Genesis — who's who

Formed from the dust of the ground, named by God, placed in the garden to tend it. Given dominion over the animals; names each of them. Eats from the forbidden tree at the prompting of his wife and the serpent. Expelled eastward from Eden with the curse that the ground will bring forth thorns and thistles and he will eat bread in the sweat of his face until he returns to it. Lives 930 years and fathers many sons and daughters. The Hebrew adam means both this man and humankind, and the ambiguity is deliberate.

Formed from Adam's rib while he slept. Named by Adam after the expulsion from the garden — the mother of all living, he calls her. She speaks first in the story, to the serpent, and her conversation with the serpent is the only extended piece of dialogue in the creation account. Expelled with Adam. Mother of Cain, Abel, and Seth, and many others. Her name in Hebrew, Chavvah, is related to the word for life.

The righteous man of the tenth generation, chosen to build the ark and survive the flood that unmakes the world. Three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth, from whom the nations of the post-flood world descend. Receives the rainbow covenant — the first covenant in the Bible, universal in scope. Plants a vineyard after the flood, gets drunk, and curses Ham's son Canaan for something the text describes with characteristic restraint. Lives 950 years.

Born Abram in Ur of the Chaldeans, called by God at seventy-five to leave his country and go to an unnamed land. Renamed Abraham — father of a multitude — at ninety-nine, when God confirms the covenant with the sign of circumcision. Travels from Haran through Canaan to Egypt and back. Intercedes for Sodom before God destroys it. Fathers Ishmael by Hagar at eighty-six, Isaac by Sarah at one hundred. Walks up Mount Moriah with Isaac and the knife in chapter 22. Buries Sarah in the cave of Machpelah. Dies at one hundred and seventy-five and is buried beside her.

Born Sarai, renamed Sarah — princess — when God renews the covenant with Abraham in chapter 17. Barren for the whole of the first panel of her marriage. Gives Hagar to Abraham in chapter 16 to produce an heir; when the son Ishmael is born, the dynamics between the two women become tense. Laughs in the tent door at the promise that she will bear a son at ninety. Bears Isaac. Insists Hagar and Ishmael be expelled after Isaac is weaned. Dies at one hundred and twenty-seven in Hebron, the first person whose death and burial the text narrates at length.

Sarai's Egyptian slave, given to Abram to produce an heir when Sarai concludes her barrenness is permanent. When she conceives, the text says she looked with contempt on her mistress. Sarai deals harshly with her and she flees into the wilderness, where an angel of the Lord finds her by a spring and tells her to return, promises her son Ishmael will be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone. After Isaac is born and weaned, Sarah demands she and Ishmael be expelled. Abraham gives them bread and water and sends them away. An angel shows Hagar a well when the water runs out in the wilderness. She is the only person in Genesis to give God a name: El-roi, the God who sees.

The long-delayed son, born to Abraham at one hundred and Sarah at ninety, named Yitzhak — he laughs — because Sarah laughed at the promise. Bound on the altar at Moriah in chapter 22 and released at the last moment; the text gives him no speech after the angel intervenes. His wife Rebekah is chosen for him by Abraham's servant in a lengthy and beautiful chapter 24. He is the least eventful of the patriarchs as an individual, though the promise passes through him. Father of twins, Esau and Jacob. Tricked into giving the elder's blessing to the younger. Lives 180 years.

Found at the well in Haran by Abraham's servant in chapter 24, in a scene that is one of the most elegant in Genesis. She waters the servant's camels without being asked, an act the servant has set as his private sign of the woman God intends. She is brought back to Canaan and becomes Isaac's wife. Mother of Esau and Jacob, barren until Isaac prays for her. She favours Jacob, conspires with him to steal the elder's blessing from the blind Isaac, and sends Jacob away from Esau's vengeance.

Twin brother of Esau, born holding his heel — Jacob means supplanter. Buys Esau's birthright for a bowl of stew. With Rebekah's help, dresses in Esau's clothes and deceives the blind Isaac into giving him the elder's blessing. Flees to Haran, sees angels on a ladder at Bethel on the way, works fourteen years for his uncle Laban for his two wives, Leah and Rachel, then six more for the flocks. Returns home to face Esau. Wrestles a stranger by the ford of the Jabbok, will not let him go without a blessing, and is renamed Israel. Twelve sons, one daughter. Mourns Joseph for twenty years. Lives 147 years and blesses his sons before he dies in Egypt.

The younger of Laban's two daughters, the one Jacob loves. Jacob agrees to work seven years for her hand — the years seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her, the text says. Laban substitutes Leah on the wedding night, and Jacob must work another seven years for Rachel. Barren while Leah bears sons; she asks Jacob for children in frustration. Eventually bears Joseph, then Benjamin — and dies in childbirth on the road from Bethel, the only major character in Genesis to die at a named and unmarked site on the road, not at Machpelah.

Eleventh of Jacob's sons, Rachel's firstborn, his father's favourite — the coat of many colours is a mark of favour that inflames his brothers' resentment. He dreams that his brothers' sheaves bow down to his sheaf, and that the sun and moon and eleven stars bow to him. His brothers throw him in a pit and sell him to slave traders. In Egypt he rises in Potiphar's household, is falsely accused by Potiphar's wife, thrown into prison, and there interprets the dreams of the chief butler and the chief baker — correctly, one is hanged, the other restored. Two years later Pharaoh has two dreams no one can interpret. The butler remembers Joseph. Joseph interprets: seven years of plenty, seven of famine; Pharaoh should appoint a wise man to prepare. Pharaoh appoints Joseph. Made vizier at thirty, he stockpiles grain and administers the famine. When his brothers come to buy grain, he tests and forgives them and brings the whole family down into Egypt. He dies at one hundred and ten and makes his brothers swear to carry his bones back to the land of the promise.

The brother who suggests selling Joseph rather than killing him — a moment of calculation that saves Joseph's life while clearing the brothers' conscience just enough. Himself the subject of an uncomfortable parenthesis in chapter 38: he takes a Canaanite wife, has three sons, his eldest marries Tamar and dies, his second refuses to give Tamar children and dies, and Judah withholds his third son in fear. Tamar disguises herself as a cult prostitute, sleeps with Judah, and produces twins — including Perez, through whom the line of David will run. Judah emerges in the Joseph cycle as the brother willing to take responsibility: he offers himself as surety for Benjamin in chapter 43, and his long speech in chapter 44, offering himself as a slave in Benjamin's place, is the turning point that finally breaks Joseph's composure.

The wife of the Egyptian officer who buys Joseph from the slave traders. Unnamed throughout. She attempts to seduce Joseph repeatedly; he refuses repeatedly, on the grounds that he will not betray his master's trust or sin against God. She waits until the house is empty, seizes his garment, and when he flees, uses the garment as evidence that he assaulted her. Her husband believes her and throws Joseph into the prison. The episode is one of the most compressed narrative pivots in Genesis: one false accusation sends the story into its next stage and sets up everything that follows in Egypt.