The type of character formed under such a dispen- sation is one imperfect in intellectual and spiritual growth, because not j^et tried by the subtler tempta- tions, or forced to contemplate the deeper questions of life; but it is one remarkably simple, affectionate, and free, such as would grow up under a natural au- thority, derived from God and centring in him, yet al- lowing, under its unquestioned sacredness, a familiar- ity and freedom of intercourse with him, which is strongly contrasted with the stern and awful char- acter of the Mosaic dispensation. To contemplate it from a Christian point of view is like looking back on the unconscious freedom and innocence of childhood, with that deeper insight and strength of character which are gained by the experience of manhood. We see in it tlie germs of the future, of the future revela- tion of God, and the future trials and development of man.
It is on this fact that the typical interpretation of its history depends — an interpretation sanctioned di- rectly by the example of Paul (Gal. iv, 21-431 ; Heb. vii, 1-17), indircctlj^ supported bj' other passages of Scripture (Matt, xxiv, 37-39; Luke xvii, 28-32; Rom. ix, 10-13, etc.), and instinctivel}- adopted by all who have studied the history itself. By this is not meant, of course, that in themselves the patriarchs were different from other men, but that the record of their lives is so written as to exhibit this typical char- acter in them. "The materials of the historj' of Genesis are so selected, methodized, and marshalled as to be like rays converging steadily from various points to one central focus. The incidents in the lives of the patriarchs, which seem ti'ivial when read literally, and which would never have been recorded unless they had possessed a prospective value, and unless he who guided the writer had perceived them to have that prospective value, all fall into their prop- er place when they are read by the light which is shed
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on them lij' the Gospel of Christ. . . . They are so selected as to be full of instruction" (Wordsworth, Iittrod. to Gen. etc. p. xxxiv). To this may be added, from the same authority, the beautiful illustration of Augustine (comp. I'aust. Munich, xxii, 94: "As it is in a harp, where only the strings which are struck emit the sound, and 3-et all things in the instrument are so litted together as to minister to the strings which send forth the music, so in tliese prophetic nar- ratives of the Pentateuch, the incidents which are selected by the prophetic spirit either send forth an articulate sound themselves, and pre-announce some- thing tiiat is future, or else they are there inserted in order that thej^ may bind together the strings which produce the sounds."
Even in the brief outline of the antediluvian period we ma}' recognise the main features of the history of the world, the division of mankind into the two great classes, the struggle between the power of evil and good, the apparent triumph of the evil, and its de- struction in the final judgment. In the postdiluvian history of the chosen family is seen the distinction of the true believers, possessors of a special covenant, special revelation, and special privileges, from the world without. In it is therefore shadowed out the history of the Jewish nation and Christian Church, as regards the freedom of their covenant, the gradual un- folding of their revelation, and the peculiar blessings and temptations which belong to their distinctive posi- tion. It is thus but natural that the unfolding of the characters of the patriarchs under this dispensation should have a typical interest. Abraham, as the type of a faith, both brave and patient, gradually and con- tinuously growing under the education of various trials, stands contrasted with the lower character of Jacob, in whom the same faith is seen, tainted with deceit and selfishness, and needing therefore to be purged by disappointment and suffering. Isaac, in the passive gentleness and submissiveness which char- acterize his whole life, and is seen especially in his willingness to be sacrificed ity the hand of his father, and Joseph, in the more active spirit of love, in which he rejoiced to save his family and to forgive those who had persecuted and sold him, set forth the perfect spirit of sonship, and are seen to lie t3'pes especially of him in whom alone that spirit dwelt in all fulness.
This tj'pical character in the hands of the mj'thical school is, of course, made an argument against the historical reality of the whole ; those who recognise a unity of principle in God's dispensations at all times will be prepared to find, even in their earliest and simplest form, the same features which are more fully developed in their later periods. See Type.
See Maier, De vii-acitate putriurcharum (Kiel, 1669) ; Frondin, De putriarchis Heh-morum (Greifsw. 1700); Michaelis, De aniiquitaiibus mconomim patriarchalis (Halle, 1728-9); Hess, Gesch. tier Pafnaixhen (Ziirich, 1785) ; Sommerfeld, Leben der Patriarchen (Elbing. 1841); Walch, Hist, pdtriarcharum Jud. (Jena, 1752); Heidegger, Hist. Patriarcharum (Amst. 1667) ; Gum- ming, Lives and Lessons of the Patriarchs (Lond. 1865) ; Maurice, Patriarchs and I^awgivers of the 0. T. (ibid. 1855); and the literature referred to in Darling, Cyclop. BibUvg. col. 1841.
Patriarchal Cross, a cross which, like the patri- arclial crosier, lias its upright part crossed ly two liorizontal bars, the upper shorter than the lower. A patriarclial or fimbri- atcil cross was a badge of the Kniglits Temiilars.