I recently plucked Gerhard Von Rad’s commentary on Genesis (English translation) off the shelf to scan his comments on the binding of Isaac, Gen 22. Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise for me to find myself immediately at odds with his assessments. The man was an amazing scholar and theologian to whom we all owe a great debt when it comes to the diachronic investigation of scripture, but I’ve found agreement between himself and I either in terms of theology or scholarship (and even of faith) to be sparse (though certainly not as tenuous as others). Commentary on the pericope begins with the statement:
This narrative too, the most perfectly formed and polished of all the patriarchal stories, . . .
Genesis, Gerhard Von Rad, p. 238
Is the man blind? When I translated this portion of Genesis from the Hebrew, I found working with it excruciatingly dull because, narratively speaking, it is immensely laconic. It almost goes out of its way to say as little as possible about what’s going on and to say it in a way that reveals almost nothing of the details of the events or the actions and motivations of its characters. We are left guessing at almost every turn about virtually everything that’s happening! Where is this hill/mount Moriah? How does YHWH show him the way/how does Abraham know they arrived at the right place? What are they doing for three days out there in the wilderness? What does Isaac think about all this? What is Abraham thinking about all this? Did he really say nothing else to Isaac other than YHWH will provide a lamb? What is that supposed to mean? Is Abraham prophesying? Is he making up something to cover up what he’s about to do? Questions about the content of the story abound, but the text gives us almost nothing to work with. One doesn’t have to deal with the Hebrew to get a sense of its austerity. Read this story in English next to virtually any other patriarchal narrative and you immediately sense the dearth of creative expression or literary involvement. What makes it so compelling is not what it says or how it says it, but the moral and ethical dilemma that it introduces in the hearts and minds of its readers (holy wandering Aramean, Bat-man, did YHWH just tell Abraham to slaughter his own son? How could Abraham even think of doing such a thing? Does YHWH get off on this kind of horror?). Synchronically and canonically speaking, of course, there is a tremendous amount of meaning that comes from situating this story at the climax of the entire Abrahamic narrative, but that isn’t influencing GVR’s statement above because he is looking at it in isolation. Perfectly formed and polished
? I say emaciated and soporific.
GVR goes on to categorize the story as a trial, test, or temptation. The supposed purpose of this trial/test/temptation was to see if Abraham truly has trust in YHWH and YHWH’s promise by carrying out the sacrifice of Isaac. Uh—no. I don’t think so. Look, this narrative doesn’t say much of anything. So when it goes out of its way to say something, that speaks volumes. The test isn’t whether Abraham will actually pull the knife on Isaac or not, but whether he will pull it on Ishmael or someone else INSTEAD OF ISAAC. That is why the narrative repeats itself many times over both at the beginning and at the end of the episode (v. 2: take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love – v. 12: seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son – v. 16: your son, your only son). It does this to emphasize that what is important about the sacrifice is not whether it happens, but WHAT PARTICULAR PERSON IS CHOSEN.
In the story, Abraham doesn’t simply take Isaac, his son
–the one YHWH wanted him to take—but also takes two of his boys
(22:3). There are clearly three young men of Abraham’s that are going along for the journey. One of them could be Ishmael for all we know, but the text doesn’t care to tell us. When they arrive at the place, Abraham tells his boys
to stay behind while he and the boy
whom he chooses go on alone. Abraham then places some of the material for the sacrifice on Isaac. This is the moment where the choice is actually made between Abraham’s three boys. The reason Abraham took all three along with him was probably because he had not decided whom he was going to sacrifice. The fact that it took three days was probably because Abraham was stalling. He certainly didn’t want to sacrifice any of his boys,
but the one he didn’t want to sacrifice most of all was Isaac, to whom the promise had been given and whom had been miraculously given to him. Since he had two other boys with him besides Isaac, if he took one whole day to decide whether or not to sacrifice one of those two, and at the end of the second day had sacrificed neither, it would be the third day when the sacrificing of Isaac took place. It is during those two days and up to the moment when Abraham has Isaac carry the wood that the actual test/trial/temptation takes place. Once he gives Isaac the wood, the test/trial/temptation is over—at least for Abraham.
What remains to be seen thereafter is how YHWH responds to Abraham’s obedience in truly taking the one to be sacrificed—the only one—that YHWH asked of him. Will YHWH reward Abraham? If so, then YHWH certainly wouldn’t allow the child to be slaughtered. If YHWH is faithful and righteous, s/he will not reward good with evil. At this point then, it is YHWH who is being tested. Will YHWH prove him/herself faithful and righteous? Abraham certainly believes this will happen, which explains why he tells Isaac that YHWH will give them the animal for the sacrifice. But Abraham’s belief is not enough to establish the faithfulness and righteousness of YHWH. That is something YHWH must do for Abraham and Isaac. When YHWH intervenes and stops the sacrifice from occurring, s/he vindicates him/herself. And this serves as a memorial to all those who come after that just as YHWH saw Abraham’s obedience and faithfully responded to it, so we can be certain that YHWH sees us, is faithful and righteous, and stands ready to deliver us from evil.
And now, when his sons are in the hour of distress you shall remember the Binding of their father Isaac, and listen to the voice of their supplication, and answer them and deliver them from all distress, so that the generations to arise after him may say: ‘On the mountain of the sanctuary of the Lord Abraham sacrificed his son Isaac, and on this mountain the glory of the Shekinah of the Lord was revealed to him.’
Targum Neofiti, Genesis 22:14cc, McNamara, p. 119