Chronological timeline of texts tagged with Retelling the Akedah
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The Akedah, or the binding of Isaac, in Genesis 22 often provokes discomfort due to its depiction of God commanding Abraham to sacrifice his son, raising unsettling questions about divine morality or foreknowledge. In response, later interpretations frequently either remove God as the direct source of the test or fill in narrative gaps to resolve its theological tensions. Some shift the instigation to Satan or an angel, distancing God from the appearance of giving an arbitrary test; others explicitly insert divine foreknowledge or inner dialogue to reassure readers that God is not capricious or ignorant, but remains just and omniscient throughout the ordeal.
Note: Dates shown in this timeline are approximate and based on scholarly estimates.
Back to Tag5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition)
Genesis 22:1
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.
5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition)
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.
3rd Century B.C.E.
LXX Genesis 22:2
Septuagint
1 And it came about after these matters that God tested Abraam and said to him, “Abraam, Abraam!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 And he said, “Take your beloved son Isaak, whom you love, and go into the high land, and offer him as a whole burnt offering on one of the mountains, whichever I mention to you.” 3 And when Abraam had risen in the morning, he saddled his donkey. Now he took along with himself two servants and his son Isaak, and after he had split wood for a whole burnt offering and risen, he went and came to the place that God had mentioned to him, on the third day.
150-100 B.C.E.
Jubilees 17:16
Pseudepigrapha
15 During the seventh week, in the first year during the first month — on the twelfth of this month — in this jubilee [2003], there were voices in heaven regarding Abraham, that he was faithful in everything that he told him, that the Lord loved him, and that in every difficulty he was faithful. 16 Then Prince Mastema came and said before God: ‘Abraham does indeed love his son Isaac and finds him more pleasing than anyone else. Tell him to offer him as a sacrifice on an altar. Then you will see whether he performs this order and will know whether he is faithful in everything through which you test him.’ 17 Now the Lord was aware that Abraham was faithful in every difficulty which he had told him. For he had tested him through his land and the famine; he had tested him through the wealth of kings; he had tested him again through his wife when she was taken forcibly, and through circumcision; and he had tested him through Ishmael and his servant girl Hagar when he sent them away.
450-550 C.E.
Sanhedrin 89b
Rabbinic
§ Apropos the binding of Isaac, the Gemara elaborates: It is written: “And it came to pass after these matters [hadevarim] that God tried Abraham” (Genesis 22:1). The Gemara asks: After what matters? How does the binding of Isaac relate to the preceding events? Rabbi Yoḥanan said in the name of Rabbi Yosei ben Zimra: This means after the statement [devarav] of Satan, as it is written: “And the child grew, and was weaned, and Abraham prepared a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned” (Genesis 21:8). Satan said before the Holy One, Blessed be He: Master of the Universe, this old man, you favored him with a product of the womb, i.e., a child, at one hundred years of age. From the entire feast that he prepared, did he not have even one dove or one pigeon to sacrifice before You as a thanks-offering? God said to Satan: Did Abraham prepare the feast for any reason but for his son? If I say to him: Sacrifice your son before Me, he would immediately slaughter him. Immediately, after these matters, the verse states: “And God tried Abraham.”
500 C.E.
Genesis Rabbah 55:4
Rabbinic
After these things — misgivings were experienced on that occasion. Who then had misgivings? Avraham, saying to himself: ‘I have rejoiced and made all others rejoice, yet I did not set aside a single bullock or ram for the Holy One of Blessing.’ Said the Holy One of Blessing to him: ‘I know that even if you were commanded to offer your only son to Me, you would not refuse.’ - this is according to Rabbi Eleazar who said that the employment of va-e-lohim where E-lohim would suffice, implies both God and God’s Court. It was the ministering angels who spoke thus: ‘This Avraham rejoiced and made all others rejoice, yet did not set aside for the Holy One of Blessing a single bullock or ram.’ Said the Holy One of Blessing to them: ‘Even if we tell him to offer his own son, he will not refuse.’ Itzchak and Ishmael were engaged in a dispute: the latter argued, ‘I am more beloved than you, because I was circumcised at the age of thirteen’; while the other retorted, ‘I am more beloved than you, because I was circumcised at eight days.’ Said Ishmael to him: ‘I am more beloved, because I could have protested, yet I did not.’