Prime Matters

After the Israelites fled Egypt, Pharaoh reconsidered his decision to release them. On the edge of the Red Sea, the Israelites looked back to see the Egyptian army coming down upon them, setting the scene for one of Moses’s great miracles: the parting of the Red Sea. Moses would lead the Chosen People to Mount Sinai, where he would speak to God as if face to face, and where God would give him the Ten Commandments to be kept within the Ark of the Covenant, sealing his covenant anew with the Israelite people.

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.

An Israelite of the tribe of Levi, raised as a member of the Egyptian royal family but exiled for murder, Moses unexpectedly encounters God in the desert. The Lord speaks to him from the burning bush in Exodus, revealing his name to be "I Am." Sent to Pharaoh to demand the Israelites’ freedom, Moses would initiate a great drama: the plagues that would befall Egypt, the institution of the Passover (or "Seder") meal, and the flightof the Israelites from their enslavement and into the wilderness.

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.

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.

Christians have long deemed Abraham the “Father of Faith,” and here we consider why. It was through Abraham that God promised to bring about a great nation, offspring who would impact the whole world through the ages to come. Abraham’s became a story of learning to trust in that promise and in the Lord who had given it, most notably through the near-sacrifice of Isaac, the firstborn son of his wife, Sarah. It is through Abraham’s narrative that we meet Melchizedek, a priest of God whose identity would become central to the Judeo-Christian story.

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.

Our narrative begins now to center on a most unique people: the ancient Jews. The Israelites, God’s Chosen People, the Children of Abraham, would serve as those through whom God would begin to work out the redemption of the human race. So who were the Jewish people? Why did God choose them? How did they respond? In what ways do they serve as types for all of us? Here we suggest how Israel’s story becomes our own.

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.

Human nature continues to grapple with the consequences of original sin, from the time of the Fall to the first murder of Abel by Cain and even on into our present age – in our seemingly insatiable yet unfulfilled longing for happiness, in our anguish in suffering, in our loneliness and heartbreak. God, too, regretted the evil that had entered creation. In Genesis 6 we read the story of Noah, the Ark, and the Great Flood, describing the disharmony of early humanity. Following the Flood, God made his covenant with Noah, promising to break the wayward human race out of their rebellion and slavery and to abide with them in a renewed life.

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.

Adam and Eve would not withstand the test of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In Genesis 3, we read that Eve took of its fruit and ate, giving some to Adam who ate of it, as well. Thus original sin entered the world, bringing sin and darkness, pain and suffering, and toil and shame. Their minds and wills would now be drawn to such disorder as the seven deadly sins, moved by the mark of pride. Most momentously, Adam and Eve’s disobedience would result in their inevitable experience of death. The story of humanity would thus be inseparable from this first act of rebellion, this first fall from grace.

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.

One of the highest honors given to the human race was the freedom to choose: Adam and Eve could choose to serve and obey God and receive their happiness in return, or they could follow Lucifer’s lead, refusing humility before their Creator. The Devil, hoping for their fall, was not content to sit back and allow events to play out as they would. At the center of the Garden of Eden stood the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the fruit of which God had forbidden Adam and Eve to eat. This tree would become the stage for the Devil’s trap as he set out to convince Adam and Eve that they had been tricked, that eating of the tree would make them like God. The Serpent, the Father of Lies, had laid the first trap for humanity.

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.

At the heart of God's creation stands the Garden of Eden, and within the Garden God brought about a new kind of being: the human person. With dignity beyond imagining, this new creation was made in the image and likeness of God himself, having intellect and will, joining the immortal and spiritual to the material. The first humans were named Adam and Eve, and they were called by God “very good,” ordered to “be fruitful and multiply” and populate the Earth. The angels sang in gladness at their creation, while the Devil and his fallen demons looked on with growing envy.

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.

The creation account proceeds to a small bit of rock called Earth, which would outshine all the cosmos in the great drama of the Genesis story. Its conditions were arranged just so, allowing the planet to sustain life: plants and animals, fish and birds and reptiles, living things of marvelous variety.

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.