Texts in Conversation
Josephus retells the Akedah with Isaac as a willing 25-year-old who accepts his role after Abraham explains his reasoning. Unlike Genesis 22, where Isaac asks only about the lamb, Josephus adds a speech where Isaac answers “with generous resolve.”
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 22:6
Hebrew Bible
5 So he said to his servants, “You two stay here with the donkey while the boy and I go up there. We will worship and then return to you.” 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and put it on his son Isaac. Then he took the fire and the knife in his hand, and the two of them walked on together. 7 Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father?” “What is it, my son?” he replied. “Here is the fire and the wood,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” 8 “God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham replied. The two of them continued on together. 9 When they came to the place God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood on it. Next he tied up his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood.
Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 1.13
Classical
3 When the altar was prepared, Abraham said to Isaac, “My son, I long prayed for you. Once you were born, I worked tirelessly for your well-being and took joy in seeing you become a man, hoping to leave you as my heir. Yet, because it is God’s will—who made me your father—that I now give you to Him, accept this consecration with a noble spirit. I offer you not as an ordinary sacrifice, but to God, who deemed you worthy of avoiding death by illness or war. He calls you to Himself with prayers and sacred rites, so that you will assist me in my old age, coming to my aid with God’s favor, for whose honor you are offered.” Isaac, with equally generous resolve, answered that he would not oppose the will of God or his father. So he went willingly to the altar. 4 But just when Abraham raised the knife, God called his name and forbade him to harm the boy, clarifying He did not desire human blood nor intend to deprive Abraham of a beloved son, only to test his obedience. He promised to reward Abraham’s faith, giving him many more children and declaring Isaac would live a long and happy life, leaving a large heritage to his offspring. They would form many nations, giving their ancestors everlasting renown and inheriting Canaan, envied by all. A ram then appeared for the sacrifice. Reunited in surprise and relief, father and son, after sacrificing the ram, returned to Sarah to live out their days under God’s good favor.
Date: 93-94 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... It is not hard to detect Josephus” apologetic intentions in his rewriting of the aqedah. He clearly wishes his cultured Greek-speaking readership to think of the aqedah in terms other than that of a child sacrifice narrowly averted and to view Judaism as a lofty philosophy rather than a barbarian cult founded by a man who would gladly kill his own son. Josephus accomplishes these goals by putting in Abraham”s mouth a carefully reasoned explanation of his behavior and in Isaac”s, a statement of unqualified assent. But the notion that Isaac (here presented as twenty-five years old in Jewish Antiquities 1:227) gladly accepts his role in the aqedah is not exclusively a figment of Josephus” apologetic motives. It is, as we have seen, a feature prominent in other Jewish retellings from the period, works composed for internal consumption and surely reflecting generations of midrashic development ...”
Levenson, Jon
The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son: The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity
(p. 191) Yale University Press, 1993
* 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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