Righteous Arphaxad

Righteous Arphaxad was an Old Testament patriarch, the third of the five sons of Shem, son of Noah, born, according to the Book of Genesis, two years after the Flood (Genesis 11:10). He became the father of Cainan (according to the Septuagint and the Gospel of Luke) or, according to the Masoretic text, directly of Salah. Through this line of descendants — Salah, Eber (from whom the name "Hebrews" itself derives), Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, and Terah — Arphaxad is one of the ancestors of the righteous Abraham and, accordingly, one of the forefathers of the Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh, mentioned in the genealogy given by the Evangelist Luke: "which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Shem, which was the son of Noah" (Luke 3:36). The Church honors the memory of all the Old Testament forefathers, including Arphaxad, on a special Sunday before the Nativity of Christ — the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers, as well as on the Sunday of the Holy Fathers (immediately before the feast) — as witnesses to humanity's preparation for the Incarnation.