3 myths
Myths, legends, and mystical writings about Twelve Patriarchs from across Jewish tradition.
3 myths on JewishMythology.com retell how Jewish tradition imagines twelve patriarchs, drawn from the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, Talmud, Kabbalah, and later Jewish literature. Each story below synthesizes primary sources into a single narrative; follow any myth to read it, and from there into the source passages behind it.
Simeon confessed at one hundred and twenty years that he had wanted Joseph dead. He had hated him since the pit, and his deathbed speech names the shame.
The Torah says the brothers ate beside the pit where Joseph was crying. An ancient text names the one brother who could not swallow a bite.
Naphtali carried a vision for ninety years before he told it. He saw his dead grandfather call a footrace and two brothers seized the sky.
