Maleleel is a name found in the King James Bible, appearing 1 time in the text.
Who This Was
Maleleel, also known as Mahalalel, was a descendant of Adam, mentioned in the genealogies in Genesis. He belongs to the line of Seth, the son born to Adam and Eve after Cain killed Abel, and he stands in the generational chain that runs from Adam to Noah. In that ancient setting, the genealogies of Genesis record the passing of years and the succession of fathers and sons across the generations before the flood. Maleleel is one link in that chain, named among the ancestors of the family of faith.
In the King James Bible, Maleleel appears only once, in the New Testament. Luke 3:37 lists him in the genealogy of Jesus Christ: “Which was the son of Mathusala, which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Jared, which was the son of Maleleel, which was the son of Cainan.” Here Maleleel is named as the son of Cainan and the father of Jared, placing him between those two men in the ancestral line.
Scripture says nothing further about Maleleel beyond this single mention. The Bible does not record any deed, word, or event from his life. His significance in the text is entirely genealogical: he is one of the forefathers through whom the line descends, and Luke includes him as part of the record tracing Jesus’ lineage back through the generations. What Scripture says of him is simply that he belonged to this line, named among those who came before.
The Name
The name Maleleel is the Greek form, as it appears in Luke’s genealogy, of the Hebrew name Mahalalel. The Hebrew name is commonly understood to carry the sense of “praise of God” or “praise of El,” with *El* being a Hebrew term for God. This meaning is widely recognized and well established in the study of biblical names. The Greek rendering Maleleel, used by Luke, preserves the identity of the same person while following the form familiar to Greek-speaking readers of the New Testament.
A Closing Thought
Maleleel’s life is summed up in a single line of a long list, and yet he is not forgotten. He lived, he fathered a son, and he took his place in the generations that carried God’s purposes forward toward the coming of Christ. Most of us will never be famous or widely remembered, and that is all right. Faithfulness in ordinary days matters more than prominence. Like Maleleel, we may be known only to God and to those nearest us, but we are still part of His story, and no life lived before Him is wasted.
At a Glance
- Gender: Male
- Testament: New
- Mentions in the KJV: 1
Where It Appears in Scripture
- Luke 3:37 — Which was the son of Mathusala, which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Jared, which was the son of Maleleel, which was the son of Cainan,