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