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The Sacrifice of Isaac by Caravaggio, in the Baroque tenebrist manner

The Binding of Isaac (in Hebrew the עֲקֵידַת יִצְחַק, Akedát Yitzḥák, also known simply as "The Binding" הָ)עֲקֵידָה), the Akedah or Aqedah,^[1][2] or in Arabic as the Dhabih (ذبيح) or "Slaughter"), is a story from the Hebrew Bible in which God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah. The account states that Abraham "bound Isaac his son"^[3] before placing him on the altar, thus the popular name for the incident.

Biblical narrative[link]

According to the biblical story, God commands Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. (Genesis 22:5 and 22:8). After Isaac is bound to an altar, the angel of God stops Abraham at the last minute, saying "now I know you fear God." At this point Abraham sees a ram caught in some nearby bushes and sacrifices the ram instead of Isaac.

An angel prevents the sacrifice of Isaac. Abraham and Isaac, Rembrandt, 1634

The Book of Genesis does not tell the age of Isaac at the time; however, verse 6 of Chapter 22 indicates that Isaac was at least grown enough to walk alongside Abraham up the mountain carrying the load of wood that his father had gathered (22:6). While it is often imagined that Isaac was a small child, some sources claim he was an adult (noting that Jews are considered adults at age 13). The Talmudic sages teach that Isaac was thirty-seven, likely based on the next biblical story, which is of Sarah's death at 127 (she was ninety when Isaac was born). Bishop Ussher's chronology would place Isaac at about 20 years of age.

Genesis 22:14 states that it occurred at "the mount of the LORD": in 2 Chronicles 3:1; Psalm 24:3; Isaiah 2:3 & 30:29; and Zechariah 8:3, the Bible seems to identify the location of this event as the hill on which Solomon was said to later build the Temple, now known as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.^{[citation needed]}

Jewish views[link]

The majority of Jewish Biblical commentators argue that God was testing Abraham to see if he would actually kill his own son, as a test of his loyalty. However, a number of Jewish Biblical commentators from the medieval era, and many in the modern era, read the text in another way.

The early rabbinic midrash Genesis Rabbah imagines God as saying "I never considered telling Abraham to slaughter Isaac (using the Hebrew root letters for "slaughter", not "sacrifice")". Rabbi Yona Ibn Janach (Spain, 11th century) wrote that God demanded only a symbolic sacrifice. Rabbi Yosef Ibn Caspi (Spain, early 14th century) wrote that Abraham's "imagination" led him astray, making him believe that he had been commanded to sacrifice his son. Ibn Caspi writes "How could God command such a revolting thing?" But according to Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz (Chief Rabbi of the British Empire), child sacrifice was actually "rife among the Semitic peoples," and suggests that "in that age, it was astounding that Abraham's God should have interposed to prevent the sacrifice, not that He should have asked for it." Hertz interprets the Akedah as demonstrating to the Jews that human sacrifice is abhorrent. "Unlike the cruel heathen deities, it was the spiritual surrender alone that God required." In Jeremiah 32:35, God states that the later Israelite practice of child sacrifice to the deity Molech "had [never] entered My mind that they should do this abomination."

The Sacrifice of Isaac, a painting on the floor of Beit Alfa Synagogue

Other rabbinic scholars also note that Abraham was willing to do everything to spare his son, even if it meant going against the divine command: while it was God who ordered Abraham to sacrifice his son, it was an angel, a lesser being in the celestial hierarchy, that commanded him to stop. However, the actions and words of angels (from the Greek for "messenger") are generally understood to derive directly from God's will.

In some later Jewish writings, most notably those of the Hasidic masters, the theology of a "divine test" is rejected, and the sacrifice of Isaac is interpreted as a "punishment" for Abraham's earlier "mistreatment" of Ishmael, his elder son, whom he expelled from his household at the request of his wife, Sarah. According to this view, Abraham failed to show compassion for his son, so God punished him by ostensibly failing to show compassion for Abraham's son. This is a somewhat flawed theory, since the Bible says that God agreed with Sarah, and it was only at His insistence that Abraham actually had Ishmael leave. In The Last Trial, Shalom Spiegel argues that these commentators were interpreting the Biblical narration as an implicit rebuke against Christianity's claim that God would sacrifice His own son.

The Tzemach Tzedek^[4] cites a question asked by Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk: At first glance, this appears to have been mainly a test of Isaac, for he was the one to be giving up his life al kiddush Hashem (in order to sanctify God’s Name). However the Torah states (Gen. 22:1) that God meant to test Abraham, not Isaac? Rabbi Menachem Mendel answers that although it is a very great Mitzvah to give up one’s life, it is unremarkable in the annals of Jewish history. Even the most unlettered and “ordinary” Jews would surrender their lives in martyrdom. Thus, as great a Mitzvah as it is, this test is considered trivial for someone of the spiritual stature of Isaac, who, as one of our forefathers, was likened to God’s “chariot” (Gen. Rabba 47:6) for he served as a vehicle for the divine traits of kindness, strictness, and compassion.

Rather, at the binding the main one tested was Abraham. It was a test of faith to see whether he would doubt God's words. Abraham had been assured by God that “Your seed will be called through Isaac” (Gen. 21:12), i.e., Isaac (and not Ishmael) would father a great nation—the Jewish people. However, Abraham could apparently have asked a very glaring question: at the time that God commanded him to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice, Isaac was still single, and if Isaac would die now, how could he possibly father the nation which was to be born from Abraham? Moreover, isn’t God eternal and unchanging, as God declares: “I have not changed” (Malachi 3:6), implying that He does not change His mind?

Yet Abraham paid no attention to this altogether logical question. Instead, he dismissed it totally from his consciousness and believed with pure and simple faith that if this is what God was telling him to do now, this was surely the right thing to do. It was passing this test that was remarkable even for someone of Abraham's stature.

In The Binding of Isaac, Religious Murders & Kabbalah, Lippman Bodoff argues that Abraham never intended to actually sacrifice his son, and that he had faith that God had no intention that he do so. Others suggest^[who?] that Abraham's apparent complicity with the sacrifice was actually his way of testing God. Abraham had previously argued with God to save lives in Sodom and Gomorrah. By silently complying with God's instructions to kill Isaac, Abraham was putting pressure on God to act in a moral way to preserve life. More evidence that Abraham thought that he won't actually sacrifice Isaac comes from Genesis 22:5, where Abraham said to his servants, "You stay here with the ass. The boy and I will go up there; we will worship and we will return to you." By saying that we (as opposed to I), he meant that both he and Isaac will return. Thus, he didn't believe that Isaac would be sacrificed in the end^[5]

In The Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonides argues that the story of the Binding of Isaac contains two "great notions." First, Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac demonstrates the limit of humanity's capability to both love and fear God. Second, because Abraham acted on a prophetic vision of what God had asked him to do, the story exemplifies how prophetic revelation has the same truth value as philosophical argument and thus carries equal certainty, notwithstanding the fact that it comes in a dream or vision.^[6]

In Glory and Agony: Isaac's Sacrifice and National Narrative, Yael S. Feldman argues that the story of Isaac's Binding, in both its biblical and post-biblical versions (the New Testament included) has had a great impact on the ethos of altruist heroism and self-sacrifice in modern Hebrew national culture. As her study demonstrates, over the last century the "Binding of Isaac" has morphed into the "Sacrifice of Isaac," connoting both the glory and agony of heroic death on the battlefield.^[7]

Christian views[link]

Sacrifice of Isaac, by Adi Holzer 1997.

The Binding of Isaac is mentioned in the New Testament Epistle to the Hebrews among many acts of faith recorded in the Old Testament: By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called," concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. (Hebrews 11:17–19, NKJV)

Abraham's faith in God is such that he felt God would be able to resurrect the slain Isaac, in order that his prophecy (Genesis 21:12) might be fulfilled. Early Christian preaching sometimes accepted Jewish interpretations of the binding of Isaac without elaborating. For example Hippolytus of Rome says in his Commentary on the Song of Songs, "The blessed Isaac became desirous of the anointing and he wished to sacrifice himself for the sake of the world" (On the Song 2:15).^[8] Other Christians from the period saw Isaac as a type of the "Word of God" who prefigured Christ. (Origen, Homilies on Genesis 11–13) The majority of Christian Biblical commentators view this episode as prefiguring God's plan to have his own Son, Jesus, die on the cross as a substitute for humanity, much like the ram God provided for Abraham. Abraham's willingness to give up his own son Isaac is seen, in this view, as foreshadowing the willingness of God the Father to sacrifice his Son; also contrasted is Isaac's submission in the whole ordeal with Christ's, the two choosing to lay down their own lives in order for the will of God to be accomplished, as no struggle is mentioned in the Genesis account. Indeed, both stories portray the participants carrying the wood for their own sacrifice up a mountain.

Genesis 22:2 states that it occurred "in the region of Moriah". There has been speculation within Christianity whether the Binding occurred upon the Temple Mount or upon Calvary, the hill upon which Christ was crucified, or somewhere else. An alternate interpretation proposes that Calvary was on a section of Mount Moriah, the temple mount, which has subsequently been divided from the main part for the purpose of defending Jerusalem. As such the crucifixion would occur on the same mountain.

Muslim views[link]

The Qur'an states that Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his son. The son is not however named in the Qur'an (e.g., 37:99–113). In early Islam, there was a dispute over the identity of the son. However, Muslim scholars came to endorse the belief that it was Ishmael, not Isaac.^[9] The argument of those early scholars who believed it was Isaac rather than Ishmael (notably Ibn Ḳutayba, and al-Ṭabarī) was that "God's perfecting his mercy on Abraham and Isaac" (12:6) referred to his making Abraham his friend and saving him from the burning bush, and to his rescuing Isaac. The other parties held that the promise to Sarah was of a son, Isaac, and a grandson, Jacob (11:71–74), excluded the possibility of a premature death of Isaac.^[9] The early dispute was more concerned with Persian rather than Jewish rivalry with Arabs, since the Persians claimed to be of descendants of Isaac. Al-Masudi, for example, reports a Persian poet (902 C.E.) who claimed superiority over Arabs through descent from Isaac.^[9]

The Islamic version differs further from the Bible, because in Islamic sources, Abraham tells his son about the vision, and his son agrees to be sacrificed.

Muslims consider that visions experienced by prophets are revelations from God, and as such it was a divine order to Abraham. The entire episode of the sacrifice is regarded as a trial of God for Abraham and his son, and both are seen as having passed the test by submitting to God and showing their awareness that God is the Owner and Giver of all that we have and cherish, including life and offspring. The submission of Abraham and his son is celebrated and commemorated by Muslims on the days of Eid al-Adha Sacrifice festival. During the festival, those who can afford and the ones in the pilgrimage sacrifice a ram, cow, sheep or a camel. Part of the sacrifice meat is eaten by the household and remaining is distributed to the neighbors and the needy. The festival happens in the pilgrimage hajj season. The well-known site of Marwah (Arabic مروة) may be identified with the biblical Moriah (Hebrew מוריה) in Gn 22:2. Marwah being the mount just outside the perimeter of the Kaaba. However, it should be noted that the Hebrew Bible identifies the Temple Mount in Jerusalem as Mount Moriah, as early as the First Temple period in the book of Second Chronicles chapter 3 s:Bible (American Standard)/2 Chronicles#3.

Modern research regarding origins[link]

Modern-critical scholars operating under the framework of the documentary hypothesis commonly ascribe the Binding's narrative to the biblical source E, on the grounds that it generally uses God (אלוהים) for the deity, and also parallels characteristic E compositions. On that view, the second angelic appearance to Abraham (v. 14–18), praising his obedience and blessing his offspring, is in fact a later interpolation to E’s original account (v.1-13, 19). This is supported by the style and composition of these verses, as well as by the use of YHWH (יהוה) for the deity.^[10] More recent studies question this analysis. It is argued that Abraham’s obedience to God’s command in fact necessitates praise and blessing, which he only receives in the second angelic speech.^[11] That speech, therefore, could not have been simply interpolated into E’s original account. This has suggested to many that the author responsible for the interpolation of the second angelic appearance has left his mark also on the original account (v. 1-13-19).^[10] More recently it has been suggested that these traces are in fact the first angelic appearance (v. 11–12), in which the Angel of YHWH stops Abraham before he kills Isaac.^[12] The style and composition of these verses resemble that of the second angelic speech, and YHWH is used for the deity rather than God. On that reading, in the original E version of the Binding Abraham disobeys God’s command, sacrificing the ram “instead of his son” (v.13) on his own responsibility and without being stopped by an angel: "And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son; but Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and beheld, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns; and Abraham went, and took the ram, and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son" (v. 10,13). By interpolating the first appearance of the angel, a later redactor shifted responsibility for halting the test from Abraham to the angel (v. 11–12); due to that shift of responsibility, the second angelic appearance, in which Abraham is rewarded for his obedience (v. 14–18), became necessary. This analysis of the story sheds light on the connection between the Binding and the story of Sodom (Genesis 18), in which Abraham protests against God's unethical plan to destroy the city, without distinguishing between the righteous and the wicked: "Far be it from you to do such a thing.. Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just?" Abraham's ethical rebellion against God in Sodom culminates in his disobedience to God, refusing to sacrifice Isaac.^[13]

Francesca Stavrakopoulou has speculated that it is possible that the story "contains traces of a tradition in which Abraham does sacrifice Isaac.^[14] Richard Elliott Friedman has argued that in the original E story Abraham may have carried out the sacrifice of Isaac, but that later repugnance at the idea of a human sacrifice led the redactor of JE to add the lines in which a ram is substituted for Isaac.^[15]

The Binding also figures prominently in the writings of several of the more important modern theologians, such as Søren Kierkegaard in Fear and Trembling and Shalom Spiegel in The Last Trial. Jewish communities regularly review this literature, for instance the recent mock trial held by more than 600 members of the University Synagogue of Orange County, California.^[16] Jacques Derrida also looks at the story of the sacrifice as well as Kierkegaard's reading in The Gift of Death.

In Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, the literary critic Erich Auerbach considers the Hebrew narrative of the Binding of Isaac, along with Homer's description of Odysseus's scar, as the two paradigmatic models for the representation of reality in literature. Auerbach contrasts Homer's attention to detail and foregrounding of the spatial, historical, as well as personal contexts for events to the Bible's sparse account, in which virtually all context is kept in the background or left outside of the narrative. As Auerbach observes, this narrative strategy virtually compels readers to add their own interpretations to the text.

References in music and art[link]

From the 14th century Icelandic manuscript.

• The Parable of the Old Men and the Young: World War I poem by Wilfred Owen in which the sacrifice of the young men killed in the war is compared to the binding of Isaac, with the difference that in the poem, Abraham refuses to substitute the ram and proceeds to kill Isaac.
• Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac, for alto, tenor, and piano, Op. 51: 1952 song/opera by Benjamin Britten. Text adapted from the medieval Chester Mystery Plays. One voice sings the role of Abraham, the other Isaac. The two voices sing homophonically to create a third voice for God.^[17]
• Highway 61 Revisited: 1965 song by Bob Dylan from the album Highway 61 Revisited. Lyrics reference the binding of Isaac ("Oh, God said to Abraham, 'Kill me a son'/Abe said, 'Man, you must be puttin' me on..."). U.S. Highway 61 generally follows the course of the Mississippi River, and both river and highway start in Dylan's native Minnesota; Bob Dylan's father was named Abraham.^[18]
• Story of Isaac: 1969 song by Leonard Cohen from the album Songs from a Room.^[19]
• Isaac and Abraham: 1992 song by Joan Baez from the album Play Me Backwards.^[20]
• Abraham: 2004 song by Sufjan Stevens from the album Seven Swans. Discusses the binding of Isaac from a Christian perspective.^[21]
• Akeda for viola solo: 2006 musical composition by Gilad Hochman.^[22]
• Mr. Shiny Cadillackness: 2007 song by Clutch from the album From Beale Street to Oblivion. References the binding of Isaac with the lyrics, "Will you sacrifice your first born like Abraham would his Isaac?"^[23]
• Video game The Binding of Isaac's title and plot are references of this.
• Abraham's Daughter by Arcade Fire: From the soundtrack of the 2012 movie, The Hunger Games. It refers to the biblical incident of Abraham and Isaac and also mentions an angel who talks to Abraham's daughter^[24]

See also[link]

• Free will
• Filicide
• Child sacrifice
• Vayeira, the Torah portion containing the Binding of Isaac
• Fear and Trembling

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Berman, Louis A. (1997). The Akedah: The Binding of Isaac. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 1-56821-899-0. 
• Bodoff, Lippman (2005). The Binding of Isaac, Religious Murders & Kabbalah: Seeds of Jewish Extremism and Alienation?. Devora Publishing. ISBN 1-932687-52-1 (Cloth), ISBN 1-932687-53-X (Paper). 
• Bodofff, Lippman (1993). "The Real Test of the Akedah: Blind Obedience versus Moral Choice". Judaism 42 (1). 
• Bodofff, Lippman (1993). "God Tests Abraham - Abraham Tests God". Bible Review IX (5): 52. 
• Boehm, Omri (2002). "The Binding of Isaac: An Inner Biblical Polemic on the Question of Disobeying a Manifestly Illegal Order". Vetus Testamentum 52 (1): 1–12. DOI:10.1163/15685330252965686. 
• Boehm, Omri (2007). The Binding of Isaac: A Religious Model of Disobedience. T&T Clark. ISBN 978-0-567-02613-2. 
• Caspi, Mishael Maswari and Sascha Benjamin Cohen (1995). The Binding and Its Transformations in Judaism and Islam. Mellen Biblical Press. ISBN 0-7734-2389-3. 
• Delaney, Carol (1998). Abraham on Trial. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-05985-3. 
• Delaney, Carol (1999). "Abraham, Isaac, and Some Hidden Assumptions of Our Culture" (– ^{Scholar search}). The Humanist May/June. http://www.thehumanist.org/humanist/articles%5Cdelaney.html. ^{[dead link]}
• Feiler, Bruce (2002). Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-083866-3. 
• Feldman, Yael (2010). Glory and Agony: Isaac's Sacrifice and National Narrative'. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-5902-1. 
• Firestone, Reuven (1990). Journeys in Holy Lands: The Evolution of the Abraham-Ishmael Legends in Islamic Exegesis. State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-0332-7. 
• Jensen, Robin M. (1993). "The Binding or Sacrifice of Isaac: How Jews and Christians See Differently". Bible Review 9 (5): 42–51. 
• Levenson, Jon D. (1995). The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son: The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-06511-6. 
• Aviezer Ravitzky of Hebrew University, Abraham: Father of the Believers, (Hebrew)
• Sarna, Nahum (1989). The JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis. Jewish Publication Society. ISBN 0-8276-0326-6. 
• Spiegel, Shalom (1967). The Last Trial: On the Legends and Lore of the Command to Abraham to Offer Isaac As a Sacrifice: The Akedah (1993 reprint ed.). Jewish Lights Publishing. ISBN 1-879045-29-X. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sacrifice of Isaac

• Symposium on the Sacrifice of Isaac in the Three Monotheistic Religions
• The Sacrifice of Isaac in Medieval English Drama
• Mystery play texts in the cycles from Chester, Wakefield, York and n-Town
• Shofar Callin' (G-dcast's animated retelling of the Binding of Isaac, to a hip hop soundtrack)

Isaac
Isaac digging for the wells, imagined in a Bible illustration (c. 1900)
Prophet, Seer, Second Hebrew Patriarch, Father of Israel, Holy Forefather
Born	Canaan
Died	Canaan
Honored in	Judaism Christianity Islam
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

Isaac ( /ˈaɪzək/;^[1] Hebrew: יִצְחָק, Modern Yitsẖak Tiberian Yiṣḥāq, ISO 259-3 Yiçḥaq, "he will laugh"; Yiddish: יצחק, Yitskhok; Ancient Greek: Ἰσαάκ, Isaak; Latin: Isaac; Arabic: إسحاق‎ or Arabic: إسحٰق‎^{[note A]} ʼIsḥāq) 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.

Etymology[link]

The anglicized name Isaac is a transliteration of the Hebrew term Yiṣḥāq which literally means "He laughs/will laugh."^[2] Ugaritic texts dating from the 13th century BCE refer to the benevolent smile of the Canaanite deity El.^[3] Genesis, however, ascribes the laughter to Isaac's parents, Abraham and Sarah, rather than El. According to the biblical narrative, Abraham fell on his face and laughed when Elohim imparted the news of their son's eventual birth. He laughed because Sarah was past the age of childbearing; both she and Abraham were advanced in age. Later, when Sarah overheard three messengers of the Lord renew the promise, she laughed inwardly for the same reason. Sarah denied laughing when Elohim questioned Abraham about it.^[4][5][6]

Isaac in Genesis[link]

The account of Isaac from the Book of Genesis

Isaac is mentioned by name 80 times in Genesis.

Birth of Isaac[link]

An angel prevents the sacrifice of Isaac. Abraham and Isaac, Rembrandt, 1634

It was prophesied to the patriarch Abraham that he would have a son and that his name should be called Isaac. When Abraham became one hundred years old, this son was born to him by his first wife Sarah.^[7] Though this was Abraham's second son^[8] it was Sarah’s first and only child.

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.^[9]

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.^[10]

Binding of Isaac[link]

At some point in Isaac's youth, his father Abraham brought him to mount Moriah. At Yahweh's command to Abraham, he was to build a sacrificial altar and sacrifice his son Isaac upon it. After binding his son to the altar and drawing his knife to kill him, in the very last moment an angel of Yahweh prevented Abraham from proceeding. Rather, he was directed to sacrifice a nearby ram instead. This event served as a test of Abraham's faith to Yahweh, not as an actual human sacrifice.^[11]

The birth of Esau and Jacob, as painted by Benjamin West

Family life[link]

When Isaac was 40, Abraham sent Eliezer, his steward, into Mesopotamia to find a wife for Isaac, from his nephew Bethuel's family. Eliezer chose Rebekah for Isaac. After many years of marriage to Isaac, Rebekah had still not given birth to a child and was believed to be barren. Isaac prayed for her and she conceived. Rebekah gave birth to twin boys, Esau and Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when his two sons were born. Isaac favored Esau, and Rebekah favored Jacob.^[12]

Occupation[link]

Around the age of 75, Isaac moved to Beer-lahai-roi after his father died.^[13] When the land experienced famine, he removed to the Philistine land of Gerar where his father once lived. This land was still under the control of King Abimelech as it was in the days of Abraham. Like his father, Isaac also deceived Abimelech about his wife and also got into the well business. He had gone back to all of the wells that his father dug and saw that they were all stopped up with earth. The Philistines did this after Abraham died. So, Isaac unearthed them and began to dig for more wells all the way to Beersheba, where he made a pact with Abimelech, just like in the day of his father.^[14]

Isaac blessing his son,as painted by Giotto di Bondone

Birthright[link]

Isaac grew old and became blind. He called his son Esau and directed him to procure some venison for him, in order to receive Isaac's blessing. While Esau was hunting, Jacob, after listening to his mother's advice, deceived his blind father by misrepresenting himself as Esau and thereby obtained his father's blessing, such that Jacob became Isaac's primary heir and Esau was left in an inferior position. Isaac sent Jacob into Mesopotamia to take a wife of his own family. After 20 years working for Laban, Jacob returned home, and reconciled with his twin brother Esau, then he and Esau buried their father when Isaac died at the age of 180.^[15][16]

Other references[link]

New Testament[link]

In the New Testament, there are references to Isaac having been "offered up" by his father, and to his blessing his sons.^[17] Paul contrasted Isaac, symbolizing Christian liberty, with the rejected older son Ishmael, symbolizing slavery;^[3][18] Hagar is associated with the Sinai covenant, while Sarah is associated with the covenant of grace, into which her son Isaac enters.The Epistle of James chapter 2, verses 21-24^[19] states that the sacrifice of Isaac shows that justification (in the Johannine sense) requires both faith and works.^[20]

In the early Christian church, Abraham's willingness to follow God's command to sacrifice Isaac was used as an example of faith^[21] and of obedience.^[22][23] The Epistle to the Hebrews chapter 11, verse 19^[24] 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.

Qur'an[link]

Like many of the biblical Hebrew patriarchs and prophets, the Qur'an mentions Isaac as a righteous man of God. Isaac (and Jacob) are mentioned as being bestowed upon Abraham as gifts of God, who then worshipped God only and were righteous leaders in the way of God:

And We bestowed on him Isaac and, as an additional gift, (a grandson), Jacob, and We made righteous men of every one (of them).
And We made them leaders, guiding (men) by Our Command, and We sent them inspiration to do good deeds, to establish regular prayers, and to practise regular charity; and they constantly served Us (and Us only).

—Qur'an, sura 21 (Al-Anbiya), ayah 72-73^[25]

Testament of Isaac[link]

The Testament of Isaac is a pseudonymous text which was most likely composed in Greek in Egypt after 100 CE. It is also dependent on the Testament of Abraham. In this testament, God sends the archangel Michael to Isaac in order to inform him of his impending death. Isaac accepts God's decree but Jacob resists. Isaac in his bed-chamber tells Jacob of the inevitability of death. Isaac has a tour of heaven and hell shortly before his death in which God's compassion to repentant sinners is emphasized. In this testament, Isaac also talks with the crowds on the subjects of priesthood, asceticism, and the moral life.^[26]

World views[link]

Isaac embraces his father Abraham after the Binding of Isaac, early 1900s Bible illustration

The early Christian church viewed Abraham's willingness to follow God's command to sacrifice Isaac as an example of faith and obedience. For Christians, Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son is a "type and shadow" of God's willingness to sacrifice his only son, Jesus.

Islam considers Isaac as a prophet of Islam, and describes him as the father of the Israelites and a righteous servant of God.

Documentary hypothesis[link]

The name Isaac occurs 32 times in the Hebrew Bible.^[2] Variations of the formula "Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" occur 23 times in the Hebrew Bible.^[26] According to the documentary hypothesis, use of names of God indicates authorship, and form critics variously assign passages like Genesis chapter 26, verses 6-11^[27] to the Yahwist source, and Genesis chapter 20 verses 1-7, chapter 21, verse 1 to chapter 22, verse 14 and chapter 22, verse 19^[28] to the Elohist source; this source-critical approach has admitted problems, in that the name "Yahweh" appears in Elohist material.^[29] According to the compilation hypothesis, the formulaic use of the word toledoth (generations) indicates that Genesis chapter 11, verse 27 to chapter 25, verse 19^[30] is Isaac's record through Abraham's death (with Ishmael's record appended), and Genesis chapter 25, verse 19 to chapter 37, verse 2^[31] is Jacob's record through Isaac's death (with Esau's records appended).^[32]

Jewish views[link]

Isaac Blessing Jacob, painting by Govert Flinck (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam)

In rabbinical tradition the age of Isaac at the time of binding is taken to be 37 which contrasts with common portrayals of Isaac as a child.^[33] The rabbis also thought that the reason for the death of Sarah was the news of the intended sacrifice of Isaac.^[33] The sacrifice of Isaac is cited in appeals for the mercy of God in later Jewish traditions.^[23] The post-biblical Jewish interpretations often elaborate the role of Isaac beyond the biblical description and largely focus on Abraham's intended sacrifice of Isaac, called the aqedah ("binding").^[3] According to a version of these interpretations, Isaac died in the sacrifice and was revived.^[3] According to many accounts of Aggadah, unlike the Bible, it is Satan who is testing Isaac and not God.^[34] Isaac's willingness to follow God's command at the cost of his death has been a model for many Jews who preferred martyrdom to violation of the Jewish law.^[33]

According to the Jewish tradition Isaac instituted the afternoon prayer. This tradition is based on Genesis chapter 24, verse 63^[35] ("Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide").^[33]

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.^[36] Rabbinic tradition gave the explanation that Isaac was almost sacrificed and anything dedicated as a sacrifice may not leave the Land of Israel.^[33] Isaac was the oldest of the biblical patriarchs at the time of his death, and the only patriarch whose name was not changed.^[3][17]

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.^[34]

Islamic views[link]

Isaac (Arabic: إسحاق‎‎^{[note A]} ʾIsḥāq) is revered by Muslims to be a prophet and the patriarch of Islam. Isaac, along with Ishmael, is highly important for Muslims for continuing to preach the message of monotheism after his father Abraham. Among Isaac's children was the follow-up Israelite patriarch Jacob, who too is venerated an Islamic prophet.

Isaac is mentioned fifteen times by name in the Qur'an, often with his father and his son, Jacob.^[37] 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.^[38]

Western scholarly views[link]

Some 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."^[39]

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."^[40] 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:

Yet for all that these stories maintain a distance between their world and that of their time of literary growth and composition, they reflect the political realities of the later periods. Many of the narratives deal with the relationship between the ancestors and peoples who were part of Israel’s political world at the time the stories began to be written down (eighth century B.C.E.). Lot is the ancestor of the Transjordanian peoples of Ammon and Moab, and Ishmael personifies the nomadic peoples known to have inhabited north Arabia, although located in the Old Testament in the Negev. Esau personifies Edom (36:1), and Laban represents the Aramean states to Israel’s north. A persistent theme is that of difference between the ancestors and the indigenous Canaanites… In fact, the theme of the differences between Judah and Israel, as personified by the ancestors, and the neighboring peoples of the time of the monarchy is pressed effectively into theological service to articulate the choosing by God of Judah and Israel to bring blessing to all peoples.”^[41]

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.^[39] 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.^[39] 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").^[39]

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."^[39] 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.^[39]

In art[link]

The earliest Christian portrayal of Isaac is found in the Roman catacomb frescoes.^[42] Excluding the fragments, Alison Moore Smith classifies these artistic works in three categories:

"Abraham leads Isaac towards the altar; or Isaac approaches with the bundle of sticks, Abraham having preceded him to the place of offering .... Abraham is upon a pedestal and Isaac stands near at hand, both figures in orant attitude .... Abraham is shown about to sacrifice Isaac while the latter stands or kneels on the ground beside the altar. Sometimes Abraham grasps Isaac by the hair. Occasionally the ram is added to the scene and in the later paintings the Hand of God emerges from above."^[42]

See also[link]

• Biblical narratives and the Qur'an

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Browning, W.R.F (1996). A dictionary of the Bible. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-211691-6. 
• Paul Lagasse, Lora Goldman, Archie Hobson, Susan R. Norton, ed. (2000). The Columbia Encyclopedia (6th ed.). Gale Group. ISBN 978-1-59339-236-9. 
• P.J. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs, ed. Encyclopaedia of Islam Online. Brill Academic Publishers. ISSN 1573-3912. 
• Erwin Fahlbusch, William Geoffrey Bromiley, ed. (2001). Encyclopedia of Christianity (1st ed.). Eerdmans Publishing Company, and Brill. ISBN 0-8028-2414-5. 
• John Bowden, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of Christianity (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-522393-4. 
• The New Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Incorporated; Rev Ed edition. 2005. ISBN 978-1-59339-236-9. 
• Jane Dammen McAuliffe, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of the Qur'an. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-12356-4. 
• Geoffrey Wigoder, ed. (2002). The New Encyclopedia of Judaism (2nd ed.). New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-9388-6. 
• Lindsay Jones, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of Religion (2nd ed.). MacMillan Reference Books. ISBN 978-0-02-865733-2. 
• David Noel Freedman, Allen C. Myers, Astrid B. Beck, ed. (2000). Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (1st ed.). Wm. B. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-2400-4. 

External links[link]

• Isaac in Jewish Encyclopedia
• Abraham's son as the intended sacrifice (Al-Dhabih, Qur'an 37:99, Qur'an 37:99–113): Issues in qur'anic exegesis, journal of Semitic Studies XXX1V/ Spring 1989

Media related to Isaac at Wikimedia Commons

•  "Isaac". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Isaac". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.