Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac was once puzzling to me. Understanding it as a test closed the book for me once, although this assignment has made me draw nearer to its significance. Encyclopedia Judaica notes that Jacob once called the Lord God the Fear of Isaac in Genesis 31:42 (Sarna, et al 33). For the experience that Isaac and Abraham had upon Mount Moriah would be memorable to them and generations to come.

As for what is known from the Bible, Abraham, Isaac, and two servants travel to Mount Moriah after three days that God commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. It does not state that Sarah knew anything about this, and it does not indicate if she attempted to intercede for Isaac. Abraham’s servants say nothing, taking Abraham’s word in Genesis 22:5 like the usual, daily command they were to follow. They certainly believed that Abraham and Isaac were to come back like their master stated and stayed behind with the donkey. Michael Schrader notes that the servants might have observed what went on after they went on their regular duties (255). Isaac himself knows nothing; he sees no animal for the burnt offering and voices that observation to his father. Abraham, who has no idea that God would provide an animal offering, merely tells Isaac that God will do so, even if he was only told to sacrifice Isaac. Traditions from the Aggadah assume that Isaac may have been tempted by the devil to escape, that angels cried for him, and in his fear, was blinded by the Shekinah that affected him in his later years (“Isaac” 33). It is possible to read that Isaac might have been terribly afraid of what would happen to him. Maybe Abraham kept the command between himself and God because he may have felt disturbed by it, especially when it was his only son, which was echoed in both the beginning and ending of the story. There aren’t many details of the knowledge of anyone knowing this command except Abraham and God.

In this case, Chaya Greenberger points out that God wants Abraham to be righteous in obedience, or to be whole before him in his covenant in Genesis 17 (73). The wholeness consisted of circumcision, casting out Ishmael and Hagar, and finally the sacrifice of Isaac (Greenberger 76). These steps to wholeness involved pain in one way or another. Circumcision on any man, especially on old Abraham, for separation to God would not be fun. Abraham was hesitant with Sarah’s idea of kicking out Ishmael and Hagar when he valued Ishmael as his son, regardless of Sarah’s former fertility troubles. But to sacrifice his only son of promise from Sarah challenged his obedience to God more than any other situation. Schrader surmises that the Akedah episode is either critiquing Mesopotamian child sacrifice and or blind obedience (254). The text itself says that God was testing Abraham, and I think it deals much more with Abraham’s faithfulness since it took such a long time for a son to be begotten through him. Nevertheless, Abraham saw that “the command was beyond all pain” and still submitted to God (Greenberger 77). Within this process, Greenberger points out that even though Abraham is partnered with God to bless the world, he still must recognize God as judge: five times Elohim is used, then after Abraham’s submission YHWH was used within the text (77). Abraham was counted righteous from this.

The comparison of Isaac and Jesus surprised me, mostly the views of Jewish people of the Intertestamental period. First, both Isaac and Jesus carry wood upon a mountain. Moriah would eventually become Mount Zion; figuratively it is associated or described alongside Jerusalem, where Jesus died. Both carry wood on the way up the mountain because of the commandments of their fathers. They were bounded by rope. A knife would have killed Isaac. A spear made sure that Jesus was dead upon the cross. Isaac could have experienced the fire of burnt offerings but did not where as Jesus may have encountered Sheol face to face. Jesus is the only begotten Son of God; Isaac is the only son of the woman of promise, Sarah, stated by the word of the Lord. Within Intertestamental literature, Isaac is the perfect sacrifice, especially with Judith and the books of the Maccabees idealizing martyrdom against their oppressors (Martin-Achard and Pendergast 469). Ironically, Isaac did not die, so what made them think this way? The Book of Antiquities explains that the blood of Isaac somehow sealed God’s covenant with his people, and on top of that, Jubilees connects Isaac to the Passover Lamb (Herion 469). It can be easy to ascertain that early Jewish Christians would apply this to Jesus in a better way because of his divine origins and see Isaac as a shadow of Jesus.

Works Cited

Chilton, Bruce. "Isaac." The New Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible. 1st ed. Vol. 3. Nashville: Abingdon, 2008. 70-73. Print.

Greenberger, Chaya. "The Submission of Abraham." Jewish Bible Quarterly, vol. 45, no. 2, Apr-Jun 2017, pp. 73-78. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=124259437&site=eds-live.

Martin-Achard, Robert and Terrence Pendergast. "Isaac." The Anchor Bible Dictionary. 1st ed. Vol. 3. New York: Doubleday, 1992. 462-78. Print.

Sarna, Nahum M., S. David Sperling, and Aaron Rothkoff. "Isaac." Encyclopedia Judaica. 2nd ed. 2007. 70-73. Print.

Schrader, Malcolm E. “The Akedah Test: What Passes and What Fails.” Jewish Bible Quarterly. Vol. 32, no. 4, Oct. 2004, pp. 251-258. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rfh&AN=ATLA0001500718&site=eds-live.