Q&A: The Patriarchs
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
The Patriarchs
Question
Regarding the stories of the patriarchs, don’t they seem exaggerated? I mean, Sarah is abducted twice, they live for hundreds of years, Sarah gives birth at age ninety, and the patriarchs go around cities that later became sanctified among their descendants—Hebron, Shechem, Beth El (“the deeds of the sons are a sign for the fathers”). Don’t these stories seem typological?
Answer
I don’t know. There may be parts that can be interpreted as myth rather than as historical description. As for the cities that became sanctified among the descendants, it could be the other way around: the descendants sanctified them because the patriarchs had gone around in them.