| |  The angel hinders Abraham
as he prepares to offer up of Isaac,
the only son of Abraham and Sarah,
and the father of Jacob and Esau
as described in the Hebrew Bible.
(larger image)  The Sacrifice of Isaac
Artist: Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich,
Oil on canvas, 66 x 54 cm,
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
(larger image)Abraham's willingness to follow God's command to sacrifice Isaac was viewed by Early Christianity as an example of faith and obedience. 8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. -Heb. 11:8-12 The following are cross-references for the above passage. | | Etymology and meaning The English name Isaac is a translation of the Hebrew term יִצְחָק, Strong's H3327 - Yitschaq which literally means "he will laugh," or "he laughs." The term conforms to a well-known Northwest Semitic linguist type, but is not known from elsewhere. As mentioned the term literally means "may God smile", and the Ugaritic texts from thirteenth century BCE refer to the benovolent smile of the Canaanite god El. The Bible (i.e. the canonical collections of sacred writings of Judaism), however, ascribes the laugher to be Isaac's mother (Sarah) rather than the Canaanite god El. The reason for Sarah's laughing, according to the Bible, was that, when God gave the news of the birth of Isaac to his parents they were beyond the age of having children, so they privately laughed at the prediction. Hebrew Bible Isaac is mentioned by name more than 70 times in the book of Genesis but only mentioned 33 times elsewhere. The phrase "Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" occurs 23 times in the Hebrew Bible. Chapters 17-28 of the book of Genesis contain the stories of Isaac. Historians and academics in the fields of linguistics and source criticism believe that the stories of Isaac largely belong to the J, or Yahwist source (See Documentary hypothesis). The beginnings of Genesis 17:15-27 and the end from Genesis 27:46 to Genesis 28:9 is however believed to belong to the P, or Priestly source while Genesis 21:1-7 and Genesis 22:1-19 is considered to be the E, or Elohist source. The Biblical account of the life of Isaac The account of the life of Isaac according to the Hebrew Bible takes place God gave the news of the birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah. Sarah was beyond the age of having children and privately laughed at the predictionThen Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, "Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" -Gen 17:17 When the child was born, she said "God had made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me". Isaac was the only child that Abraham and Sarah had together. Sarah saw Ishmael mocking Isaac and urged her husband to banish Hagar and her child so that Isaac would be the only heir of Abraham. Abraham was hesitant but at God's order he listened to his wife's request. Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when the boy was eight days old (Gen 21:4). According to the book of Genesis, a great feast was held for his being weaned (Gen 21:8). |  The Sacrifice of Isaac,
Juan de Valdes Leal, 1657-59,
Oil on canvas, 187 x 247 cm,
Private collection
(larger image)"Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac." -Gen 21:10 The Hebrew text used is (גרש "garash," to drive out, expel, cast out, drive away, divorce, put away, thrust away, trouble, cast up). Several years later, God tested Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice his son. Abraham obeyed and took Isaac to the mount Moriah. Without murmuring, Isaac let Abraham bind him and lay him upon the altar as a sacrifice. Abraham took the knife and raised his hand to kill his son. At the last minute, an angel of the Lord prevented him from doing so. Instead of Isaac, Abraham sacrificed a ram that was trapped in a thicket nearby. When Isaac was forty years of age, Abraham sent Eliezer, his steward, into Mesopotamia to find a wife for him, from Bethuel, his brother-in-law's family. Rebekah was sent and became the wife of Isaac. She was barren, so Isaac prayed for her and God granted her the favour of conception. She gave birth to twin boys, Esau and Jacob. Isaac favoured Esau, and Rebekah Jacob. Some years afterward, a famine obliged Isaac to move to Gerar, where Abimelech was king; and, as his father had done under similar circumstances, he referred to Rebekah as his sister. Abimelech, having discovered that she was his wife, reproved him for the deception. As Isaac grew very rich and his flocks multiplied, the Philistines of Gerar became so envious that they filled up all the wells which Isaac's servants had dug. At the desire of Abimelech he departed and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar where he dug new wells, but was again put to some difficulties. At length, he returned to Beersheba where he fixed his habitation. Here the Lord appeared to him, and renewed the promise of blessing him. Also Abimelech visited him to form an alliance. | Isaac grew very old (137 years) and became completely blind. He called Esau, his eldest son, and directed him to procure some venison for him. But while Esau was hunting, Jacob sneakily misrepresented himself as Esau to his blind father as obtained his father's blessing, making Isaac Abraham's primary heir, and leaving Esau in an inferior position. Isaac lived some time after this, and sent Jacob into Mesopotamia to take a wife of his own family. "By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. "-Heb 11:20 Jewish traditions In Rabannical traditions the age of Isaac at the time of binding is taken to be 37 which contrasts with common portrayals of Isaac as a child. The Rabbis also taught that the reason for the death of Sarah was the news of intended sacrifice of Isaac. |  Isaac Blessing Jacob, Govert Flinck, 1638
(larger image) | | The sacrifice of Isaac was cited in appeals for the mercy of God in the later Jewish traditions. The post-biblical Jewish interpretations often elaborate the role of Isaac beyond the biblical description and largely focus on Abraham's intended sacrifice of Isaac, called the aqedah("binding"). According to a version of these interpretations, Isaac died in the sacrifice and was revived. According to Many accounts of Haggadah, unlike the Bible, it is Satan who is testing Isaac and not God. Isaac's willingness to follow God's command at the cost of his death has been a model for many Jews who preferred matrydom to violation of the Jewish law. According to the Jewish tradition Isaac instituted the afternoon prayer. This tradition is based on Genesis 24:63 ("Isaac went out to mediate in the field at the eventide") Isaac was the only patriarch who stayed in Canaan during his whole life and though once he tried to leave, God told he not to do so (Genesis 26:2). Rabannic tradition gave the explanation that Isaac was almost sacrificed and anything dedicated as a sacrifice may not leave the Land of Israel. Isaac is the longest-lived of the patriarchs, and the only biblical patriarch whose name was not changed. Rabbinical literature also linked Isaac's blindness in old age as stated in the Bible to the sacrificial binding: Isaac's eyes went blind because the tears of angels present at the time of his sacrifice fell on Isaac's eyes. New Testament The New Testament contains few references to Isaac. There are references to Isaac having been "offered up" by his father, and to his blessing his. Paul contrasted Isaac (symbolizing Christianity) with the older son Ishmael (symbolizing Judaism); (see Galatians 4:21-30).In Galatians 4:28-31, Hagar is associated with the Sinai covenant, while Sarah is associated with the covenant of grace (into which her son Isaac enters). Genesis 2:21-24 argues that the sacrifice of Isaac shows that justification requires both faith and works. In the early Christian church, Abraham's willingness to follow God's command to sacrifice Isaac was used as an example of faith (Hebrews 11:17) and of obedience (bames 2:21). While the epistle to the Hebrews views the release of Isaac from sacrifice as analogous to the resurrection of Jesus, the idea of the sacrifice of Isaac being a prefigure of sacrifice of Jesus on the cross bates back to the end of birst Christian century. It first appeared in the apocryphal epistle of Barnabas and later became an important theme for many renowned artists. Qur'an Isaac is a prophet in Islam, his name appearing in 15 passages of the Qur'an. Like many other ancient prophets, the Qur'anic references to Isaac assume the audience is already familiar with him and his stories. There is little narrative of Isaac in the Qur'an. The Qur'an states that Isaac was given to Sarah, when she and her husband Abraham were both old (see Qur'an 11:70-74). In verse Qur'an 37:112, God gives Abraham the good news of the birth of Isaac "a prophet, one of the Righteous." Verses Qur'an 11:71-74 provide a fuller version of the story: The messengers of God who were sent against the people of Lut came to Abraham. Abraham's wife (Sarah) "laughed: But we gave her glad tidings of Isaac, and after him, of Jacob." Watt states that there are several verses of the Qur'an talking about Isaac and Jacob being given to Abraham (Qur'an 6:84; Qur'an 19:49-50; Qur'an 21:72), and Qur'an 29:27-26 adds that God “made prophethood and the Book to be among his offspring” (see also Qur'an 38:45). The formula "We gave Abraham Isaac and Jacob" has been "thought by some scholars to demonstrate that in the early revelations Jacob was considered to be a son of Abraham and not his grandson." In verse, Qur'an 14:39-41, Isaac and Ishmael are joined together and "Abraham praises God for giving him the two although he was old." In other instances Isaac's names occurs in the lists (see Qur'an 12:38, Qur'an 2:127-133, Qur'an 4:161-163) The Qur'an states that Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his son. The son is not however named in the Qur'an(see Qur'an 37:99-113) and in early Islam, there was a fierce controversy over the identity of the son. However the belief that it was Ishmael prevailed later and it was fully endorsed by the Muslim scholars. The argument of those early scholars who believed in the Isaac theory (notably Ibn Ḳutayba, and al-Ṭabarī) was that "God's perfecting his mercy on Abraham and Isaac (in Qur'an 12:6) referred to his making Abraham his friend and saving him from the burning bush and to his rescuing Isaac. The other party held that the promise to Sarah of Isaac followed by Jacob (Qur'an 11:71-74) excluded the possibility of a sacrifice of Isaac." The early controversy was more concerned with Persian than Jewish rivalry from the Arabs, since the Persians claimed to be of descendents of Isaac. Al-Masudi for example reports a Persian poet (902 CE) who boasted to be superior to the Arabs because of descent from Isaac. Academic view Some scholars have described Isaac as "a legendary figure" while others view him "as a figure representing tribal history, though as a historical individual" or "as a seminomadic leader, or as the founder of a cult." The stories of Isaac, like other patriarchal stories of Genesis, are generally believed in western scholarship to have "their origin in folk memories and oral traditions of the early Hebrew pastoralist experience." According to Martin Noth, a renowned scholar of the Hebrew Bible, the narratives of Isaac date back to an older cultural stage than that of the West-Jordanian Jacob. At that era, the Israelite tribes were not yet sedentary. In the course of looking for grazing areas, they had come in contact in southern Palestine with the inhabitants of the settled countryside. The biblical historian A. Jopsen believes in the connection between the Isaac traditions and the North and in support of this theory adduces Amos 7:9 ("the high places of Isaac"). Distinguished biblical historians Albrecht Alt and Martin Noth hold that "The figure of Isaac was enhanced when the theme of promise, previously bound to the cults of the 'God the Fathers' was incorporated into the Israelite creed during the southern-Palestinian stage of the growth of the Pentateuch tradition." According to Martin Noth, at the southern-Palestinian stage of the growth of the Pentateuch tradition, Isaac became established as one of the biblical patriarchs, however his traditions were receded in the favor of Abraham. Testament The Testament of Isaac is a pseudonymous text which was most likely composed in Greek in Egypt after 100 C.E. It is also dependent on the Testament of Abraham. In this testament, God sends the angel Michael to Isaac in order to inform him of his impending death. Isaac accepts God's decree but Jacob resists. Isaac in his bed-chamber tells Jacob of the inevitability of death. Isaac has a tour to heaven and hell shortly before his death in which God's compassion to repentant sinners is emphasized. In this testament, Isaac also talks with the crowds on the subjects of priesthood, asceticism, and the moral life. Isaac in art The earliest Christian portrayal of Isaac is found in the Roman catacomb frescoes. Excluding the fragments, Alison Moore Smith classifies these artistic works in three categories: "paintings showing the approach to the Sacrifice in which Abraham leads Isaac, bearing faggots, towards the altar; or Isaac approaches with the bundle of sticks, Abraham having preceded him to the place of offering..[paintings in which] Abraham is upon a pedestal and Isaac stands near at hand, both figures in orant attitude..[paintings in which] Abraham is shown about to sacrifice Isaac while the latter stands or kneels on the ground beside the altar. Sometimes Abraham grasps Isaac by the hair. Occasionally the ram is added to the scene and in the later paintings the Hand of God emerges from above" see also The Iconography of the Sacrifice of Isaac in Early Christian Art
Alison Moore Smith
American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1922), pp. 159-173
doi:10.2307/497708 See also Notes - Ishaq, Encyclopedia of Islam
- The Eerdmans, The Encyclopedia of Christianity, Isaac, p.744
- Encyclopedia of Religion, Isaac
- Britannica Encyclopedia, Sarah
- Jewish Encyclopedia , Isaac
- Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, Isaac, p.647
- Encyclopedia of Christianity(Ed. John Bowden), Isaac
- Genesis 21:6
- The New Encyclopedia of Judaism, Isaac
- M.G. Easton, Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 3rd ed., Isaac
- Jewish Encyclopedia, Isaac
- Catholic Encyclopedia, Isaac
- Britannica Encyclopedia, Isaac
- Brock, Sebastian P., Brill's New Pauly, Isaac
- Mathew 8:11; Luke 12:28; Luke 20:37; Romans 9:7; Galatians 4:28; Hebrews 11:17; James 2:21 cf. Catholic Encyclopedia
- Galatians 4:21-30
- Galatians 4:28-31
- James 2:21-24
- Hebrews 11:17
- James 2:21, 2:19
- Browning (1996), p.187
- Appraisals for Isaac: Qur'an 6:84, Qur'an 12:6, Qur'an 19:50, Qur'an 21:72–73, Qur'an 37:113, Qur'an 38:45–47 - Isaac prophecy: Qur'an 2:133, Qur'an 2:136, Qur'an 2:140, Qur'an 3:84, Qur'an 4:163, Qur'an 6:84, Qur'an 12:6, Qur'an 19:49, Qur'an 21:73, Qur'an 37:112
- Isaac, Encyclopedia of the Qur'an
- see Qur'an 11:70–74
- see Qur'an 37:112
- (Qur'an 6:84; Qur'an 19:49–50; Qur'an 21:72)
- (see also Qur'an 38:45 and Qur'an 29:27–26)
- Jacob, Encyclopedia of Islam
- Qur'an 14:39–41
- (see Qur'an 12:38, Qur'an 2:127–133, Qur'an 4:161–163)
- Wheeler, Brannon (2006), "Asbat", in Leaman, Oliver, The Qur'an: an encyclopedia, Great Britain: Routeledge, pp. 81–2
- (see Qur'an 37:99–113)
- (Qur'an 11:71–74)
- Columbia Encyclopedia, Isaac
- The Cambridge Companion to the Bible, p.59
- The Iconography of the Sacrifice of Isaac in Early Christian Art, by Alison Moore Smith, American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 26, No. 2, 159-173
References - Browning, W.R.F (1996). A dictionary of the Bible. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-211691-6.
- Paul Lagasse, Lora Goldman, Archie Hobson, Susan R. Norton, ed (2000). The Columbia Encyclopedia (6th ed.). Gale Group. ISBN 978-1593392369.
- P.J. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs, ed. Encyclopaedia of Islam Online. Brill Academic Publishers. ISSN 1573-3912.
- Erwin Fahlbusch, William Geoffrey Bromiley, ed (2001). Encyclopedia of Christianity (1st ed.). Eerdmans Publishing Company, and Brill. ISBN 0-8028-2414-5.
- John Bowden, ed (2005). Encyclopedia of Christianity (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-522393-4.
- The New Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica, Incorporated; Rev Ed edition. 2005. ISBN 978-1593392369.
- Jane Dammen McAuliffe, ed (2005). Encyclopedia of the Qur'an. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-9004123564.
- Geoffrey Wigoder, ed (2002). The New Encyclopedia of Judaism (2nd ed.). New York University Press. ISBN 978-0814793886.
- Lindsay Jones, ed (2005). Encyclopedia of Religion (2nd ed.). MacMillan Reference Books. ISBN 978-0028657332.
- Eerdmans, Wm. B. (2000). Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0802824004.
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