The Bible Undressed

            In October of 2019 a man in Florida was arrested for killing three people.  He claimed he was “a prophet, not a serial killer” and that he was “doing what God told me to do.”  In September 2019 an Idaho woman who was a member of a doomsday religious cult killed her two children because she thought they were possessed.  In November 2022 a mother in the Bronx killed her two young children because she thought they were possessed.  In 2004 a woman in Texas said God had told her the world was going to end and “she had to get her house in order,” which included killing her three children (one survived).  The list goes on and on…  When you hear such stories is your first thought that they must be people of great faith, or that they must be seriously mentally ill?  What about when you read such a story in the Bible?

            Most Jews and Christians are familiar with the story of Abraham taking his son Isaac and almost sacrificing him to God on Mount Moriah.  (This location came to be associated with the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.)  Many Muslims believe rather that it was Abraham’s son Ishmael that was to be sacrificed, although the issue is debated among Muslim scholars.  At least in that tradition Ishmael is said to know of the sacrifice and agree to it, which is slightly better than Abraham surprising Isaac with it in the Biblical version.  It is called “the Binding” or “Akedah.” The usual understanding is that God was testing Abraham’s faith, but that He stepped in at the last moment to stop the sacrifice and then commended Abraham for his utter obedience.  But did God really stop the sacrifice?

            The story as told in Genesis 22 raises all sorts of questions.  Why would God need to test Abraham, or anybody, if He knows our hearts and minds?  If He knew Abraham would pass the test, then why traumatize him and Isaac in this way?  Why would Abraham, who seemed to be on intimate terms with God, think that God would want a human sacrifice?  Why is it that in Genesis 18 Abraham bargains with God for the lives of the people of Sodom, but when asked to kill his own son Isaac: no discussion?  No bargaining for his own son?  Wouldn’t you question your own sanity before thinking that God really wanted you to kill your child?  (I hope so!)  Would God really want to convey the message that He will reward you for being willing to kill in His name?  (Many terrorists seem to think so.)

            I am not going to try to answer any of those questions!  Instead, I want to suggest and support the idea that in the original story Abraham did not just offer to sacrifice Isaac to God, but that he actually completed the deed.

            First, a technical point that is key to unraveling the story.  At the beginning of the story “God” is referred to as “Elohim” (Genesis 22:1).  Elohim seems to be an early Semitic term for gods, and is actually in the plural form; in fact, in various places in the Old Testament it is translated as plural, as in Genesis 1 where the Elohim say, “Let Us make man in Our image.”  (See the first two posts on the blog.)

            So God (Elohim) speaks to Abraham and tells him,

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“Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” 
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This is a bit curious because in Genesis Abraham has another older son named Ishmael, so why does God speak as if Abraham has only one son?  This is sometimes interpreted as meaning that Abraham had only one true son of promise (Ishmael being a mistake!), but it may be that in the original story the character had only one son, making the sacrifice seem all the more extreme.  Also, there is some thought that sacrificing the oldest son was considered an extreme measure to seek the gods’ help, as in 2^nd Kings 3 where the king of Moab sacrifices his oldest son in order to turn away the Israelite army.  So, the story is more dramatic if Isaac is said to be the only son, the beloved son.

            Abraham, Isaac and two servants make their way to the mountain, where Abraham and Isaac proceed to the summit.  Then,
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“They came to the place of which God [Elohim] had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.  And Abraham reached out with his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.”
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Note this next part:
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‘But the angel of the Lord [Yahweh] called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”  He said, “Do not reach out your hand against the boy, and do not do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God [Elohim], since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”  Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by its horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering in the place of his son.  And Abraham named that place The Lord [Yahweh] Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “On the mountain of the Lord [Yahweh] it will be provided.”  Then the angel of the Lord [Yahweh] called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord [Yahweh], because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you…”’
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It is now Yahweh, the Jewish name for God, who intervenes and apparently stops the sacrifice.  Abraham instead finds a ram and sacrifices it.  Jewish story tellers couldn’t have Isaac getting killed off, because the family line is supposed to continue through him, and of course the Jews prohibited human sacrifice but used animal sacrifices.[1]   So we can see why Yahweh would intervene.  This also presents an anachronism: Abraham was not supposed to know the name of Yahweh.  In Exodus 3 Yahweh reveals His name to Moses and then in chapter 6 it states, “God spoke further to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord; and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but by My name, Yahweh, I did not make Myself known to them.””  But in the story Abraham uses Yahweh’s name.  This suggests to me some editing of the story from a later Jewish perspective.

            Note these phrases: “…now I know that you fear God [Elohim], since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me” and “because you have done this thing.”  This sounds very much like Abraham did sacrifice his son to Elohim.  One might argue this simply meant Abraham showed the willingness to sacrifice Isaac, but consider what happens next:
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So Abraham returned to his young men, and they got up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham lived in Beersheba.
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Abraham returned to his servants, alone.  Where is Isaac?  Sacrificed up on the mountain.  I also find it interesting that Abraham goes to live in Beersheba.  Later we are told of Sarah’s death in Hebron, and Abraham goes to mourn her.  Perhaps Abraham could not face his wife after sacrificing their son in the original story?

            Let’s look at the trimmed-down Elohim version of the story without Yahweh’s intervention:
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And Abraham reached out with his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.  “Now I know that you fear God [Elohim], since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me. Because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand, which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.  And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”  So Abraham returned to his young men, and they got up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham lived in Beersheba.

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It seems to flow smoothly without Yahweh’s intervention.  Note that the promise Elohim makes to Abraham sounds similar to the promise Yahweh makes to him in Genesis 12.  It may be that in this version Elohim makes the promise because of Abraham’s extreme obedience, whereas in the Jewish lore Yahweh makes this promise right from the outset: Abraham was “chosen,” he didn’t have to earn it through extreme obedience, hence “the Chosen People,” not the “Earned It People.”

            The possibility that Abraham actually sacrificed Isaac even appears in the New Testament. 

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He [Abraham] considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him [Isaac] back as a type.

Hebrews 11:19 

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It sounds like this author believed Isaac was indeed dead, but God raised him back to life.

            You may not accept the idea that the original story has Abraham complete the sacrifice.  I certainly won’t twist your arm, but it is still instructive to examine the story.  Elohim asks for a human sacrifice; Yahweh intervenes and prevents it.  This may represent a contrast between pagan culture with their human sacrifices and the Jewish culture which only sacrificed animals.  And it is a glimpse into how these stories may have been formed and then revised over the centuries, as religion itself evolved.

            This story is taught in Judaism, Christianity and Islam to show that Abraham had such great faith in God that he was willing to kill his own son if God told him to.  Is this really such a good lesson to be teaching?  Especially to impressionable children?  That you should be ready and willing to kill if God tells you to?  Is that perhaps at least part of the reason that each year someone kills another, sometimes even their own children, because they believe God told them to?  Haven’t we conditioned people to believe that God sometimes does this?  Isn’t history filled with enough violence and war because one group thought God wanted them to kill the other group?  Frankly, if God told me to kill someone, I would respond, “No, I won’t be your hitman.  You can do your own killing.”  (Actually, I would hopefully seek psychiatric help for hearing voices in my head!)  We need to stop teaching that being willing to kill for God is a sign of great faith, and recognize it as a primitive and barbaric concept of God.  Perhaps that would be at least one small step toward less religious violence in the world.
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Thinking exercises:

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1.  Does it make a difference to you if Abraham killed Isaac or not?  Is the willingness equivalent to the act?

2.  In human justice to say “I was just following orders” is not considered a valid defense, as we all have to make our own moral decisions.  Should we excuse Abraham because he was just following orders?  Even if he believed those orders came from God?  Should we forgive the 9-11 terrorists because they sincerely believed they were doing God’s will?

3.  Would a moral being ever ask a father to sacrifice his son, even as a test?

4.  It is said that the ancient Hebrews did not practice human sacrifice.  Yet the history books of the Old Testament are full of stories of their soldiers killing the children of other tribes (see the stories of Jericho in Joshua 6 or the slaughter of the Midianites in Numbers 31, as examples).  Isn’t it still human sacrifice if you are killing other people in the name of God, instead of your own?

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[1] Actually the Law of Moses does not specifically address human sacrifice, but prohibition is implied.  The story of Jephthah sacrificing his daughter to God predates the Law (Judges 11) as does the Akedah.  Of course, the Bible is full of stories of the people of Israel killing other people’s children in the name of Yahweh.