Binding of Isaac
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"We can use, as an example [of commands [...] contrary to the moral law ], the myth of the sacrifice that Abraham was going to make by butchering and burning his only son at God's command (the poor child, without knowing it, even brought the wood for the fire). Abraham should have replied to this supposedly divine voice: "That I ought not kill my good son is quite certain. But that you, this apparition, are God — of that I am not certain, and never can be, not even if this voice rings down to me from (visible) heaven."-- The Conflict of the Faculties (1798) by Immanuel Kant[1] |
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The Binding of Isaac is a story from the Hebrew Bible in which God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on Mount Moriah. In Islam, Muslims believe that God's command to Abraham was to sacrifice his older son Ishmael rather than Isaac, which is supported through narrations of the Prophet Muhammad, although the son to be sacrificed is not distinguished in the Quran. The event is remembered on the 1st of Tishrei in the Jewish calendar and from the 10th - 13th of Dhu al-Hijjah in the Muslim calendar: on Eid al-Adha.
The narration is referred to as the Akedah (עקדה) or Akedat Yitzchak (עקידת יצחק) in Hebrew and as the Dhabih (ذبح) in Arabic. The sacrifice itself is called an Olah in Hebrew — for the significance of sacrifices, especially in Biblical times, see korban.
According to the narration, Abraham sets out to obey God's command without questioning. After Isaac is bound to an altar, the angel of the Lord stops Abraham at the last minute, at which point Abraham discovers a ram caught in some nearby bushes. Abraham then sacrifices the ram in Isaac's stead.
While it is often imagined that Isaac was a young boy at the time of the incident, this is mostly a modern idea, with most traditional sources claiming he was an adult. According to Josephus, Isaac is twenty-five years old at the time of the sacrifice; the Talmudic sages teach that Isaac is thirty-seven, likely based on the fact that the next Biblical story is of Sarah's death at 127 (she was ninety when Isaac was born). In either case, Isaac is a fully grown man, strong enough to prevent the elderly Abraham from tying him up had he wanted to resist.
Genesis 22:14 states that it occurred at "the mount of the LORD": in 2 Chronicles Template:Bibleverse-nb3:1; Psalm Template:Bibleverse-nb; Isaiah Template:Bibleverse-nb & Template:Bibleverse-nb; and Zechariah Template:Bibleverse-nb, the Bible seems to identify the location of this event as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
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