The Patriarchs

Genesis 12-24

Alright! We made it past the begining of the beginning! Yay us! Now we move out of prehistory and into the Jewish history. Those first eleven chapters give a foundation for what lies ahead. All those begats give us a lineage from the first man and woman to the very first 'Father of the Nations of Yahweh' and are only part of a story that was passed down from generation to generation over many centuries.

The stories themselves date back to at least 1300 B.C. which is the time of the Exodus, the next book we will read after Genesis. As far as Genesis is concerned these events are older than recorded history and there is not a lot of archeolgical evidence for the Patriarchs dating back further than 74 B.C. The Roman King Herod who ruled the land of Israel (Judea) in 74 B.C., built an enclousre of what is known as the Cave of the Patriarchs. It is believed to be the actuall cave that Abraham bought in the book of Genesis and the resting place of the tombs of the Patriarchs; Abraham, Issac, and Jacob along with their wives. This is a holy site to Jews, Christians, and Muslims because these men that we are about to meet are the ones that started everything. Most the wars about religion that we have from the world cultures of today are rooted in the events that happen in the book of Genesis.

What we do know is that the modern Old Testament has been in written form since at least 450 B.C. which is, historically, 100 years after the Persians allowed the Jews to go back to their homeland and rebuild their temple. During these years the histories were written down and compiled into the Jewish Holy Book called the Tanakh. This was a collection of Jewish culture consisting of three major groups. The first was the Torah (Teaching) which are the five Books of Moses; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Numbers. Next is the Nevi'im (prophets) and Ketuvim (writings) which make up the rest of the Jewish canon. This was later translated into Greek and made into what is now known to Christians as the Old Testament.

We are about to meet Abraham. The father of the Jewish and Arab nations. According to the story of the Tanakh God chose Abraham to be the father of the representative people of Yahweh to all of mankind. He laid out the entire plan that is about to unfold before us on our Journey through. Here we will find the Patriarch of Jews and Muslims as well as the Christians since the Christians believe that Jesus was the fulfillment of bringing the Jewish covenent to the Gentiles.

The Jewish covenent is an interesting one and its going to be fun to watch it develop. We have already seen the covenant that Yahweh made with humanity through Noah. The rainbow in the sky is the reminder that covenenant. Now we are going to enter the second phase; the Abrahamic Covenant in which Yahweh appoints a place in time and space for his people and vows to be thier god if they will be His people.