Texts in Conversation
Genesis does not describe Abraham’s thoughts at the binding of Isaac, but the Aramaic Targums describe him as going with a “whole heart,” without hesitating. In Romans, Paul says Abraham did not waver in his faith, which echoes a similar tradition.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Romans 4:20
New Testament
18 Against hope Abraham believed in hope with the result that he became the father of many nations according to the pronouncement, “so will your descendants be.” 19 Without being weak in faith, he considered his own body as dead (because he was about one hundred years old) and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 He did not waver in unbelief about the promise of God but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. 21 He was fully convinced that what God promised he was also able to do. 22 So indeed it was credited to Abraham as righteousness.
Date: 55–58 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Neofiti Genesis 22:14
Targum
12 And he said, “Do not put out your hand against the boy, and do not do anything to him; for now I know that you fear from before the Lord, and you have not withheld your son, your only one, from me.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw, and there was a ram caught in a tree by its horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 And Abraham worshiped and prayed in the name of the Memra of the Lord, and said, “I beg, by the mercy from before you, Lord: everything is revealed and known before you, that there was no division in my heart at the first time, when you told me to offer Isaac my son, to make him dust and ashes before you; but at once I rose early in the morning and carried out your word with joy, and I fulfilled your decree. And now, when his sons stand in the hour of distress, may you remember the binding of Isaac their father, and hear the voice of their prayer, and answer them, and save them from every distress, so that the generations that are to arise after him will say: On the mountain of the sanctuary of the Lord Abraham offered Isaac his son, and on this mountain the Glory of the Shekinah of the Lord was revealed to him.” 15 And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from the heavens, 16 and said, “By the name of his Memra I have sworn, says the Lord: because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only one,
Date: 300–600 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Sinners, those of a double mind, are told to purify their hearts (James 4:8), i.e. the hearts of believers should be simple and perfect. There should be undivided attention to the Lord and his affairs (1 Corinthians 7:32-35). We should compare this with what the Palestinian Targum to the Pentateuch has to say on 'the perfect heart.' Israel was commanded to love God 'with all her heart (Deuteronomy 6:5). In the targum full devotion to God is described as a 'perfect heart,' i.e. one that is completely set on God, not divided between him and created things. Palestinian Targum Genesis 22:6, 8 says that Abraham and Isaac 'walked together with a perfect heart'. After the sacrifice of the animal in Isaac's stead Abraham reminds God: 'There was no division in my heart the first time that you said to me to sacrifice my son' (Palestinian Targum Genesis 22:14), i.e. it was whole, perfect, not divided between God and creatures. At Sinai all Israel 'answered with a perfect heart' that they would obey God's words (Palestinian Targum Exodus 19:8). Finally, in the verse preceding the command to love God with all one's heart, the twelve tribes of Jacob answered together 'with a perfect heart and said: Listen to us, Israel, our father the Lord our God is one' (Palestinian Targum Deuteronomy 6:4) ..."
Martin McNamara, Targum and Testament Revisited: Aramaic Paraphrases of the Hebrew Bible: A Light on the New Testament, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010), 189.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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