PATRIARCH, PATRIARCHA, one of those first fathers who lived towards the beginning of the world, and became famous by their long lines of descendants. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and his twelve sons, are the patriarchs of the Old Testament; Seth, Enoch, and others, were antediluvian patriarchs. The authority of patriarchal government existed in the fathers of families, and their first-born after them, who exercised all kinds of ecclesiastical and civil jurisdiction in their respective households; and to this government, which lasted till the time when the Israelites sojourned in Egypt, some have ascribed an absolute and despotic power, extending even to the punishment of death. In proof of this is produced the curse pronounced by Noah upon Canaan; but it must be observed, that in this affair Noah seems to have acted rather as a prophet than a patriarch. Another instance of supposed despotic power is Abraham's turning Hagar and Ishmael out of his family; but this can hardly be thought to furnish evidence of any singular authority vested in the patriarchs, as such, and peculiar to those early ages. The third instance brought forward to the same purpose is that of Jacob's denouncing a curse upon Simeon and Levi,1 which is maintained by others to be an instance of prophetic inspiration rather than of patriarchal power. The fourth instance is that of Judah with regard to Tamar,2 in reference to which it has been remarked, that Jacob, the father of Judah, was still living; that Tamar was not one of his own family; that she had been guilty of adultery, the punishment of which was death by burning; and that Judah on this occasion might speak only as a prosecutor, not as a judge. Upon the whole, however, it is difficult to say which of these opinions is most agreeable to truth. Men who believe that the origin of civil government, and the obligation to obedience, arise from a supposed original contract, either real or implied, will be naturally led to weaken the authority of the patriarchs; and those, again, who consider government as a divine institution, will be as apt to exalt that authority to the highest pitch that either reason or Scripture will permit them. It cannot be denied, that authority existed in fathers, and descended to their first-born, in the primitive ages of the world; and it is neither unnatural nor improbable to imagine, that the idea of hereditary power and hereditary honours was first taken from this circumstance. But whether authority has descended through father and son in this way to our times, is a circumstance that cannot in one instance be asserted, and may be denied in a thousand. The real source of the dignity and of the authority
of modern times seems to have been skill in the art of war, Patriarch and success in the management of conquests.