Back to the Bible

After our conversation on Tuesday, I decided to dust off my New Oxford Annotated Bible and look back over the story of Abraham. One dispute we were having was about the covenant that God makes with Abraham concerning his fathering of nations. According to my translation, God says “this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations” (Genesis 17:4). One question that was raised was whether or not Isaac was necessarily the fulfillment of this covenant. While it is true that Abraham actually had a son before Isaac with the slave Hagar, my translation at least makes it pretty clear that the covenant God is making with Abraham not only names Sarah as the mother but tells Abraham to name their son Isaac and that it is through him that He will keep his covenant: “your wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him” (Genesis 17:19). This passage shows that God’s covenant rests on miracle that Sarah, in her old age, bore a son. Even though this was a miracle, there isn’t really any reason for Abraham to think that God might establish another covenant with him through another son.

As for the actual passage of the binding of Isaac, God says too Abraham “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you” (Genesis 22:2). While God doesn’t explicitly say that He won’t provide another son if Abraham kills Isaac, He does emphasize the fact that Isaac is Abraham’s only son, and that he is a son Abraham loves. This is obviously a big deal for Abraham, yet he complies without complaint. He also briefly discussed whether Abraham could have known that God wouldn’t actually make him sacrifice his own son. Before Abraham tells Isaac that the Lord will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, he tells the two attendants: “stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you” (Genesis 22:5). While this might suggest that Abraham assumes that both of them will be returning, it could also be Abraham concealing the true purpose of their travels from Isaac. When the angel comes down to stop Abraham from killing Isaac, he says “for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me” (Genesis 22:12). This wording seems to indicate that what Abraham needed was fear and devotion. This makes it seem like Abraham was being praised for trusting in God and being willing to sacrifice his son for His sake, instead of believing in a paradox.

What, if any, does this textual evidence suggest? Does it support Kierkegaard’s interpretation of the Abraham story? In what ways might the translation play a part in the way we understand this story today?