From Family to a People

ABRAHAM
├── Ishmael → Ishmaelites
├── Isaac
│ └── Jacob (Israel)
│ ├── Leah → Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dinah
│ ├── Rachel → Joseph, Benjamin
│ ├── Bilhah → Dan, Naphtali
│ └── Zilpah → Gad, Asher
│
└── Keturah → Midian → Midianites

The Story Expands

Jacob's family → Egypt
Joseph rises to power → Jacob's family settles in Egypt.

Moses
Israelite from Levi's family → flees Egypt → lives in Midian → marries Zipporah, daughter of Jethro → returns to Egypt.

The Exodus
Egypt → Red Sea/Yam Suph → wilderness → Rephidim → Amalekite conflict → Mount Sinai.

The Bigger Picture

The biblical story presents many neighboring peoples as branches of a wider family tree:

Abraham → Ishmael / Isaac / Midian
Isaac → Jacob → Israel's Twelve Tribes
Esau → Edom
Midian → Midianites
Amalek → Amalekites

A Scholar's Rule

📜 Bible: What the biblical text explicitly says.
🏺 History/Geography: What can be reconstructed, often with uncertainty.
📚 Later tradition: Interpretations that developed after the biblical texts.

Example: Genesis says Joseph married Asenath, daughter of Potiphera. Some later Jewish traditions say Asenath was Dinah's daughter—but Genesis itself does not say this.