Jubilees 18:16
Pseudepigrapha
15 He said: ‘I have sworn by myself, says the Lord: because you have performed this command and have not refused me your first-born son whom you love, I will indeed bless you and will indeed multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and like the sands on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the cities of their enemies.’ 16 ‘All the nations of the earth will be blessed through your descendants because of the fact that you have obeyed my command. I have made known to everyone that you are faithful to me in everything that I have told you. Go in peace.’ 17 Then Abraham went to his servants. They set out and went together to Beersheba. Abraham lived at the well of the oath.
Date: 150-100 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Augustine City of God 11.32
On the City of God Against the Pagans
Patristic
Among other things, of which it would take too long time to mention the whole, Abraham was tempted about the offering up of his well-beloved son Isaac, to prove his pious obedience, and so make it known to the world, not to God. Now every temptation is not blame-worthy; it may even be praise-worthy, because it furnishes probation. And, for the most part, the human mind cannot attain to self-knowledge otherwise than by making trial of its powers through temptation, by some kind of experimental and not merely verbal self-interrogation;
Date: 426 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Notes and References
"... in interpreting in this way, these writers seemed to contradict what the Bible itself says explicitly later on. For in the biblical account, after Abraham has demonstrated his willingness to offer up his beloved Isaac, God says to him: 'Now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me' (Genesis 22:12). 'Now I know' seems to imply 'I did not know before.' How then could the author of Jubilees and other interpreters maintain that God did know all along? The answer lies in yet another ambiguity in the Hebrew. For the same consonants that spell the Hebrew word 'I know' can also be read in such a way as to mean 'I have made known' or 'I have notified.' This is apparently how some interpreters chose to understand the text ... Thus, God's great test of Abraham took place in response to a challenge and was carried out in order to prove Abraham's virtues not to God, but to others—Satan, the other angels, or the world at large ..."
* 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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