Who were the patriarchs and matriarchs?

Hagar =

Abraham= Sarah

   

Ishmael

Isaac = Rebecca

   
 

Esau Jacob = 1) Leah

2) Rachel 3)Rachel's maid Bilhah
 

Reuben

Joseph Dan
 

Simeon

Benjamin Naphtali
 

Levi

   
 

Judah

   
 

Issachar

   
 

Zebulon

   
 

Dinah

   
  Leah's maid Zilpah    
  Gad    
  Asher    

When did they live?

Setting describes Canaan hill country between 1750 -1500 BCE

---Before 1150 (tribal period) and Mernephtah's Stele (1220) which describes Israel as a people

---After 2000, when a strong city-state system flourished in Canaan

Where did they live?

Abraham:

is identified with the southern regions of Canaan

Isaac: located even further south, southern Judah and the Negev

Jacob: central hill country (heart of tribal Israel)

Were they real people?

Eponyms: personal name standing for a group

Folk heroes

Part of a genealogy that defined Israel as it became a kingdom

---3 generations of patriarchal ancestors

---linking genealogies to other groups

---story reflects time when Israel was a 12-tribe entity

---priority of Abraham suggests a Judahite perspective

---insistence upon ethnic separateness