Patriarchal age

The patriarchal age is the era of the three biblical patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, according to the narratives of Genesis 12–50 (these chapters also contain the history of Joseph, although Joseph is not one of the patriarchs). It is preceded in the Bible by the primeval history and followed by The Exodus.

By the early 21st century, a scholarly consensus emerged rejecting the historicity of the biblical patriarchs following a paradigm shift initiated by Thomas L. Thompson and John van Seters, whose works argued that the patriarchal narratives reflected Iron Age concerns rather than second-millennium BCE history.