Primeval Saints: Studies in the Patriarchs of Genesis

What if Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were heroes that we should imitate—even in their deceptions?

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Whenever the heroes from the Bible are trotted out in Sunday school, people are quick to point out their flaws and failings, going straight to the moral of the story rather than paying attention to what the text actually says. In this short but adventurous book, Jordan shows that the Biblical narratives are about so much more than Sunday School lessons and that in fact the patriarchs are not held up for us as examples of failure or sin, but are rather are great moral exemplars.

In contrast to Adam, Cain, and other characters in the early pages of Genesis, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Judah were great heroes of the faith and by paying careful attention to the details of their lives, we can discover much more from the Bible than our Sunday school lessons are comfortable with.

What People Are Saying:

"One of Jim Jordan's great strengths in handling the text is his eye for 'detail.' The reader of this book is invited to consider some passages of the Bible that are considered all too rarely and when we do consider them, certain key details are too frequently glossed over. Jim Jordan has done well in introducing us once again to our fathers in the faith, the primeval saints." -Douglas Wilson, New Saint Andrews College

"Jacob was a trickster. Abraham lied and questioned God. Joseph was a braggart. These patriarchs of the biblical book of Genesis were certainly flawed, but in Primeval Saints: Studies in the Patriarchs of Genesis, James Jordan argues that they are "saints" nonetheless particularly in comparison to the heroes of pagan literature." -Publishers Weekly

"A great short work on the patriarchs of Genesis that challenges many traditional interpretations." -Knowing Scripture.com

"This is my favorite by Jim. Tons of good pastoral and homiletic material here." -Steven Wedgeworth, The Calvinist International