Coordinates | 34°03′″N118°15′″N |
---|---|
Name | Isaac |
Venerated in | JudaismChristianityIslam |
Birth place | Canaan |
Death place | Canaan |
Titles | Prophet, Seer, Second Hebrew Patriarch, Father of Israel, Holy Forefather |
Major shrine | Cave of the Patriarchs, Hebron |
Influences | His father Abraham |
Influenced | Jacob, the Twelve Tribes of Israel as well as many Jews, Christians and Muslims |
Prayer attrib | }} |
Isaac (; , ISO 259-3 Yiçḥaq, "he will laugh"; , ; , ; ; or ) as described in the Hebrew Bible, was the only son Abraham had with his wife Sarah, and was the father of Jacob and Esau. Isaac was one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites. According to the Book of Genesis, Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born, and Sarah was beyond childbearing years.
Isaac was the only Biblical patriarch whose name was not changed, and the only one who did not leave Canaan. Compared to those of Abraham and Jacob, Isaac's story relates fewer incidents of his life. He died when he was 180 years old, making him the longest-lived patriarch.
Isaac is mentioned by name 80 times in Genesis.
On the eighth day from his birth, Isaac was circumcised, as was necessary for all males of Abraham's household, in order to be in compliance with Yahweh's covenant.
After Isaac had been weaned, Sarah saw Ishmael mocking, and urged her husband to banish Hagar and Ishmael so that Isaac would be Abraham's only heir. Abraham was hesitant, but at God's order he listened to his wife's request.
In the early Christian church, Abraham's willingness to follow God's command to sacrifice Isaac was used as an example of faith and of obedience. The Epistle to the Hebrews chapter 11, verse 19 views the release of Isaac from sacrifice as analogous to the resurrection of Jesus, the idea of the sacrifice of Isaac being a prefigure of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
Islam considers Isaac as a prophet of Islam, and describes him as the father of the Israelites and a righteous servant of God.
Some academic scholars have described Isaac as "a legendary figure", while others view him as "a figure representing tribal history, though as a historical individual" or as "a seminomadic leader".
According to the Jewish tradition Isaac instituted the afternoon prayer. This tradition is based on Genesis chapter 24, verse 63 ("Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide").
Isaac was the only patriarch who stayed in Canaan during his whole life and though once he tried to leave, God told him not to do so. Rabbinic tradition gave the explanation that Isaac was almost sacrificed and anything dedicated as a sacrifice may not leave the Land of Israel. Isaac was the oldest of the Biblical patriarchs at the time of his death, and the only patriarch whose name was not changed.
Rabbinic literature also linked Isaac's blindness in old age, as stated in the Bible, to the sacrificial binding: Isaac's eyes went blind because the tears of angels present at the time of his sacrifice fell on Isaac's eyes. The Qur'an states that Abraham received "good tidings of Isaac, a prophet, of the righteous", and that God blessed them both (XXXVII: 12). In a fuller description, when angels came to Abraham to tell him of the future punishment to be imposed on Sodom and Gomorrah, his wife, Sarah, "laughed, and We gave her good tidings of Isaac, and after Isaac of (a grandson) Jacob" (XI: 71-74); and it is further explained that this event will take place despite Abraham and Sarah's old age. Several verses speak of Isaac as a "gift" to Abraham (VI: 84; XIX: 49-50), and XXIX: 26-27 adds that God made "prophethood and the Book to be among his offspring", which has been interpreted to refer to Abraham's two prophetic sons, his prophetic grandson Jacob, and his prophetic great-grandson Joseph. In the Qur'an, it later narrates that Abraham also praised God for giving him Ishmael and Isaac in his old age (XIV: 39-41).
Elsewhere in the Qur'an, Isaac is mentioned in lists: Joseph follows the religion of his forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (XII: 38) and speaks of God's favor to them (XII: 6); Jacob's sons all testify their faith and promise to worship the God that their forefathers, "Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac", worshiped (II: 127); and the Qur'an commands Muslims to believe in the revelations that were given to "Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the Patriarchs" (II: 136; III: 84). In the Qur'an's narrative of Abraham's near-sacrifice of his son (XXXVII: 102), the name of the son is not mentioned and debate has continued over the son's identity, though many feel that the identity is the least important element in a story which is given to show the courage that one develops through faith.
The stories of Isaac, like other patriarchal stories of Genesis, are generally believed in liberal Western scholarship to have "their origin in folk memories and oral traditions of the early Hebrew pastoralist experience." Conservative Western scholarship believes the stories of Isaac, and other patriarchal stories in Genesis, to be factual. The Cambridge Companion to the Bible makes the following comment on the Biblical stories of the patriarchs:
According to Martin Noth, a scholar of the Hebrew Bible, the narratives of Isaac date back to an older cultural stage than that of the West-Jordanian Jacob. At that era, the Israelite tribes were not yet sedentary. In the course of looking for grazing areas, they had come in contact in southern Palestine with the inhabitants of the settled countryside. The Biblical historian, A. Jopsen, believes in the connection between the Isaac traditions and the north and in support of this theory adduces Amos 7:9 ("the high places of Isaac").
Albrecht Alt and Martin Noth hold that, "The figure of Isaac was enhanced when the theme of promise, previously bound to the cults of the 'God the Fathers' was incorporated into the Israelite creed during the southern-Palestinian stage of the growth of the Pentateuch tradition." According to Martin Noth, at the Southern Palestinian stage of the growth of the Pentateuch tradition, Isaac became established as one of the Biblical patriarchs, but his traditions were receded in the favor of Abraham.
Category:Biblical patriarchs Category:Book of Genesis Category:Burials in Hebron Category:Descendants of Eber Category:Edom Category:Old Testament saints Category:People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar Category:Prophets of Islam Category:Torah people
ace:Ishaq ar:إسحاق az:İshaq be:Ісак, патрыярх bo:ཨི་སཱག bs:Isak (prorok) bg:Исаак ca:Isaac cs:Izák cy:Isaac de:Isaak (Genesis) et:Iisak el:Ισαάκ es:Isaac eo:Isaak eu:Isaak ee:Isak fa:اسحاق fr:Isaac gl:Isaac ko:이사악 hr:Izak id:Ishak it:Isacco he:יצחק ka:ისააკი sw:Isaka lbe:ИсхӀакъ идавс la:Isaac lt:Izaokas hu:Izsák (Biblia) ml:ഇസ്ഹാഖ് നബി nl:Izaäk (aartsvader) ja:イサク no:Isak nn:Patriarken Isak ps:اسحاق pl:Izaak pt:Isaac ro:Isac (personaj biblic) rm:Isaac ru:Исаак simple:Isaac so:Nabi Isxaaq C.S. sr:Исак fi:Iisak sv:Isak (Bibeln) tl:Isaac ta:ஈசாக்கு th:อิสอัค tr:İshak uk:Ісаак (син Авраама) vi:Isaac (Kinh Thánh) yi:יצחק אבינו zh:以撒This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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