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 Abram and announced, "I am God Almighty. Live in constant awareness that I'm always with you, and be blameless.
Far be it from you to do such a thing to kill the righteous along with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike! The Judge of all the earth will do what is right, won't he?"
When Esau was 40 years old, he married Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite. This brought extreme grief to Isaac and Rebekah.
Rebekah also told herself, "Heth's daughters are making me tired of living. If Jacob marries one of Heth's daughters, and she turns out to be just like these other local women, what kind of life would there be left for me?"
Later, Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, instructing him, "Don't marry a wife from the local Canaanite women.
May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful so that your descendants become a whole group of people.
Esau noticed that after Isaac had blessed Jacob as he was sending him off to Paddan-aram to marry a wife from there, he had instructed Jacob, "Don't marry a Canaanite woman." After Jacob had obeyed his father and mother's instructions to set out for Paddan-aram, read more. Esau realized that Canaan women didn't please his father Isaac, so he went to Abraham's son Ishmael and married Ishmael's daughter Mahalath, who was the sister of Nebaioth.
Just then Jacob's sons arrived from the field. When they heard what had happened, they were distraught with grief and livid with anger toward Shechem, because he had committed a disgraceful deed in Israel by forcing Jacob's daughter to have sex, an act that never should have happened.
But Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceptively, because Shechem had dishonored their sister Dinah.
So God called his name Israel and also told him, "I am God Almighty. You are to be fruitful and multiply. You will become a nation in fact, an assembly of nations! Kings will come from you they'll emerge from your own loins!
Three months later, it was reported to Judah, "Your daughter-in-law Tamar has turned to prostitution! And look! She's pregnant because of it!" "Bring her out," Judah responded. "Let's burn her to death!"
because just as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be when the Son of Man comes. In those days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage right up to the day when Noah went into the ark. read more. They were unaware of what was happening until the flood came and swept all of them away. That's how it will be when the Son of Man comes.
So it was in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But on the day when Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed all of them. read more. The day when the Son of Man is revealed will be like that. "The person who is on the housetop that day must not come down to get his belongings out of his house. The person in the field, too, must not turn back to what's left behind. Remember Lot's wife!
"Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and that his tomb is among us to this day.
Later, God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. Later, he fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. Then Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob fathered the twelve patriarchs. "Joseph's brothers became jealous of him and sold Joseph as a slave in Egypt. However, God was with him
Not only that, but Rebecca became pregnant by our ancestor Isaac. Yet before their children had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God's plan of election might continue to operate read more. according to his calling and not by actions), Rebecca was told, "The older child will serve the younger one." So it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."
Tell me, those of you who want to live under the Law: Are you really listening to what the Law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and the other by a free woman. read more. Now the slave woman's son was conceived through human means, while the free woman's son was conceived through divine promise. This is being said as an allegory, for these women represent two covenants. The one woman, Hagar, is from Mount Sinai, and her children are born into slavery. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to present-day Jerusalem, because she is in slavery along with her children. But the heavenly Jerusalem is the free woman, and she is our spiritual mother. For it is written, "Rejoice, you childless woman, who cannot give birth to any children! Break into song and shout, you who feel no pains of childbirth! For the children of the deserted woman are more numerous than the children of the woman who has a husband." So you, brothers, are children of the promise, like Isaac. But just as then the son who was conceived according to the flesh persecuted the son who was conceived according to the Spirit, so it is now. But what does the Scripture say? "Drive out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman must never share the inheritance with the son of the free woman." So then, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman but of the free woman.
Now this man Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, met Abraham and blessed him when he was returning from defeating the kings. Abraham gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything. In the first place, his name means "king of righteousness," and then he is also king of Salem, that is, "king of peace." read more. He has no father, mother, or genealogy, no birth date recorded for him, nor a date of death. Like the Son of God, he continues to be a priest forever. Just look at how great this man was! Even Abraham the patriarch himself gave him a tenth of what he had captured!
Just look at how great this man was! Even Abraham the patriarch himself gave him a tenth of what he had captured! The descendants of Levi who accept the priesthood have a commandment in the Law to collect a tenth from the people, that is, from their own brothers, even though they are also descendants of Abraham. read more. But this man, whose descent is not traced from them, collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed the man who had received the promises. It is beyond dispute that the less important person is blessed by the more important person.
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."