Genesis 22 (1-19), is one of the most profound narratives found in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). It involves a command to the patriarch Abraham to offer his son, Isaac, as a burnt offering in the mountains of Moriah, which, if consummately observed, would seem to contradict God's earlier promise that through Isaac a vast nation would emanate. This leads to questions concerning child (or, human) sacrifice, as was the custom of various "heathen" clans in the region of the times.
This research will seek to delineate God's call to Abraham, his emotional anguish, his subsequent actions, and his ultimate reward. It will similarly draw parallels with the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. The following presentation is a synthesis of biblical commentary and exegesis, grammatic analysis, and homiletical interpretation.
In Genesis 22, God proposes the "supreme test of Abraham's faith" when he commands Abraham to "offer" Isaac as a burnt offering. While most biblical translations refer to Isaac, in verse 2, as Abraham's "only son," the Jewish Publication Society's Torah (hereinafter referred to as "the New Jewish Translation" (NJT)) more correctly translates the phrase "your favored son," since Abraham did have another son, Ishmael, through his union with Hagar the maid servant, and who was also blessed by God to be the progenitor of a great nation (Islam, according to the Koran).
The call to Abraham is understood by Lange to have come in dream form, but most other commentators support the Elohistic interpretation that God manifested Himself to Abraham as the personal, true God with whom he had established a living relationship, "Ha-Elohim." The distinction is important, because it serves to establish that the notion to "sacrifice" Isaac did not evolve from, or seek to imitate, the child-sacrifice practices of the Canaanites adjacent to Abraham at Beer-sheba. The test is divinely, not humanly, inspired.
T...