This made the family genealogy of Abraham’s line of surpassing importance. The Bible is the sole record not only of Abraham’s origins but also of those of all the nations descending from Noah’s sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth.​—Ge 10:32.

As E. J. Hamlin comments in The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, the Genesis table of nations is “unique in ancient literature. . . . Such preoccupation with history cannot be found in any other sacred literature of the world.”​—Edited by G. Buttrick, 1962, Vol. 3, p. 515.

This record would provide the genealogy of the Messiah, the Seed, the line of extraordinary importance.​—Joh 7:42.