The book of Genesis tells the story that Abraham had to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham receives this assignment from God. Abraham must go to Mount Moriah to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God. After Isaac is bound and placed on the altar, a messenger of God stops Abraham. His son may live. Abraham’s faith has stood the test. Many scholars have pondered the meaning of this history. The story raises questions that sometimes cannot be answered, but the story remains meaningful to many.
The story in the Bible (Genesis 22)
Abraham had to wait years for the promised son he would have with his wife Sarah. Their patience, faith and trust in God have been tested. Eventually they have a son and they name him Isaac. After a while, Abraham is instructed by God to sacrifice his son Isaac.
Some time later, God tested Abraham. ‘Abraham!’ he said. “I’m listening,” Abraham replied. “Call your son, your only son, whom you love so much, Isaac, and go with him to the region where Moriah is. There you shall sacrifice him on a mountain that I will show you.’ (Genesis 22:1-2)
Abraham and Isaac leave early the next day. When they arrive at Mount Moria on the third day, they begin the ascent. Abraham takes with him a sacrificial knife, a real cleaver that was used for slaughtering animals. Abraham also carries the fire needed to light the sacrifice. Isaac walks next to him with the wood on his back that would be used to burn his body as a sacrifice to God.
Father, Isaac asked. What do you want to tell me, my boy? Abraham replied. We have fire and wood, said Isaac, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice? His father replied: God himself will provide a sacrificial lamb, my boy. And together they continued. Isaac had to know that he was doomed. Yet he did not resist when his father tied his hands with ropes and placed him on the pyre.
Then he took the knife to slaughter his son. But an angel of the LORD called out from heaven, “Abraham, Abraham!” ,I’m listening,, he replied. ‘Don’t touch the boy, don’t hurt him! For now I know that you fear God, and you did not withhold your son, your only son, from me.” When Abraham looked up, he saw a ram entangled in a bush by its horns. He took the animal and sacrificed it in place of his son. Abraham called that place “The LORD Will Provide.” Hence it is said to this day, ‘It will be provided in the mountain of the LORD.’ (Genesis 22:10-14)
The Lord blessed Abraham for his faith and his obedience to God’s command . God promised to give him as many descendants as there are stars in the sky and grains of sand on the beach by the sea. His descendants will possess the cities of their enemies (Genesis 22:17).
On the third day
Abraham and Isaac are on their way together to Mount Moriah. On the third day Abraham saw that place in the distance (Genesis 22:4). The number three and especially the third day have a special symbolic meaning in the Bible. In the Bible, the third day means that a decisive moment has arrived. It’s a special day. On the third day things take a turn. The third day in the Bible is the day of turning. On the third day it is God’s turn. It is a day of hope.
The area where the Moria
Abraham is sent by God to the area where Moriah is located. It is not entirely clear whether it concerns the land of Moriah or Mount Moriah. In 2 Chronicles 3:1 Mount Moriah is mentioned, which refers to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. According to the Samaritans, Mount Gerizzim is the place where Abraham’s sacrifice took place.
See, here I am
Three times in the course of the story, Abraham answers, “Behold, here I am.” (Revised State Translation of the Bible). The first time in verse 1 of Genesis 22: “And it came to pass after these things that God tempted Abraham. He said to him, Abraham! He said, Behold, here am I. The second time in verse 7: ‘And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, saying, My father! He said, Behold, here am I, my son. The third time in verse 11: ‘But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham! He said, Behold, here am I.
The first “Behold, here am I” is a statement that undoubtedly represents Abraham’s availability to God. The second time it sounds different: ‘Behold, here I am, my son’. The addition ‘my son’ gives it a personal meaning. With this, Abraham confirms their relationship. This reflects the love of a father for his son. The third time Abraham answers, “Behold, here I am,” he is about to slaughter his son. His name is repeatedly called: ‘Abraham, Abraham!’. This indicates the urgency. After all, Abraham is about to slaughter his son. ‘Behold, here I am’. This reflects the submission to God’s command. Abraham shows that he is obedient to the end.
God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son
God commands Abraham to sacrifice his long-awaited and beloved son in the area of Moriah (Genesis 22:1-2). This command raises many questions that the Bible story does not answer. How is it possible that God asks for the death of an innocent boy? Isn’t it cruel to ask this of His own loyal servant Abraham, whom He considers a friend (Isaiah 41:8)? With the command that God gives, God himself contradicts his own commandments, such as: ‘Whoever sheds the blood of men, by men his blood is shed’ (Genesis 9: 6). Later in the Ten Commandments, God forbids killing a human being (Exodus 20:13, Deuteronomy 5:17). And in demanding the life of Isaac, God appears to be reneging on his promise to Abraham: for only the descendants of Isaac will be your descendants” (Genesis 21:12b).
Domenichino – The Sacrifice of Isaac / Source: Domenichino, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Was it right that Abraham wanted to sacrifice his son?
Many have questioned Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac. Could not Abraham have interceded for Isaac as he did for Sodom and Gomorrah? God then informed Abraham that He wanted to punish the wicked cities. Abraham makes an impressive and respectful case for these cities. He asks the Lord: ‘Will you take the lives of the innocent as well as the guilty? []. You can’t do that! Surely he who is judge over all the earth must act justly? (Genesis 18:23-26). Now we read nothing about Abraham’s plea for his innocent son. When Sarah, his wife, suggests to Abraham that he send away Ishmael, the son of Abraham, and the slave woman Hagar, he does not do so at first. ‘This proposal did not please Abraham at all; for it was his own son’ (Genesis 21: 11). Now he has to sacrifice Isaac, also his own son, and he does so without any problems. Is what Abraham does right?
According to the Bible story, Abraham did well to want to sacrifice his son to the Lord. Through this trial, God knows that Abraham wants to obey Him completely. God answered Abraham, “For now I know that you fear God; you have not withheld your son from me, your only son” (Genesis 22:12). Abraham is richly blessed because of his obedience.
The categorical imperative
The German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724 1804) stated that an action is right if we can follow the categorical imperative. This imperative reads as follows: ‘Act only according to that rule which at the same time you can will that it should become a general law’. If we assess the command to Abraham ‘sacrifice your son’ in the light of the categorical imperative, then we cannot of course make this command a general law. Immanuel Kant therefore believed that Abraham had acted wrongly. According to Kant, Abraham should have listened more to his conscience. Fundamental ethical principles, such as the prohibition of killing a fellow human being, should not be sidelined in the name of faith, according to Kant. What God asks of Abraham is contrary to the universal moral law. Kant places the message of this story in the prohibition of the God of Israel against offering child sacrifices.
Abraham: a knight of faith
In his book ‘Fear and Trembling’, the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) addresses the question of whether it was good that Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son. Kierkegaard places different emphasis in this than the philosopher Kant. Kierkegaard emphasizes Abraham’s faith in faith. Abraham is a ‘knight of faith’ because he ‘suspends’ universal reason and morality. Suspending means postponing. Universal morality, the prohibition of killing, is temporarily postponed to comply with God’s command. This makes a saving perspective possible: ‘Don’t touch the boy, don’t do anything to him!’ (Genesis 22:12). Through his faith and obedience, Abraham gets his son Isaac back.
To love God above all else and your neighbor as yourself
The Roman Catholic priest and professor of philosophy Tomás Halík (1948) connects the story with the great commandment that Jesus gives. When Jesus is asked about the most important commandment, he gives a double answer: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30). In the story, Abraham also receives two commands from God: ‘Sacrifice your son’ and ‘Don’t touch the boy, don’t do anything to him!’. This echoes the two central commandments of the Bible, as expressed by Jesus. Abraham, out of love for God, obeys his command to sacrifice Isaac. Because of that obedience he is ultimately commanded not to harm his son. The path of obedience is a difficult path, between hope and despair. The hope that is reflected in Abraham’s answer to Isaac’s question about what they are going to sacrifice: God himself will provide a sacrificial lamb.
Jesus, the sacrificial lamb
The lamb that Abraham sacrificed instead of his son Isaac symbolizes Jesus in Christian tradition. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29 and 1:36). Another similarity with the story of Abraham’s sacrifice is that God the Father sacrifices His only begotten Son Jesus on the cross. What God does not ask of people, He provides Himself: God will provide Himself with a sacrificial lamb. In Romans 8 verse 32, the apostle Paul thinks about the story of Genesis 22: ‘Will he who did not spare his own Son, but for the sake of us all, deliver him up to us, will he not with him also freely give us all things?’
M, Chagall The Sacrifice of Isaac / Source: Adi Holzer, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-1.0)
The story in the New Testament
The story of Abraham’s sacrifice is mentioned several times in the New Testament. The emphasis is on the faith and trust of Abraham. For example, the author of the letter to the Hebrews writes: ‘By faith Abraham, when he was tempted, was able to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was willing to sacrifice his only son. When it was said to him, ‘You will have no offspring through Isaac,’ he said to himself that it must be possible for God to raise someone from the dead, and so he also received him as a type, (Hebrews 11 : 17-19). The apostle James writes about Abraham’s sacrifice: ‘Was it not considered a righteous act by our father Abraham that he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see how faith and action go hand in hand there, and how faith is perfected by action. Thus was fulfilled what the Scripture says: Abraham trusted in God, and it was credited to him as a righteous deed (James 2: 21-23).
What did this sacrifice mean for Isaac?
Isaac did not try to flee as he set out with his father. Not even when it dawned on him that he would be the sacrifice that would be slaughtered. He agreed with his father’s goal to kill him. Did Isaac believe he would be saved? Could there be other reasons why he agreed? Did Isaac feel forced to comply with his father’s wishes to win his love? Maybe he was too scared to run. There is nothing concrete about this in the Bible, but we can imagine that it must have been a traumatic event for Isaac.
They continued together, but he returned alone
‘They continued together’. Abraham and Isaac go up the mountain together. Together, it is stated explicitly twice, once in verse 6 and then in verse 8. But we read of Abraham that he goes back alone. Verse 19: ‘Then Abraham returned to his servants’. It is striking that Isaac is not mentioned. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra (1089 1167) notes that Isaac is not mentioned, but he is probably included. Rabbi Abarbanel (1437 1508) suggests that Isaac did not return with Abraham, but instead went to his mother in Hebron. She probably lived separately from her husband. But whatever the case, the omission of Isaac from the return is shocking and suggests some kind of rift between father and son.
A rite of passage for Isaac
The founder of analytical psychology, Carl Gustaf Jung (1875-1961), saw this story as a rite of passage for the young Isaac. It would then be a kind of initiation ritual for adulthood. He leaves the innocence of childhood behind him. Through the sacrifice he is confronted with the demands and principles of the spiritual father. Isaak goes through the ritual from childhood to adulthood, from innocence to consciousness. Initiation rites require the maturation of a person through exposure to a very real threat to body and soul. This was certainly the case for Isaac.
An allegorical interpretation
The Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria who lived from 20 BC to 50 AD. In his book De Abrahamo (2007) he gives an allegorical interpretation of the story. He finds the key to this interpretation in the meaning of the name Isaac. This name means ‘laughter’ (Genesis 21:6). According to Philo, this laughter represents everything that gives us pleasure, enjoyment and happiness in life. According to him, the story shows that the believer feels the obligation to sacrifice his joy, pleasure and pleasure to God, because they belong to God. However, God in his loving mercy refuses the complete surrender of happiness and thus leaves room to laugh, to have fun and to experience joy. According to Philo, the ultimate form of religion is not sacrifice, but the worship of the Most High.
Caravaggio The Sacrifice of Isaac / Source: Caravaggio, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
The sacrifice of the firstborn son
In the Old Testament, God commands his people to sacrifice the firstborn. In Exodus 22 verse 28 it says: ‘Give me the first produce of the grape harvest without delay, and also give me your firstborn son’. In Exodus 34 this commandment is repeated with the addition that the firstborn son must be redeemed from the sacrifice: ‘Everything that first leaves the womb belongs to me. [] You must redeem every firstborn foal of a donkey with a sheep or goat. If you don’t buy it free, you’ll have to break its neck. You must also redeem all the eldest sons.’ Every firstborn son belongs to God. This also applies to Isaac. But God wants these sons to be redeemed. God does not want the eldest sons to be sacrificed. This is evident in the story of Genesis 22. God also makes it clear in other texts that children may not be sacrificed. The prohibition on sacrificing children also applies if the sacrifice is intended for another God such as Moloch.
The LORD said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘If an Israelite or a foreigner living in Israel sacrifices one of his children to Molech, he shall be put to death; the people must stone him. I myself will turn against such a man and expel him from the community, because he has sacrificed one of his children to Molech, and has defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name. If the people turn a blind eye to such a man sacrificing his children to Moloch and do not put him to death, then I will turn against that man and his family., (Leviticus 20:1-5)
Abraham’s Sacrifice in the Quran
According to Muslims, Abraham (Ibrahim) is a man of faith. In Islam he is seen as the first monotheist, the first Muslim. A Muslim is literally someone who submits to God and that is what Abraham does. The story of the sacrifice is described in the Quran in Surah 37: 100113. There are two notable differences with the story in the Bible. First, God’s command to Abraham comes through a dream. And the Koran does not mention the name of the son. Is it Isaac or Ishmael, the firstborn of Abraham and his slave Hagar? Many Muslims assume that Ishmael was offered as a sacrifice because he is the firstborn son of Abraham. Muslims celebrate with the Feast of the Sacrifice or the Great Feast that Abraham was willing to sacrifice his beloved son Ishmael to God.
Sir! Give me (offspring) of the righteous. So We gave him the good news of a tolerant boy. And when he was old enough to help his father he (Ibrahim) said: ‘O my son! I saw in a dream that I will sacrifice you, what do you think?’ He said, ‘O my father! Do as you are commanded. If Allah wills, you will find me among the patient.” When they had both submitted (to Allah) and he had made him prostrate on his forehead. Then We called to him: ‘O Ibrahim! You fulfilled the dream!’ Truly! Thus We reward the well-wishers. Truly, that was certainly a clear trial. And We gave him in exchange a large sacrificial animal. And We left for him (a good remembrance) among the generations afterward. Peace be upon Ibrahim! (Sura 37:101-109)
Isaac and Ishmael
According to Biblical tradition, both of Abraham’s sons, Isaac and Ishmael, experienced an event that has many similarities. Isaac was almost sacrificed by his father (Genesis 22) and Ishmael almost died of thirst in the wilderness because he and his mother Hagar were banished by Abraham (Genesis 21). There are striking parallels between these two stories.
In both stories, God commands patriarch Abraham to get rid of his son. Ishmael must be banished and Isaac sacrificed (Genesis 21: 12-13; 22: 1-2). Both stories indicate that Abraham wakes up early in the morning and prepares supplies for the journey (Genesis 21:14; 22:3). In both stories the end is approaching for a son of Abraham. Ishmael nearly dies of thirst and is left under a bush by his mother, Hagar (Genesis 21:15-16). Isaac is almost slaughtered by his father (Genesis 21:9-10). At the last moment in both narratives an angel of the Lord intervenes (Genesis 21:17, 22: 1112). In both stories this is followed by blessings for the future (Genesis 21:18; 22:16-17). After the rescue, the parent sees something new. Hagar sees a well of water (Genesis 21:19). Abraham sees a ram for sacrifice (Genesis 22:13). Both stories end with announcements about the children’s marriages (Genesis 21:21; 22:20-24). For both stories, the central theme is whether Abraham’s son will survive the trial he is placed in by a father who fully obeys God.
Leonard Cohen / Source: Rama, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA-2.0)
The sacrifice in battle
The willingness to sacrifice young people for a higher purpose has always been there, such as the death of young people in the many wars. Young soldiers give their lives for a higher purpose, a country, a religion. They fight for freedom or for an ideology. It is a sacrifice for someone to give his children at the risk of them dying in battle.
Leonard Cohen wrote a song about Isaak
In 1969 the singer (1934 2016) wrote a song in the person of Isaac who is sacrificed by his father. With this song he criticizes, among other things, the Vietnam War, where young soldiers were, as it were, sacrificed in battle. Cohen brings this old Bible story to life in the song ‘Story of Isaac’ . He shows that this story is still important. He makes the voice of Isaac beg to tear down the altars where children of our time are still sacrificed.
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- Hagar the slave of Sarah and Abraham (Genesis 16 and 21)