Shem is listed first among Noah’s sons in Genesis’s Ark story.
Genesis 6:10 names Noah’s sons as Shem, Ham, and Japheth before describing the coming flood. All three sons board the ark with Noah, their wives, and Noah’s wife. After the flood, Genesis continues to discuss the family and presents a genealogy that traces later peoples through Noah’s descendants.
Shem’s position in the list is not the same as a simple statement about every aspect of family chronology. Biblical passages and later traditions discuss the brothers in different ways, and readers should distinguish the order of names from claims about exact ages or birth order.
Shem is especially important in biblical genealogical tradition because Genesis 11 traces the line from Shem to Abram, later known as Abraham. The term “Semitic” was subsequently derived from Shem’s name, although modern linguistic classification has its own technical history.