The ancestral narratives of Genesis have a decidedly political character. The narrative presentations of ancestors and their kin reflect the relationships of the later people of Israel with their neighboring peoples. In light of the findings of recent Pentateuch research, this volume addresses important aspects of the political meaning of these narratives. The collection of nineteen contributions from internationally renowned experts explores, for example, the political intention of various narrative units or literary layers. The political significance of the ancestresses is also discussed, and the political receptions of ancestral narratives in early Jewish literature and in Islam traced.