The Patriarchs Research Paper

Essay 70: Judaism - The Patriarchs The story of the Three Patriarchs of Judaism (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) is found in the Biblical Book of Genesis, known in Hebrew as Sefer Bereshit. Although archaeologists have yet to find evidence of these three men outside of the Bible, one should remember that few records from this ancient period of Middle Eastern history survive aside from the pharaohs' tombs in Egypt and the Code of Hammurabi in Mesopotamia. At any rate, the only way to understand the importance of the Patriarchs to the development of Judaism is to examine the life of each one. Abraham is considered the first Jew and, by extension, the founder of monotheism itself. Centuries after he lived, Jewish scholars wrote down stories endeavoring to explain how Abraham, the son of a Babylonian idol carver named Terach, discovered God on his own when he was a small child.

He then deduced that a higher power (God) must be in charge behind the scenes. After this epiphany, Abraham smashed his father's idols except for the largest. He placed the club in the hands of the largest idol then told his father that this idol had grown angry and proceeded to smash all of the smaller idols to bits. When his father protested that idols were inanimate objects, Abraham replied by asking why his father carved and worshiped them. Some versions of the story claim that Terach immediately abandoned idolatry; others leave the outcome of the story to the reader's