Righteous Forefather Salah

Salah, also spelled Shelah or Sala, is one of the Old Testament patriarchs of the genealogical line descending from Shem to Abraham. The Orthodox Church numbers him among the Holy Forefathers, the ancestors of Christ according to the flesh, and commemorates him with them on the Sunday before the Nativity of Christ. His individual feast is kept on December 14. The scriptural record of him is very brief, consisting essentially of his place in the post-Flood genealogy of Genesis.

According to the Table of Nations, Arphaxad was the father of Shelah, and Shelah was the father of Eber (Genesis 10:24). The genealogical chronology of Genesis 11:12-15 relates that he begat Eber and lived many years more, having other sons and daughters; the ages recorded differ among the textual traditions. In the Septuagint and in the genealogy of Christ given in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 3:35-36), a further forefather, Cainan, is reckoned between Arphaxad and Salah. Through his son Eber, whose name is traditionally connected with the designation 'Hebrew,' the line continues toward the patriarch Abraham.