Jared (biblical figure)

Figure in the Book of Genesis

Jared or Jered ( Yereḏ, in pausa יָרֶד Yāreḏ, "to descend"; or Ἰάρεδ Iáret; يَارَد Yārad), in the Book of Genesis, was a sixth generation descendant of Adam and Eve. His primary history is recounted in .

The biblical details about Jared, like the other long lived patriarchs, are in the book of Genesis. In terms of the documentary hypothesis, the passage about the descendants of Adam (Genesis 5:1 32) is attributed to the Priestly source. In the apocryphal Book of Jubilees, his mother's name is Dinah. Jubilees states that Jared married a woman whose name is variously spelled as Bereka, Baraka, and Barakah, and the Bible speaks of Jared having become father to other sons and daughters Of those children, only Enoch is named specifically, born when Jared was 162 years old (, , , , ). Enoch went on to marry Edna, according to Jubilees, and the sole named grandchild of Jared is Enoch's son Methuselah, the longest living human mentioned in the Bible (, , ). Additionally, Jared was a forefather of Noah and his three sons. Jared's age was given as 962 years old when he died (when Noah was 366), making him the second oldest person mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint. In the Samaritan Pentateuch, his age was 62 at fatherhood and only 847 at death, making Noah the oldest and Jared the seventh oldest. According to Samaritan tradition, the ancient Samaritan village of Shalem Rabbta, modern day Salim, was founded by Jared.

Jared (Yarid) is also mentioned in Islam in the Qisas Al Anbiya, which mentions him in an identical manner.

Thomas Hardy, in his novel, The Return of the Native (1878), referenced Jared as one who betokened an advanced lifetime: "The number of their years may have adequately summed up Jared, Mahalaleel, and the rest of the antediluvians, but the age of a modern man is to be measured by the intensity of his history." (London:Folio Society) (1971 [1880] at p. 150.