Patriarch

Originally, a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is termed patriarchy.

The word is derived from Greek πατριάρχης (patriarchēs), meaning "chief or father of a family", a compound of πατριά (patria), meaning "family", and ἄρχειν (archein), meaning "to rule"

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are referred to as the three patriarchs of the people of Israel, and the period during which they lived is termed the Patriarchal Age. The word patriarch originally acquired its religious meaning in the Septuagint version of the Bible.

Today, the word has acquired specific ecclesiastical meanings. In particular, the highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), and the Church of the East are termed patriarchs (and in certain cases also popes). The office and the ecclesiastical circumscription of such a patriarch is termed a patriarchate. Historically, a patriarch has often been the logical choice to act as ethnarch of the community identified with his religious confession within a state or empire of a different creed (such as Christians within the Ottoman Empire).

Patriarchs (Bible)

The Patriarchs (Hebrew: אבות ‎ Avot or Abot, singular Hebrew: אב ‎ Ab or Aramaic: אבא Abba) of the Bible, when narrowly defined, are Abraham, his son Isaac, and Isaac's son Jacob, also named Israel, the ancestor of the Israelites. These three figures are referred to collectively as the patriarchs of Judaism, and the period in which they lived is known as the patriarchal age. They play significant roles in Hebrew scripture during and following their lifetimes. They are used as a significant marker by God in revelations and promises, and continue to play important roles in the Abrahamic faiths. More widely, the term Patriarchs can be used to refer to the twenty ancestor-figures between Adam and Abraham. The first ten of these are called the Antediluvian patriarchs, because they came before the Flood. Judaism and Islam hold that the patriarchs and their primary wives – Sarah (wife of Abraham), Rebekah (wife of Isaac) and Leah (one of the wives of Jacob) – (known as the Matriarchs), are entombed at Machpelah in Hebron, a site held holy by Jews, Muslims, and Christians. Only Rachel, Jacob's favorite wife, is said to be buried separately in the Tomb of Rachel, near Bethlehem, where she is believed to have died in childbirth. More broadly, the term can also refer to any of the major figures of the Book of Genesis, including the lineage of Adam, before the Great Flood, and the lineage of Noah to repopulate the earth after the Flood.

Patriarchs (solitaire)

Patriarchs is a solitaire card game which is played with two decks of playing cards. It is similar in reserve layout to Odd and Even but with different game play.

First, one king and one ace are removed from the deck and placed in two columns: one with all aces and the other with all kings. In between these two columns is a space for the reserve, which is composed of nine cards arranged in three rows of three cards each.

Ace and King columns are the foundations. The ace foundations are built up to Kings while the king foundations are built down to aces, all by suit. When the top cards of the ace and king foundations of the same suit are in sequence, a reversal can be done, i.e. cards can be moved one at a time from one foundation to the other, except the base aces and kings.

The nine reserve cards are available for play on the foundations (not on each other). When a card leaves the reserve, the space it leaves behind is filled with the top card of the waste pile (or the stock if there is no waste pile yet).