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1 Clement

First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians

About this book

How to Receive God’s Blessing

Chapter 31

1 Let us therefore hold on to His blessing, and let us see what the ways of blessing are. Let us study the records of the things that have happened from the beginning. 2 Why was our father Abraham blessed? Was it not because he practiced righteousness and truth through faith? 3 Isaac, with confidence, knowing the future, was led as a willing sacrifice.⁠ 4 Jacob, with humility, left his land because of his brother and went to Laban and served; and the twelve tribes of Israel were given to him.

Texts in conversation

Compare Judith 8:26 and Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 31:2

Deuterocanon · Early Christian

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Summary

1 Clement follows Jewish traditions like Judith by interpreting Isaac’s silence in the Akedah as a sign that he was tested with Abraham. Isaac’s quiet acceptance is read as his own act of endurance, showing that he willingly accepted his trial.

Passages

Judith 8:26

Deuterocanon
25 Besides all this let’s give thanks to the Lord our God, who tries us, even as he did our fathers also. 26 Remember all the things which he did to Abraham, and all the things in which he tried Isaac, and all the things which happened to Jacob in Mesopotamia of Syria, when he kept the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother. 27 For he has not tried us in the fire, as he did them, to search out their hearts, neither has he taken vengeance on us; but the Lord scourges those who come near to him, to admonish them.” 28 And Ozias said to her, “All that you have spoken, you have spoken with a good heart. There is no one who will deny your words.
100 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Judith

Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 31:2

Early Christian · First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
1 Let us therefore hold on to His blessing, and let us see what the ways of blessing are. Let us study the records of the things that have happened from the beginning. 2 Why was our father Abraham blessed? Was it not because he practiced righteousness and truth through faith? 3 Isaac, with confidence, knowing the future, was led as a willing sacrifice. 4 Jacob, with humility, left his land because of his brother and went to Laban and served; and the twelve tribes of Israel were given to him.
90–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Clement of Rome, 1 Clement

References

"... Given the necessity of finding something praiseworthy concerning Isaac in the story, an interpreter might still come up with an indication, no matter how slight, that Isaac had consented to be sacrificed. And slight indication there was. After all, the text makes no mention of Isaac resisting or trying to flee. It simply says: 'When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood' (Genesis 22:9). Is not this silence eloquent? After all, Abraham is an old man—well over a hundred, his age at Isaac's birth (Genesis 21:5). We do not know how old Isaac is, but he is certainly old enough to ask the question that he asks about the sacrificial lamb, and old enough to carry the wood and the fire. Conceivably, then, such a boy or young man could not have been tied up by his aged father if he himself had struggled or attempted to flee. Thus, if Abraham was indeed able to go ahead as planned and offer Isaac as a sacrifice, could it have been in any way other than with Isaac's active cooperation? A number of sources go out of their way to suggest that Isaac was indeed a willing participant ..."
James L. Kugel, The Bible as It Was (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998), 174–175.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Judith 8:26 and Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 31:2

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