According to Genesis, Shem was the son of Noah who became an ancestor of Abraham.
Genesis 10 lists Shem among Noah’s sons, and Genesis 11 traces a line from Shem through Arpachshad, Shelah, Eber, and Terah to Abram, later called Abraham. This genealogy connects the Flood narrative to the patriarchal stories that follow in Genesis.
Shem is therefore not Abraham’s father or grandfather. Terah is Abraham’s father, while Arpachshad is several generations earlier in the line presented by Genesis. The genealogy’s purpose is to establish ancestry and transition from the post-Flood world to the family of Abraham.
The name Shem is also related to the Hebrew word for “name,” though biblical genealogies and modern linguistic classifications should not be treated as identical. The later term “Semitic” comes from Shem’s name, but the biblical passage itself is a genealogy rather than a modern ethnic classification.