Jared (Canterbury Cathedral, stained glass window) | |
| Spouse | Baraka |
| Children | Enoch and others |
| Parent | Mahalalel |
Jared orJered (Hebrew:יֶרֶדYereḏ, inpausaיָרֶדYāreḏ, "he descends / he will descend";Greek:Ἰάρετ or Ἰάρεδ,Iáret or Iáred;Arabic:يَارَدYārad),[1] in theBook of Genesis, was a sixth-generation descendant ofAdam and Eve. His primary history is recounted inGenesis 5:18–20.
The biblical details aboutJared, like the other long-lived patriarchs, are in the book of Genesis.[2] In terms of thedocumentary hypothesis, the passage about the descendants of Adam (Genesis 5:1-32) is attributed to thePriestly source.[2] A parallel passage (Genesis 4:17-22) which contains a genealogy of the descendants of Cain, is attributed to theJahwist, another ancient version of the same original genealogy.[2] The two genealogies contain seven similar names, and the Jahwist's version of the genealogy hasIrad in the place of Jared.[2]
His fatherMahalalel, great-grandson ofSeth, son ofAdam, was 65 years old when Jared was born.[3] In the apocryphalBook of Jubilees, his mother's name is Dinah.
Jubilees states that Jared married a woman whose name is variously spelled as Bereka, Baraka, and Barakah, and theBible speaks of Jared having become father to other sons and daughters (Genesis 5:19). Of those children, onlyEnoch is named specifically, born when Jared was 162 years old (Genesis 5:18,5:22a,5:24,Hebrews 11:5b,Jude 14–15). Enoch went on to marry Edna, according toJubilees, and the sole named grandchild of Jared is Enoch's sonMethuselah, the longest-living human mentioned in the Bible who lived 969 years.(Genesis 5:27)(Genesis 5:18,5:21,5:27).
Additionally, Jared was a forefather ofNoah andhis three sons. Jared's age was given as 962 years old when he died (when Noah was 366), making him the second-oldest person mentioned in theHebrew Bible and theSeptuagint. In theSamaritan Pentateuch, his age was 62 at fatherhood and only 847 at death, making Noah the oldest and Jared the seventh-oldest.
According toSamaritan tradition, the ancient Samaritan village ofShalem Rabbta, modern-daySalim, was founded by Jared.[4]
Jared (Yarid) is also mentioned inIslam in theQisas Al-Anbiya, which mentions him in an identical manner.
Thomas Hardy, in his novel,The Return of the Native (1878), referenced Jared as one who betokened an advanced lifetime: "The number of their years may have adequately summed up Jared, Mahalaleel, and the rest of the antediluvians, but the age of a modern man is to be measured by the intensity of his history."[5]