Culture & Context: The Patriarchs

Welcome to Culture and Context, a blog that will flesh out the context of the PATH journal and other content that we study here at True North.

Who are the Patriarchs? At this point in Year one of the PATH, you are coming into the homestretch of Genesis with its 50 chapters and many, many characters. The three people known as the Patriarchs are Abraham, his son Isaac, and Isaac’s son Jacob. Many Biblical scholars also include Jacob’s son Joseph in the patriarchy.

If you were to look at a full family tree, you would see that Jesus descended from Jacob’s son Judah, thus tying Abraham and Jesus together in God’s plan of redemption.

A patriarch is a “founding father,” a man who is the oldest member or representative of a group. It is often thought of as a religious title but can also be applied to any group of men who founded something big- such as America’s Founding Fathers, who framed our American Constitution and birthed a nation.

Some of the biblical patriarchs had multiple wives and concubines and other children not listed here. Below is a very simplified family tree of the patriarchs in Genesis:

The biblical account of the patriarchs begins near the end of Genesis 11 with Terah, who was the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. Abram, as he was called before making a covenant with God, was married to Sarai. Genesis 11:30 noted that Sarai was unable to have children.

Abram means “the father is exalted.” Abram’s parents lived in Ur and they were likely participants of the moon cult of Ur. God renamed Abram to Abraham to sever any connection to his family’s pagan roots and to set the narrative for Abraham’s new life. Abraham means “father of a multitude” because God promised Abraham that he would have many descendants.

Terah, Lot (Haran’s son; Haran had died early), Abram and Sarai left Ur of the Chaldeans (a town between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea) and set out north to settle in the city of Haran. This was the first of many moves as Abraham and company would one day travel to Egypt and back to Canaan.

When Abram was 75 years old, God called Abram to leave Haran and go to a land that God would show him. Remember that Abram had never before heard God and may not have known much about Him. God made what seemed to be a fantastic promise to a childless man- that he would be the father of a great nation. And yet Abram obeyed God without a hint of doubt:

"Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran." - Genesis 12:1-4

Genesis 15 tells the story of God’s covenant with Abram, reaffirming that Abram’s family would be a great nation. When Abram was 99 years old, God re-named him Abraham and stated again that Abraham would have many descendants through Sarai, who was now to be called Sarah. She would give birth to a son named Isaac, and God would establish His covenant through Isaac, whose birth is recounted in Genesis 21. His name means “God laughs,” because Abraham and Sarah laughed when they learned they were to become parents at ages 100 and 90.

You can imagine that Abraham loved his son very much, and yet when God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac in a test of faith, Abraham did not hesitate. God spared Isaac and the promise of many descendants was reaffirmed. After Sarah’s death, Abraham married Keturah, who gave Abraham six more sons who founded six tribes in southern and eastern Palestine.

Isaac’s covenant with God had a visible sign- circumcision. Although Ishamel was Abraham’s first son, Isaac was the son who was to carry on the blessing of becoming the Hebrew nation. Abraham found a wife for Isaac in the town of Haran, assuring that he did not marry a pagan Canaanite woman. He was securing the future of the Hebrew people.

Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah and she gave birth to twin sons, Jacob and Esau, when Isaac was 60 years old. Esau was the oldest and Isaac’s favorite, while Rebekah favored Jacob. Isaac was very wealthy in flocks and herds and servants, amassing a large fortune to pass on to his sons. The birthright (see below) should have gone to Esau as the older twin, but he “sold” it to Jacob for a bowl of stew (Gen. 25:29-34)! In Genesis 27, Rebekah and Jacob tricked an aging and blind Isaac to bestow the firstborn blessing on Jacob by disguising him as Esau.

Birthright: the privilege belonging to the firstborn son. He was second only to his father in the. hierarchy and had the responsibility for the family in his father’s absence. The firstborn also inherited twice as much of the family fortune as any other son.

This caused a bitter rift between Esau and Jacob, and Jacob had to flee for his life. Rebekah sent Jacob to Haran, to live with her brother Laban. Laban had two daughters, Rachel and Leah, and Jacob eventually married both of them. Jacob had twelve sons by his two wives; you can read the stories in Genesis 29 and 30.

After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob wanted to take his wives and children back to his home. Laban wanted him to stay because Jacob had helped him prosper. The two men made bargains to grow their herds, each believing they had tricked the other. In reality, it was of course God who increased their flocks and prosperity. Jacob had to flee from Laban’s anger and God insured that he returned safely to his home country.

Jacob seems like a crafty man and hardly someone that we would think of as a patriarch. After all, he tricked his brother, he tricked his father and then prospered at Laban’s expense! Like all humans, Jacob was flawed. He was also part of God’s plan - God reaffirmed His covenant, this time with Jacob, in Genesis 28:10-15. Twenty years later, Jacob again encountered God:

"God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him. And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” So he called his name Israel. And God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body.  The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you.” - Genesis 35:9-12

That is definitely the “cliff’s notes” version of the three patriarchs of Genesis. Three flawed men let themselves be used by God to become a great nation and to lead us to salvation. Abraham’s faith about fathering a child with Sarah may have waivered, but he demonstrated great faith in leaving his home to follow God, and again when he was willing to sacrifice Isaac. Isaac may have doubted God’s protection (see Genesis 26:6-11), but he acted in good faith by blessing his sons (even if he was tricked!). Jacob was crafty, but he blessed the sons of Joseph, to make them eligible to be inherit as his own children. These men kept the covenant with God and the result was the nation of Israel and eventually Jesus Christ, our savior. God works through unexpected people!

Works Cited

• Alexander, P., & Alexander, D., eds. (2017). Zondervan Handbook to the Bible (Fifth Edition). Zondervan.

• Elwell, W. A., & Comfort, P. W. (2001). In Tyndale Bible dictionary. Tyndale House Publishers.

• The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2025). Crossway Bibles.

• Kretzmann, P. E. (1921). The Popular Commentary of the Bible: The New Testament. Concordia.

• Merriam-Webster, I. (2003). In Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary. (Eleventh ed.). Merriam-Webster, Inc.

• Provan, I., Long, V. P., & Longman, T., III. (2015). A Biblical History of Israel (Second Edition). Westminster John Knox Press.

• Youngblood, R. F., Bruce, F. F., & Harrison, R. K., Thomas Nelson Publishers, eds. (1995). In Nelson’s new illustrated Bible dictionary. Thomas Nelson, Inc.