The Zen School of China and Japan claims a line of twenty-eight Patriarchs beginning with the Buddha himself and passing through many famous names, such as Asvaghosha, Nāgārjuna and Vasubandhu to Bodhidharma of India, who was the...

Ethnarch of the Jews, as an ethnic group; principal authority, prince. Title accorded to Judah, Patriarch of the Jews of the Land of Israel in the late second century, who sponsored the Mishnah and made it the normative law. Recognized as the governor...

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 called patriarchy. This is a Greek word, a composition of πατήρ (pater) meaning...