Genesis 22:2

Hebrew Bible

1 Some time after these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am!” Abraham replied. 2 God said, “Take your son—your only son, whom you love, Isaac—and go to the land of Moriah! Offer him up there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will indicate to you.” 3 Early in the morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took two of his young servants with him, along with his son Isaac. When he had cut the wood for the burnt offering, he started out for the place God had spoken to him about. 4 On the third day Abraham caught sight of the place in the distance.

Jubilees 17:16

Pseudepigrapha

15 And it came to pass in the seventh week, in the first year thereof, [2003 A.M.] in the first month in this jubilee, on the twelfth of this month, there were voices in heaven regarding Abraham, that he was faithful in all that He told him, and that he loved the Lord, and that in every affliction he was faithful. 16 And the prince Mastêmâ came and said before God, 'Behold, Abraham loves Isaac his son, and he delights in him above all things else; bid him offer him as a burnt-offering on the altar, and Thou wilt see if he will do this command, and Thou wilt know if he is faithful in everything wherein Thou dost try him. 17 And the Lord knew that Abraham was faithful in all his afflictions; for He had tried him through his country and with famine, and had tried him with the wealth of kings, and had tried him again through his wife, when she was torn (from him), and with circumcision; and had tried him through Ishmael and Hagar, his maid-servant, when he sent them away.

 Notes and References

"... The solution to this problem [in James 1:13] appears immediately if one examines the account of Abraham in Jubilees. First, in Jubilees 17:15-18, it is not God who initiates the test of Abraham, but 'Prince Mastema' who challenges God. Thus, while Jubilees does not explain why God went along with the test, the whole testing situation is recast in a form similar to that of Job. Secondly, Abraham is presented as a person who has been faithful through a series of tests ..."

Davids, Peter H. "The Pseudepigrapha in the Catholic Epistles" in Charlesworth, James H., and Craig A. Evans, editors. The Pseudepigrapha and Early Biblical Interpretation (p. 229) JSOT Press, 1993


"... a more modest version of this theory is that the changing nature of God in Judaism may have prompted the transference to other heavenly beings of certain actions and attributes now deemed unbecoming of the deity. Efraim Urbach notes several examples in which angels are employed to avoid anthropomorphism in describing God. In addition, angels replace God in various retellings of biblical stories: Satan replaces God in the Chronicler’s retelling of the story of David’s census (1 Chronicles 21:1; compare 2 Samuel 24:1); Mastema replaces God in the account of the binding of Isaac (Jubilees 17:15–18:19; compare Genesis 22) and again in the story of God’s attempt to kill Moses (Jubilees 48:2; compare Exodus 4:24) ..."

Galbraith, Deane "The Origin of Archangels: Idealogical Mystification of Nobility" in Myles, Robert J. (ed.) Class Struggle in the New Testament (pp. 209-240) Fortress Academic, 2019


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