The essential features of the three Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the Book of Genesis.

Judaism is a monotheistic religion, so the most important and only sacred person in the Jewish religion is obviously God, who is believed to be transcendent (supreme, beyond others), immanent and the creator of everything.

God is without form, and this is why images of God are never found in Jewish synagogues. The Jewish belief also holds that while God is separate from our world, He continues to be involved with its people, and the Jewish traditions, food habits and beliefs are based on this relationship between God, his laws and the humanity.

Probably the next most important people in Judaism after God are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (also known as the Patriarchs) who are considered to be the founding fathers of Judaism.

What is believed to be so special about those men is that it was with them that God established the covenant, meaning a unique relationship with him, which started with Abraham with the promise that he would be the father of a new nation, and was renewed with Isaac and Jacob.

This covenant is at the heart of Jewish belief, and it's from there that the Jewish people received the term of "chosen" people. Abraham especially is recognized as being the first Jew (the first "chosen" one) because he was the person that was chosen by God to set an example amongst a polytheistic nation and went on to teaches others that there was just one God.

The history proper of the people of Israel began with the Inauguration at Sinai. This is recorded in the book Exodus, but their pre-history began with the “Call of Abraham” recorded in the Patriarchal narratives in Genesis 12 - 50.

I shall begin with this section which provides the background knowledge of the formative Periods of Israelite History. The Patriarchal narratives tell the stories of Abraham, (Gen.12-25) Isaac (Gen.25:11-28; 26; 27; 35:27-29) and Jacob, (Gen.25:21- 50:14).

I should however note that these stories overlap in many respects. However, before I go ahead to treat the stories of the patriarchs’ one by one, it is expedient to make a brief excursus into the historical background of the patriarchal age as revealed by extra-biblical evidence.

ABRAHAM (Focus Text: Gen.12-25)

The major highlights of Abraham's life were:

1. The call

2. His Faith

3. The covenant and

4. His children

Abraham is the Chief forerunner of the Jews “and chosen as a specific exemplar of the children of Adam and he is assigned a location of God’s choosing (P. N. Tarazi, Land and Covenant, pg.55)”. He is the first of the patriarchs since he was the one that first received the covenant promise. He is indeed the foundation father of modern Monotheism. Abram is considered the first true monotheist, despite the reality that the Biblical record testifies to the fact that Abram later comes in contact with at least one other monotheist, King Melchizedek of Salem. But still, Abraham is considered the great patriarch of monotheism because it was the testimony of his own religious faith that has survived till modern times.

Today, too little is known of the religious faith of Melchizedek, except that he was cited once as a model of the Ideal Priest in the Messianic Psalms and as a typology of Christ in the New Testament.

The initial name of Abraham was "Abram" which meant "high father" or "exalted rather" in Hebrew but this was later changed by God to Abraham, "father of a multitude"(Gen.17); but “the most feature of Abraham is the he is presented as a “Hebrew”… which means to be on the go” (P. N. Tarazi, Land and Covenant, pg.56)”. I will talk more about this in “the call of Abraham”.

According to Biblical narrative, He was born in the city of Ur of the Chaldeans, which was situated in the southern region of Mesopotamia. Ur was a leading metropolitan center at the time. Jewish tradition holds that Abram's father was a top idol merchant in the city of Ur. The Bible does not provide much information about Abram's life up till the age of 75, but it does tell us that, for some unknown reason, Abram's father, Terah, took Abram and the rest of his family and left Ur for the city of Haran in northern Mesopotamia.

In the biblical narrative, the LORD had appeared to Abram and told him to leave his family, birthplace and country and go to an unknown land where the LORD would make him a great nation. This Abraham heeded after his father, Terah's death in Haran at the age of 205,

THE CALL OF ABRAHAM (Genesis 12:1-9)

1 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

He departs with Lot from Haran

4 So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

Abram journeys through Canaan, which is promised him in a vision

6 And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. 7 And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. 8 And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.

So begins the great saga of Abraham and his unique and sometimes turbulent relationship with the God he and his descendants came to know as “El Shaddai” (Gen 17:1; 28:3; 35:11; 43:14; 48:3; 49:5; Ex 6:3). God's call to Abram and his promise: 12:1 Yahweh said to Abram, 'Leave your country, your kindred and your father's house for a country which I shall show you; and I shall make you a great nation, I shall bless you and make your name famous, you are to be a blessing”. So one might ask: what is the significance of Go’s promise that He will make Abram’s name/shem famous? Unlike the builders of the city and the tower who sought to make their own "name" famous, God is promising Abram a living history through his descendants who will carry and remember his name. Now then, in Genesis 12:1-3 we can find three promises that God made to Abram (Abraham): a) land/ a nation; b) descendants and c) world-wide blessing.

These three-fold promises will result in a three-fold covenant formation between God and Abram. In addition, with these there promises, there are also seven blessing associated with Abram’s call: 1) I shall make you a great nation; 2) I shall bless you; 3) I shall make your name famous; 4) You are to be a blessing; 5) I shall bless those who bless you; 6) I shall curse those who curse you; and 7) All clans on earth will bless themselves by you. From all this we can see that God was returning to His original plan which was to bless all humanity, as we can find that in Genesis 1:28 and then repeated in chapter 9:1.

There are a number of interesting aspects to consider in the LORD's calling of Abram. Rightly affirmed with Abraham, Old Testament history becomes particularistic in scope. With the call of Abraham, attention is focused upon one branch of the human race. The trend of the narrative in historical plot of Genesis was that the story began with the creation of mankind in general, and progressed to show how all branches of human race sprung up, then narrows down to focus on Abraham and the particular branch of Abraham's descendants that gave rise to the Israelite nation.

The Bible did not tell us why God choose Abram, and his travels were not to be merely geographical, but more importantly, he was embarking on a journey into everlasting covenant and relationship with the Living God, a journey away from the traditional beliefs and practices of Abram's country, birthplace and father's house. Abraham's decision to obey the call is perhaps more significant than we may realize. He was raised as a city-dweller, used to the comforts and conveniences of urban life. Accepting the LORD's call meant that He would now have to adapt to a nomadic lifestyle, a lifestyle about which he knew little to nothing. This reveals the kind of man Abraham was. It was in Canaan where Abram became the first person to be called by the term "Hebrew", according to the biblical record. The term "Hebrew" was either a reference to the fact that Abram "crossed over" (Hebrew - Ibri in Hebrew - means ones who cross over) the Euphrates River in coming to Canaan, or that Abram was a descendent of Eber (Pronounced as Ever), great-great-grandson of Noah. Abraham remained a nomad in Canaan throughout his lifetime. Places where he pitched his camp include Shechem, (Gen.12:6), Hebron, (Gen.23:2) Mamre (Gen.18:1), the Negeb ( Gen.12:9; 13:8), Gerar ( Gen.20:1ff) and Beersheba ( Gen.21:33; 22:9). He also visited Egypt and sojourned there for some times when there was drought and famine in Canaan.

THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM

Abraham's faith and relationship with the LORD is shown in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, (Gen.18) and the narrative of the test to sacrifice Isaac. (Gen.22).

Though Abraham is depicted as full human with the frailties and imperfections of the flesh, particularly in the issue of accepting his wife's offer of Hagar, (Gen.16:1-4) yet his faith in, and obedience to the LORD were set as example of the ideal. Hence he is known as the 'father of faith'. The LORD promises Abraham a descendent, Isaac, who will carry on the covenant God had made with Abraham. Isaac was miraculously born to Abraham in his 100th year. His commitment to the LORD was again proven through his willingness to sacrifice his own son, the child of promise, upon whom lies all the hopes of his covenant with God, simply because the LORD required this of him. "...At the last moment, God sent an angel to stop the sacrifice” (Gen.: 22:11 and 22:15). It is interesting to note that child sacrifice was a common practice in the region at the time. Thus, to people of the time, the surprising thing about this story is not the fact that God asked Abraham to sacrifice his child, but that God stopped him! A friend of mine, a Jew, told me that Judaism uses this story as evidence that God abhors human sacrifice and that Judaism has always strongly opposed the practice of human sacrifice, commonplace in many other cultures at that time and place. Furthermore he told me that, they refer to this episode as "the binding of Isaac (Akedat Yitzchak)", and this, like everything else in the life of Abraham, became a milestone in mankind's relationship with God.

The stories and events of Abraham's life are well known to all Bible believing peoples, though the person and character behind those stories is seldom fully understood. Abraham remains almost a mythical character, a man whose faith in and obedience to the LORD is virtually beyond comprehension. Abraham remains a man from which, even after 3,800 years, we have much to learn.

GOD'S COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM

The most significant aspect of Abraham's life was the Covenant God made with him. There are two accounts of God's covenant with Abraham. It is first mentioned explicitly in Gen.15:1-18, and later on reiterated in Gen.17:1-22. This covenant became the basis of Israel's claim to the land of Canaan.

The basic features of this covenant are as follows:

1. The ratification: The covenant was ratified by sacrifice (Gen.15:8-21; 17:);

2. The Promise: God's covenant promise to Abraham includes the following:

3. To multiply his seed -Gen.15:4-6; 17:4-7.

4. To give him and his descendants the land of Canaan - Gen.15:7, 18; 17:8

5. To be their God, and to take them as His own chosen people Gen.17:7-8b.

6. The Sign: The sign given was circumcision. Gen.17:10-14.

It must however be noted that the covenant name God revealed to Abraham was “El Shadai”, which means "God Almighty", whereas He revealed Himself to Israel and entered into covenant with them under Moses at Sinai as "the LORD" (Gen.17:1, Exod.6:3)

ABRAHAM'S CHILDREN

The bible gave the record of the children of Abraham as Eight. His first son, Ishmael was born to him by Hagar, an Egyptian who was Sarah's handmaid. (Gen.16:1-4, 15-16) He was later sent away from the household because he made sport of Isaac when he was weaned. (Gen.21:8-12) Isaac, the only child born to Abraham, Sarah was the second son and the child of promise (Gen. 17:15-21). After the death of Sarah, Abraham took another wife, Keturah by name, and she bore six sons to Abraham. They were Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Mid'ian, Ishbak, and Shuah. (Gen.25:1-6) But out of all the eight children, it was Isaac that inherited the covenant promise. (Gen.21:12b)

ISAAC Gen.17-35 (Gen.17:1-21; 26:1-11)

Isaac's story could be said to be the least eventful in the patriarchal narrative.

The figure of Isaac stood under the towering shadows of Abraham his father and Jacob his son. The tone of the Biblical narrative insinuates that Isaac was the preferred choice of God to carry on the patriarchal covenant. Though he was not the first son of Abraham, and though Ishmael his elder brother was equally blessed with a multitude of descendants, the narrative was carefully channeled to reflect Isaac as the sole inheritor of the covenant promise. (Gen.17:1-21)

The most important of the Isaac stories were the account of his miraculous birth, the projected sacrifice, and the account of his encounter and re-enactment of the covenant with God. (Gen.26:1-6). Some of the incidents that were recorded in relation to Abraham were also duplicated in the Isaac narratives. These were the accounts of the famine and the attempted usurpation of the patriarch's wife by a monarch. In the case of Abraham, two occasions were recorded.

First in Egypt, by Pharaoh (Gen.12:14-20) and later in Gerar, by Abimelech the king of Gerar. (Gen.20) In the case of Isaac, closely similar incidence was recorded once, and it was at Gerar and it was by Abimelech king of Gerar. (Gen.26:6-11)

My Lutheran friend is of the opinion that the narratives reflected a repetition of the same event which had acquired divergent hues along the line of oral transmission.

Indeed, there were a lot of legendary elements in the patriarchal narratives. The concern of the compilers of these traditions was not to present a historically accurate document, but rather to legitimize the tradition of Israel's ancestry.

Isaac had two sons. They were twins, and the younger became the inheritor of the patriarchal promise. The themes, of the story of the twin brothers, reflect God's sovereign choice and election of Jacob, who later became the progenitor of the Israelite tribes. The political rivalries between the Edomites and the Israelites was figuratively represented and typologically explicated by the story of the sibling rivalry between Jacob and Esau. (Gen.25:20-34; 27)

JACOB (Gen.25:20-34; 27;28:1-5, 10-22; 29:1-31:55; 35:1-18)

The figure of Jacob was by all means a very significant aspect in the political and religious history of Israel. It was in the person of Jacob that the twelve tribes of Israel found a patrimonial bond. The name Israel, which became the national name, was particularly bestowed on Jacob. (Gen.32:24-32; 35:9-15) Hence Jacob was an eponymous entity with regards to the Israelite nation.

The high points of the Jacob stories include:

i. - Rivalry with Esau (Gen.32:6-32)

ii. - Bethel Encounter (Gen.28:10-22;35:1-15)

Iii.-Sojourn at Padan Aram (Gen.28:1-5; 29:1-31:55)

Rivalry with Esau (Gen.32:6-32)

The narrative of the sibling rivalry between the twin sons of Isaac, Esau the elder and Jacob the younger could be seen as typological of the inter-tribal disputes and perpetual rivalry between the Edomites who were portrayed as the descendants of Esau, and the Israelites who were portrayed as the descendants of Jacob. The basic plot of the narrative runs as follows: First, at conception, the twins struggled together in the womb, and their mother, feeling uncomfortable by the development, sought counsel through divination. It was predicted to her that the two sons would be two nations in contest, and the elder would be subdued by the younger. At birth, the Jacob the younger emerged from the womb grabbing his Elder twin-brother's leg. Hence, the name "Jacob", literally meaning "sup-planter". Next, an incidence occurred in which Jacob the younger took advantage of Esau, the elder's nonchalant attitude towards his position and responsibilities as the elder and cunningly battered with him, a meal of red bean stew for his right of the first born. The climax of the story culminated in Jacob's craftily obtaining the patriarchal blessing from Isaac their father by disguising himself to be Esau. The stalemate engendered from this final act led Jacob to seek asylum in Padan Aram. The tone of narrative however shows the intention of the compiler to depict a theological position that Jacob was chosen and elected by God to carry on the covenant promise despite his faults and weaknesses, and not necessarily because of any unworthiness in Esau.

Bethel Encounter (Gen.28:10-22; 35:1-15)

In order to depict the election of Jacob to be the chosen person to inherit the covenant promise, there were two narratives depicting how he had an encounter with God in which the patriarchal covenant was re-enacted with him. The first instance was on his way to Padan Aram, when he was fleeing from his brother Esau. (Gen.28:10-22). The second instance was when he had returned to Canaan and placated his brother' anger. (Gen. 35:1-15). However, the second account diverges from the first in that it connected the change of name from Jacob to Esau with the reenactment of the covenant at Bethel.

Sojourn at Padan Aram (Gen.28:1-5; 29:1-31:55)

The story of Jacob's sojourn in Padan Aram resounds with the fact that the Israelite tribes originated from Aramean Stock. It is notable that all the children of Israel, (the eponymous figures behind the names of the twelve tribes), except Benjamin were born and raised in Padan Aram. It was only Benjamin that was born in Canaan. (Gen.35:16-18). It was within the period of his sojourn at Padan Aram that Jacob gained his two wives, and two concubines and also gained a considerable amount of wealth.

Conclusion

The chronological frame work for the patriarchal stories (Abraham through Joseph) rests on two important texts.

1. 1 Kings 6:1 states that the Exodus took place 480 years before the fourth year of Solomon’s reign (i.e., 967 B.C.) This makes the date of the Exodus close to 1446 B.C.

2. Exodus 12:40 records that “the sons of Israel lived in Egypt” 430 years before the Exodus, or about 1876 B.C. This is the probable date when Jacob’s family moved to Egypt.

From above mentioned dates we can calculate other dates in the patriarchal period, but reading some non-orthodox articles/books the history of the patriarch continues to be a matter of scholarly debate among them. According to them, “the problem is the lack of explicit reference to the patriarchs’ in non-biblical literature and in archeology; scholars who reject the biblical testimony as unauthentic have been labeled “minimalist”, and those who believe the Hebrew Bible credibly supplements non-biblical material are known as ”maximalist”. (Dr. Constable: Notes on Genesis pg.103, 2012 edition; and K. A. Mathews, Genesis 11:27-50:26)

On the other hand, Israel (Jews) is not concerned with this; they are concerned with existence of God;