Filum: Adam to Terah

Notes

A simple row arrangement, containing 20 roundels. Main counterparts in Liber Genealogus: section 03 and section 11.

Adam to Terah

The manuscripts plotted are, from top: Roda, Plutei, San Juan bible and Facundus. In each case, the leftmost roundel is that of Adam (A) and the series continues to Terah (T). A lower-case f represents a filius who does not belong in the filum, but is erroneously attached to it by one or other recension. A lower-case u represents an uxor or wife.

Commentary

This group forms the first part of Filum A. The top bar (or "bus") forms the join, but scribes were evidently confused about when and where to attach connectors. Both Roda and Facundus (or their common ancestor) erroneously connected Noah's son Ham and grandchildren (four marked "f") to the filum. It appears that Adam and Noah (A and N) are not linked to the filum because they were originally shown with oversized roundels that overlapped the filum.

Also of interest is the filum break in both Plutei and San Juan where the line makes a dog-leg downwards. This adds to the evidence that there is some kind of closer connection between their recensions.

The definitive list to populate the reconstruction is as follows:

  1. Adam (A)
  2. Seth (S)
  3. Enos (E)
  4. Cainan (C)
  5. Malelehel (M)
  6. Iareth (J)
  7. Enoc (E)
  8. Matusala (M)
  9. Lamech (L); his wife Anazrah is not counted, as she is not in LGG
  10. Noe (N)
  11. Sem (N)
    • Norea
  12. Arfaxat (A)
  13. Sale (S)
  14. Eber (E)
  15. Falech (F)
  16. Ragau (R)
  17. Seruch (S)
  18. Nachor (N)
  19. Thara (T)

Eve is present in the Liber Genealogus G, but it is difficult to reconstruct where she might have been placed in the diagram, as she is occasionally shown in an Adam portrait without her own roundel. It would seem prudent to leave her out the reconstruction. Two additional wives are shown in the Alpha and Beta manuscripts: Anazrah wife of Lamech and Nicibat wife of Thara. Both are absent from the Liber Genealogus and from the other recensions and are not included here. The sole wife in this part of the reconstruction is thus Norea, wife of Sem.

Next: The A Filum, Second Part

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