Before I press on with the main theme, of this my second article, of this crucial Biblical history, we need to ascertain what a patriarch is. Patriarchs were very important people. How and why were they important? They were important because God made them important and it is fundamental that we understand that, they did not make themselves important. They did not set themselves up as patriarchs, the title 'Patriarch' is a gift or blessing from God, all part of His glorious Grace. OK, but why were they important? They were important because they were the original forefathers or progenitors of family dynasties, tribes or clans that grew to become, in this age today, the nations of the world we live in. The Patriarchs are our forefathers - period.

Shem, Ham and Japheth - Noah's sons were patriarchs and it's from Shem that we get Abraham's lineage. Now God called Abram and gave him a new name - Abraham and made him a patriarch, and God told him that nations would to come from his loins. Genesis 35:11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins. Not one nation, but many nations and kings too. As a Patriarch, Abraham would produce other patriarchs, Isaac and Jacob his son and grandson would also be made patriarchs, and they were.

Now after Jacob, who was renamed Israel, was that the end of the Patriarchal line? I ask this, because many believe that to be the case, but they are seriously wrong. By being so wrong they create a gaff of monumental proportions - a chasm of error that totally distorts Biblical history and its message. Even the Gospels and the identity of many of the intended recipients of that Good News message are misunderstood. All the evidence is there in both Old and New Testaments and I will now begin to reveal this awesome Truth.

Back to the patriarchs, and as I was saying, was Jacob/Israel the last of the Patriarchs? The answer to this question is a decisive and resounding no and as always we will go the Holy Scriptures for our evidence. It's a little strange really because the word 'patriarch' is nowhere found in the Old Testament, but rather in the New Testament and yet all the patriarchs that ever lived are in the Old Testament. There are only four verses of Scripture in the KJV that contain the word Patriarch(s) so I will copy them here:

Acts 2:29 "Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day."

Straight way we have evidence that even hundreds of years after Jacob, King David is referred to as a Patriarch, and he was a patriarch, but in a very different way. I will return to explain this difference in a future study.

Heb 7:4 "Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils."

This is all very straight forward, evidence that Abraham was a patriarch.

Acts 7:8-9 "And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs. 9 And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him.

Now here we have it in these last two verses - the twelve patriarchs, Jacob or Israel's twelve sons by his four wives. We must understand that these twelve sons were the patriarchs of twelve families that became twelve tribes, that became twelve independent nations, and these twelve nations are still with us today. The Jews are descendant from only one of these twelve patriarchs and being known as Jews they carry a derivation of their forefather's name - Judah. Judah is the patriarchal forefather of the Jews and no one else. Judah's eleven brothers were fellow patriarchs and were separate individual progenitors in their own God given right to father their own identities as tribes and then nations. Hence all Jews are Israelites but not all Israelites are Jews. In fact the Jews are a minority in Israel.

As stated, the issue we now have to come to terms with is this, of all the Israelites, the Jews are only a small part - one tribe. Moreover, up until 1947 they were not a nation at all due to God's punishment and were dispersed around the globe. The first dispersion took place in circa 585 BC when they were taken captive by the Babylonians and again in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem completely. So the Jews, although a tribe of Israel, have never been a proper geographical nation of Israel. Most of their existence has been spent as citizens, often persecuted citizens, of other nations. Is that important, most definitely, as we shall see?

We can now see that there were eleven other patriarchs who were not Jews and I will list their names, yes they were all brothers but not all full brothers. Jacob/Israel had four wives. Two of them were sisters - Laban's daughters Leah and Rachel and the other two were the hand maids of the sisters - Bilhah and Zilpah.

Leah the elder sister had six sons - Rueben, Simeon, Judah, Levi, Issachar and Zebulon.

Rachel, the wife Jacob loved more, had two sons - Joseph and Benjamin.

Zilpah, Leah's hand maid had two sons Gad and Asher.

Bilhah, Rachel's hand maid had two sons also - Dan and Naphtali.

Here listed above are the twelve patriarchs, one of which was Judah who was the patriarch of the Jews.

Now there was one final twist to this fascinating story of historical Israel and that twist lay in the story of Joseph's trials at the hand of his wicked jealous brothers which I will continue with in the next article. Please stay with it.

Charles Crosby