Righteous Forefather Peleg

Peleg is an Old Testament patriarch named in the genealogy that runs from Shem toward Abraham. According to Genesis, he was the son of Eber and the father of Reu, and his name (from a Hebrew word meaning 'division') is explained in the text itself: 'in his days was the earth divided' (Genesis 10:25; cf. 1 Chronicles 1:19). The Orthodox Church commemorates him among the Holy Forefathers, the ancestors of Christ according to the flesh, on the Sunday before the Nativity.

Little is recorded of Peleg beyond his place in the genealogical lists. Genesis 11:16-19 names him in the line of descent leading to Abraham, and the genealogy of Christ in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 3) carries the same line forward. Because the scriptural notice is so brief, the figure of Peleg is associated almost entirely with the single remark attached to his name.

The meaning of 'the earth was divided' has been understood in more than one way within the tradition. The most common reading connects the division to the dispersion of peoples and the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel, the account of which immediately follows in Genesis 11. An older alternative, reflected in such ancient sources as the Book of Jubilees and the writings of Josephus, took it to mean a division of the land or territories among the descendants of Noah. The scriptural text states the fact without resolving the interpretation, and the database follows the source in leaving the matter open.