Reference: Patriarchs
Fausets
Heads of races, tribes, clans, and families. Abraham (Heb 7:4), Jacob's sons (Ac 7:8-9), David (Ac 2:29). The" patriarchal system" before Moses developed itself out of family relations, before the foundation of nations and regular governments. The "patriarchal dispensation" is the covenant between God and the godly seed, Seth, Noah, Abraham, and their descendants; the freedom of intercourse with God is simple and childlike, as contrasted with the sterner aspect of the Mosaic dispensation. It is the innocence of childhood, contrasted with the developed manhood of our Christian dispensation. The distinction between the seed of the woman and that of the serpent appears in God's revealing Himself to the chosen as He did not to the world; hence their history is typical (Ga 4:21-31; Heb 7:1-7; Mt 24:37-39; Lu 17:28-32; Ro 9:10-13).
Yet God is revealed as God not merely of a tribe, but of all the earth (Ge 18:25). All nations were to be blessed in Abraham. The Gentile Pharaoh and Abimelech have revelations. God is called "almighty" (Ge 17:1; 28:3; 35:11). Melchizedek, of Canaanite Salem, is His king priest, and He punishes Canaanite Sodom and Gomorrah. Authority is grounded on paternal right, its natural ground and source, even as God is the common Father of both patriarch and children. The birthright is the privilege of the firstborn, but requiring the father's confirmation. Marriage is sacred (Ge 34:7,13,31; 38:24). Intermarriage with idolaters is treason to God and the chosen seed (Ge 26:34-35; 27:46; 28:1,6-9). The patriarchs severally typify Him in whom all their several graces meet, without blemish.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him, saying, "I am God Almighty. Live in My presence and be devout.
You could not possibly do such a thing: to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. You could not possibly do that! Won't the Judge of all the earth do what is just?"
When Esau was 40 years old, he took as his wives Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. They made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.
So Rebekah said to Isaac, "I'm sick of my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob marries a Hittite woman like one of them, what good is my life?"
Isaac summoned Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him: "Don't take a wife from the Canaanite women.
May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you so that you become an assembly of peoples.
Esau noticed that Isaac blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to get a wife there. When he blessed him, Isaac commanded Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman. And Jacob listened to his father and mother and went to Paddan-aram. read more. Esau realized that his father Isaac disapproved of the Canaanite women, so Esau went to Ishmael and married, in addition to his other wives, Mahalath daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son. She was the sister of Nebaioth.
Jacob's sons returned from the field when they heard [about the incident] and were deeply grieved and angry. For Shechem had committed an outrage against Israel by sleeping with Jacob's daughter, and such a thing should not be done.
But Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully because he had defiled their sister Dinah.
God also said to him: I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation, indeed an assembly of nations, will come from you, and kings will descend from you.
About three months later Judah was told, "Your daughter-in-law has been acting like a prostitute, and now she is pregnant." "Bring her out!" Judah said. "Let her be burned [to death]!"
As the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. For in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah boarded the ark. read more. They didn't know until the flood came and swept them all away. So this is the way the coming of the Son of Man will be:
It will be the same as it was in the days of Lot: people went on eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building. But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all. read more. It will be like that on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, a man on the housetop, whose belongings are in the house, must not come down to get them. Likewise the man who is in the field must not turn back. Remember Lot's wife!
"Brothers, I can confidently speak to you about the patriarch David: he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision. This being so, he fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; Isaac did the same with Jacob, and Jacob with the 12 patriarchs. "The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt, but God was with him
And not only that, but also when Rebekah became pregnant by Isaac our forefather (for though they had not been born yet or done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to election might stand, read more. not from works but from the One who calls) she was told: The older will serve the younger. As it is written: Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.
Tell me, you who want to be under the law, don't you hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and the other by a free woman. read more. But the one by the slave was born according to the flesh, while the one by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. These things are illustrations, for the women represent the two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai and bears children into slavery-this is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written: Rejoice, O barren woman who does not give birth. Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor, for the children of the desolate are many, more numerous than those of the woman who has a husband. Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as then the child born according to the flesh persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, so also now. But what does the Scripture say? Throw out the slave and her son, for the son of the slave will never inherit with the son of the free woman. Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.
For this Melchizedek- King of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham and blessed him as he returned from defeating the kings, and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything; first, his name means "king of righteousness," then also, "king of Salem," meaning "king of peace"; read more. without father, mother, or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God- remains a priest forever. Now consider how great this man was, to whom even Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the plunder!
Now consider how great this man was, to whom even Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the plunder! The sons of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment according to the law to collect a tenth from the people-that is, from their brothers-though they have [also] descended from Abraham. read more. But one without this lineage collected tithes from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises. Without a doubt, the inferior is blessed by the superior.
Watsons
PATRIARCHS. This name is given to the ancient fathers, chiefly those who lived before Moses, as Adam, Lamech, Noah, Shem, &c, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the sons of Jacob, and heads of the tribes. The Hebrews call them princes of the tribes, or heads of the fathers. The name patriarch is derived from the Greek patriarcha, "head of a family."