Christine Hayes continues Yale's Introduction to the Old Testament with a lecture on the patriarchal narratives of Genesis 12-36. She opens with scholarly debate over the historical accuracy of the Bible, arguing that the text's truths can be separated from questions of historicity. The lecture then walks through the covenant between God and Abraham, the promise of a fruitful nation, and threats to that promise, including the binding of Isaac for sacrifice. It closes with Jacob the trickster and his transformation into Yisrael, 'he who struggles with God.' Chapter markers divide the hour into scholarly framing, covenant theology, and close readings of the Isaac and Jacob stories. Recorded in Fall 2006 as part of Yale's Religious Studies 145, the talk is a close textual and historical reading rather than a devotional one, aimed at students working through the Hebrew Bible as literature and history.