By Omri Boehm
Conventional interpretations in either Judaism and Christianity argue that the Akedah offers not just a moral query but additionally a moral answer. yet for the intervention of the angel, Abraham might have killed his son. Obedience to God take priority over morality as humanly conceived. but, the angel of Yhwh that looks to Abraham is a later addition to the textual content; therefore, within the unique narrative Abraham really disobeys the divine command to slay his son, and sacrifices a ram instead.
The first a part of the ebook indicates how the "original" model of the narrative didn't comprise the angelic determine. the second one a part of the ebook re-examines a number of non secular interpretations of the textual content to teach that exegetes similar to Maimonides and his fans did indicate Abraham's disobedience. in accordance with those writers the esoteric layer of the tale in reality announces that disobedience to God's command was once Abraham's precise confirmation of religion. within the 3rd a part of the ebook, Boehm re-opens the philosophical debate among Kant and Kierkegaard. Boehm concludes the e-book via contending that the monotheistic version of religion provided by way of Abraham used to be truly a version of disobedience.
Read Online or Download The binding of Isaac: a religious model of disobedience PDF
Best old testament books
Ecclesiastes (Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching)
"Ecclesiastes" is a suite of sayings by means of Qoheleth (meaning "preacher" or "teacher"), who has launched into a trip to find the aim of human life. This remark offers an interpretation of this vintage textual content.
Genesis: Interpretation : A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching
Every one biblical ebook is gifted for its greatest use by means of instructor or preacher, taking into consideratoin its centra goal, its use within the liturgical and confessional culture and in lectionaries, and its distinctive value for Christian ethics and theology.
The Promise of the Land as Oath: A Key to the Formation of the Pentateuch
During this examine, Suzanne Boorer presents a method of comparing a few of the present and conflicting paradigms for the formation of the Pentateuch, through studying chosen texts in Genesis to Numbers that specific Yahweh's oath of the land to the ancestors, on the way to ascertain their relative degrees relating to their surrounding contexts, with regards to one another, and on the subject of their parallels in Deuteronomy.
There were many legends and traditions concerning the ten misplaced tribes of the Northern nation of Israel. This e-book attracts upon large discoveries and data released concerning the flow of the folk of Israel and Judah from Davidic occasions to the sunrise of the Hellenistic interval. the writer has demonstrated the biblical files opposed to archaeological proof, testimony and inscriptions present in Syria, Assyria, Babylon and Persia.
- The Message : Psalms
- Sacred Ritual: A Study of the West Semitic Ritual Calendars in Leviticus 23 and the Akkadian Text Emar 446
- The Alien in Israelite Law
- El Pentateuco
- Surveillance Society: The Rise of Antichrist
Additional info for The binding of Isaac: a religious model of disobedience
Example text
The first thing that strikes the reader as exceptional in this story is the fact that Isaac was not eventually killed. It has therefore been suggested that the story is intended as a polemic against the ritual of child sacrifice: it presents the well-known tradition of the noble father who sacrifices his son, but changes the outcome. The son survives; God does not will the death of the son. Thus Spiegel writes that "Quite possibly the primary purpose of the Akedah story may have been only this: to attach to a real pillar of the 16.
30 In Berdichevsky's account the angel—a later interpolation—is not the cause of the stopping of the sacrifice but an explanation or, indeed, an interpretation of it. The cause is Abraham. This is further elaborated in Berdichevsky's interpretation of v. "—this source does not know of the angelic speech. " (v. " is not very appropriate. 31 It is noteworthy that even though Berdichevsky here observes the secondary nature of the angelic intervention, he never notices the implications of this observation, namely, that Abraham disobeys.
I shall return to these words in more detail in Chapter 9. 2. In Midrash Rabba (trans. H. Freedman and M. Simon; London: Soncino, 1961), 426. 3. Sarna, Genesis, 151. 36 The Binding of Isaac Like Abraham, Moses too attempts to prevent the deity from carrying out its intention, praying and asking to have mercy on his people: And Moses said to the Lord: "Then the Egyptians will hear it, for by your might you brought these people up from among them. And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land.