A. Patriarchs

LESSON 3

The Patriarchs. Inauguration of the history of Salvation. Geographical boundaries: fertile Mesopotamia, Egypt and Chanaan. Origin of the patriarchs. The patriarchs in the history of Salvation. Periods of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: election, promise and faith.

1. The Patriarchs. Inauguration of the history of Salvation

1.1 What is a Toledot (Toledoth)?

In the book of Genesis, the term toledot (or also, toledoth) is used repeatedly. It means "generations" (it is derived from the Hebrew word for giving birth). Whenever this term is used, it indicates a turning point in the narrative.

The term is mentioned twelve times, but only in ten of those times does it indicate an important turning point. Of the ten, five are in Genesis 1-11, and another five in Genesis 12-50. Here are the ten important ones (note that toledot is translated in different ways):

1. Prehistory or Primeval History (Genesis 1-11)
2. Genesis 2:4 "These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created."
3. Genesis 5:1 "This is the book of the generations of Adam."
4. Genesis 6:9 "These are the generations of Noah."
5. Genesis 10:1 "These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; sons were born to them after the flood."
6. Genesis 11:10 "These are the descendants of Shem."
7. Patriarchal History (Genesis 12-50)
8. Genesis 11:27 "Now these are the descendants of Terah."
9. Genesis 25:12 "These are the descendants of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's maid, bore to Abraham."
10. Genesis 25:19 "These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham's son...."
11. Genesis 36:1 "These are the descendants of Esau (that is, Edom)."
12. Genesis 37:2 "This is the history of the family of Jacob."

The two that are not included are the toledot in 10:32 ("These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations; and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.") and the toledot in 36:9 ("These are the descendants of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir.") The former (10:32) summarises the previous accounts, while the latter repeats the one in 36:1.

What do these toledot point to? What they do is to lead one from the universal, gradually narrowing itself down to the toledot of Jacob.

1.2 Structure of Genesis 12-50

1. The Abraham Cycle (11:27-25:11)
   • Call and Covenant with Abraham (12-17)
     • To and From Canaan (12-14)
     • Heir to the Promise (15-16)
     • Covenant of Circumcision (17)
   • Abraham and Isaac (18-22)
     • Birth Announcement (18-19)
     • Threat (20-21)
     • Testing (22)
   • Last Days (23:1-25:11); Marriage of Isaac (24)
2. Interlude: The Ishmael Toledot (25:12-18)
3. The Isaac Cycle (26)
4. The Jacob Cycle (25:19-25:34; 27:1-35:29)
   • Jacob versus Esau: Stealing the Blessing (25:19-25:34; 27:1-28:22)
   • Jacob versus Laban: Building a Family (29-31)
   • Jacob versus God: Wrestling for a Blessing (32-35)
5. Interlude: The Esau Toledot (36)
6. The Descendants of Jacob. The Story of Joseph (37:1-50:26)
   • Joseph and his Brothers (37-45)
     • Joseph the Dreamer (37)
     • Judah and Tamar (38)
     • Joseph's Rise to Power (39-41)
     • Joseph versus his Brothers (42-45)
   • Israel in Egypt (46-50)

Click here for Abraham's family tree.

2. Geographical boundaries: fertile Mesopotamia, Egypt and Chanaan

All this drama of God's involvement with human history took place in what is known as the Fertile Crescent (graphic from http://www.bible-history.com/).

The Fertile Crescent encompasses the area that extends from the Nile Delta in Egypt (left-hand side of the map), to the area we now know as Israel, all the way to present-day Iraq (right-hand side of the map), with its two rivers the Euphrates and Tigris.

The Nile, the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers make for the fertility of this area. The Nile is the largest river in the world. Egypt would be a complete desert without it. The Euphrates and the Tigris Rivers are likewise two great rivers; they run through what historians call Mesopotamia (from Greek, meaning "in the middle of two rivers").

It was in the Fertile Crescent where writing (and hence, civilisation) first began. The Egyptians to the West of the Crescent used hieroglyphics around 3000 BC while the Sumerians to the East had developed the cuneiform of writing around the same time. These two forms of writing started off as pictograms or drawings (much like the way Chinese characters developed from ideograms starting from 1500 BC) and evolved into wedge-shaped strokes. In 1600 BC, the Canaanites (or Phoenicians, as the Greeks called them), who lived in the upper middle portion of the Crescent, developed the alphabet.

Egypt, because it was surrounded by desert, was only invaded thrice in its 3,000-year history by the Hyksos, the Assyrians and finally the Greeks. Thanks to Alexander, the Great, the Greeks subdued it and turned it into a Greek colony.

Mesopotamia, on the other hand, was along the route of migration of many ancient peoples. It had no mountains or deserts to isolate it from invaders. Its extensive flood plain watered by the two great rivers made it very desirable for settlement. No wonder it has seen Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans and Muslims.

Henri Daniel-Rops writes

The Eastern Mediterranean was the centre of civilisation at the time of Abraham's migration. In other parts of Europe the Early Bronze Age had just begun, the Stone Age was ending. In Britain Stonehenge was being built; in Germany they were using wooden ploughs. However, in the fertile crescent, the Pharaohs had sat upon the throne for 1000 years already, the Phoenicians had wealthy seaports on the Mediterranean coast, and in Mesopotamia, between the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates, was a kingdom which held in tribute all the smaller kingdoms from the Persian gulf to the source of the Euphrates. The pyramids of Egypt and the massive temples of Mesopotamia had stood for centuries, and for 2000 years, farms and plantations had been exporting corn, vegetables and fruits from the artificially irrigated valleys of the major rivers of the region, the Nile, Euphrates and Tigris. Literature and learning were flourishing, especially in Egypt. To a large extent peace and prosperity seemed to reign.

Around the year 3000 BC (very roughly) the nomadic tribes of Semitic stock surged northwards into the surrounding kingdoms. The rich lands of the fertile crescent were too great a temptation to the nomads of the desert for ever threatened by drought. For two centuries there was a great Semitic expansion. The Akkad empire was destabilised, and at the time of the birth of Abram, Mesopotamia presented a mosaic of little states without political unity, though of a similar cultural level.

Abraham, you may recall, is heir to the blessings of Noah, through his genealogical link with Shem. The origin of the Hebrew people is linked to the semi-nomadic tribes that inhabited Mesopotamia in 2000-1500 BC in the regions of Ur and Haran. The link is Abraham, whose vocation and religious experiences constitute the historical basis of the providential mission of the chosen people in the history of salvation. The fact that his personal and family connections are with Aramaic and Canaanite tribes also points to his mission as the father of all believers. What sort of place was Ur? Perhaps we have some idea of mud huts. Excavations since 1920s have revealed a complex city of bricks with treasures such as the wrought swords of kings, the bronze helmets of soldiers, a golden goblet of great beauty. What Abram left behind was all the comfort and luxury of the town, the fine carved furniture, the silk hangings, the embroidered garments, jewels and perfumes, and an impressive bureaucracy. He also left behind him a religion of a multiplicity of gods with human sacrifices in their honour. In the burial grounds of Ur, archeologists found with the bodies of kings, covered with pearls and gold, 25, 50, 74 sacrificed servants. Among them are men and women, officers, domestics, even a muleteer with his beasts. There is no sign of violence, rather poison seems to have been used. In this context one can see the significance of the sacrifice of Isaac, and the substitution of a ram for a man in sacrifice. (Israel and the Ancient World, p 17)

3. Origin of the patriarchs. The patriarchs in the history of Salvation

The following is taken from the Navarre Bible Pentateuch (footnote for Genesis 11:27-50:26):

We now come to the story of the patriarchs, the fathers of the people of Israel; it is a story of clans and tribes, set in a chronological framework with references to geographical places in the Middle East....

Abraham emerges as the father of Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael is the ancestor of the Ishmaelites (or Arabs); Isaac, the father of the chosen people. Isaac is the father of Esau and Jacob. Esau is identified with Edom; Jacob (or Israel) will be the father of twelve sons, who go down to Egypt and whose descendants came back from there, forming the twelve tribes, the people of Israel. The people of Israel form the subject of the book of Exodus.

...

In this patriarchal history the main thing the Bible wants to show is that God's plan is being put into effect--his plan to choose one people so as to make a covenant with it, the covenant of Sinai; that is prepared for by means of earlier covenants that God makes with the patriarchs. God's saving plan begins to take concrete form with Abraham.

Abraham came from the city of Ur, in the south of Mesopotamia, along the banks of the Euphrates River, close to the Persian Gulf. When he first migrated with his father Terah, they went to Haran, to the northeast, between the two great rivers. It is from Haran where he set out for Canaan, sometime between 1800 and 1600 BC