The Patriarchs
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph: one family receives a promise of land, descendants and blessing for all nations.
Genesis 12–50 follows four generations from Mesopotamia to Canaan and finally to Egypt. The dates are traditional: they are worked out from the Bible’s own figures, and no inscription names the patriarchs. The promises made here, above all the covenant with Abraham, are the root from which Israel, and later the church, understood itself.
Events of this era
- about 2091 BC, traditional dateThe Call of Abraham
Genesis tells how God calls Abram to leave his country and his father’s house for a land he will be shown, promising to make him a great nation through whom all the families of the earth will be blessed. Abram leaves Haran for Canaan.
- about 2085 BC, traditional dateMelchizedek Blesses Abram
Genesis tells how Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, meets Abram with bread and wine after a battle, blesses him and receives a tenth of everything. Psalm 110 names a priesthood after him, and Hebrews applies it to Jesus.
- about 2080 BC to 2067 BC, traditional dateGod’s Covenant with Abraham
In Genesis God binds himself by covenant to give Abraham descendants and the land of Canaan. Abraham believes, and it is counted to him as righteousness. Years later God renames him and gives circumcision as the sign of the covenant.
- about 2050 BC, traditional dateThe Binding of Isaac
In Genesis God tests Abraham by telling him to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering in the land of Moriah. Abraham obeys, an angel stops his hand, and a ram is offered in the boy’s place. The promise is confirmed with an oath.
- about 1929 BC to 1909 BC, traditional dateJacob Becomes Israel
Jacob, fleeing his brother Esau, receives the promise of Abraham in a dream at Bethel. Twenty years later he wrestles through the night at the Jabbok and is given the name Israel, which his descendants will bear.
- about 1898 BC to 1876 BC, traditional dateJoseph and the Descent into Egypt
Joseph, sold by his brothers as a slave, rises to govern Egypt and stores grain against a seven-year famine. He is reconciled with his brothers, and Jacob’s whole family settles in the land of Goshen.