Patriarchowie Izraela – postacie historyczne, legendarne czy eponimy?

The article is an attempt to summarize the problems which come intoview when the patriarchs of Israel are studied. More particularly, the attentionis focused on the question of whether they are eponyms, legendaryfigures or historical persons. The narrative of Gen 12–50 was composedin the Persian period, so the distance from the possible time when Abraham,Isaac and Joseph/Israel lived is very long. This problem is connectedwith the role of archaeology and extra-biblical evidence. Regarding thepatriarchs the question is posed whether they in fact “existed”, that is, ifthey are historical persons or literary imaginations invented by authors ofthe second part of Genesis.