After cleverly seizing their father’s inheritance from his brother Esau, Jacob would carry on God’s blessings to His Chosen People. It was Jacob who would be given the name “Israel,” and it was Jacob, too, who would become the father of twelve sons and the patriarch of their descendants, the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Jacob showed clear favoritism toward one of his sons, Joseph, to the ire of his other sons, setting off a story of betrayal and exile. Through God's providence, Joseph would become one of the most powerful men in Egypt, allowing him to save his family from famine, settling them in Egypt, where they would eventually be enslaved.

While the word "myth" has come to mean "untrue account," we mean something quite different. Throughout the long ages of human life and culture, myth has been a way of expressing deep truths. And so, here, "mythic narrative" means "meaningful account." Indeed, it is an account that might be entirely true... or mostly false... or somewhere in between. We know where we stand, but that's for each listener to discover.

www.primematters.com

A text version of this project is under production by ActsXXIX. See www.primematters.com/text.