c. 2000–1700 BCE
The Patriarchal Age
The Genesis narratives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, set among Middle Bronze Age migration between Mesopotamia, Canaan and Egypt.
Old Babylonian Mesopotamia
Middle Kingdom Egypt
Canaanite city-states
What we can and cannot say
- 1
Setting
Semi-nomadic households moving between Ur, Harran, Canaan and Egypt.
Reconstructed / approximate - 2
Dating
No patriarch is named in any external source; dates are inferred from narrative details.
Genuinely debated - 3
Cultural fit
Customs such as household gods, surrogate motherhood and treaty oaths match second-millennium legal texts.
Reconstructed / approximate
Read it in Scripture
History on film
All videoSee the whole span on the timeline.