An Atheistic Bible Study Of Genesis Chapter Twenty Two – Abraham Nearly Kills Isaac

Tweet

One of the best known and inexplicably best loved Old Testament stories is one of the most disgusting, sickening episodes in the whole Bible. After years of longing for a son, Abraham, now aged at least 105, is told by God to take his beloved son, Isaac to the mountainous region of Moriah and sacrifice him there to God. That Abraham goes along with this murder-bluff at all Is appalling enough, but worse, he makes zero attempt to challenge God’s immorality, or defend Isaac in any way whatsoever. He just OK’s the request and prepares to put God’s plan into action, no question asked. The plan is for Abraham to take Isaac to the mountains, knife him to death and burn the body on a wooden altar pyre as a tribute to God. The journey to Moriah starts the morning after God commands this killing by Abraham. Isaac is not told that he is to be butchered, and neither are the two slaves who accompany the father and son for the first half of their journey. Sarah isn’t even mentioned in the build up to the event, and we can assume she wasn’t told either. Had Abraham called to her with, “Going out with our son to murder him darling. See you later.” The reaction from Sarah might not have been support for such a venture. Abraham gathers a great deal of wood for the intended altar fire, and after three days the four travellers reach the foothills of the mountain range. Abraham tells the slaves to wait while he and Isaac head up a mountain (which one in the area is never disclosed). Abraham tells the slaves that he and Isaac will return, suggesting that he is lying, presumably to stop Isaac running away or the slaves preventing the potential tragedy about to unfold. Some Jewish and Christian scholars have claimed that Abraham may have even suspected that God was bluffing, but if so, why even go ahead with the charade? Surely Abraham would have expected God to know if he expected the deadly game to end before human blood was spilt. Abraham gets Isaac to carry the wood for his own sacrificial altar up the mountain, while Abraham carries only the knife, and a lit firebrand. Only now does Isaac realize that something is wrong. He has been told there will be a lamb to sacrifice, but there is no lamb in sight. He asks Abraham where the lamb might be. Abraham lies to him by telling him that God will be providing the lamb, rather than that he is the intended sacrifice. At the spot God has told him to head for, Abraham builds the altar from the wood, and then grabs hold of Isaac, tying him up and lying him down on the altar. If Isaac resists or protests, his words or screams are not recorded. Abraham raises the knife with intent to stab Isaac or cut his throat. At the very last instant an angel hollers to Abraham all the way from Heaven, calling out his name twice as though looking for him. Abraham pauses in his murderous task to reveal where he is. This is odd as God gave Abraham very specific directions on where to go. The angel tells Abraham not to kill Isaac. The whole exercise has been a test of Abraham’s loyalty which Abraham has passed. The angel’s speech is rather confusingly as if the angel is God personally addressing Abraham and also an angel acting as his spokesperson. Abraham now spots a ram tethered to a nearby bush, and having released Isaac from the bonds that tied him and got him safely off the crude altar, Abraham puts the ram there in his place, kills it and burns it in God’s name. God has effectively given himself the ram and just used Abraham as a pawn in giving himself a present. The Angel, still confusingly speaking as if it was God personally, tells Abraham that his total unquestioning loyalty will be rewarded with a gift of many descendents and nations. Abraham and Isaac rejoin their slaves and the group go to Beersheba, staying there for an unspecified period. While there, Abraham is informed that his brother Nahor is now a father as his wife, Milcah has had eight children , while Nahor’s concubine has had four sons of her own too. The chapter ends with a list of all the son’s names. Only one is important, Bethuel, son of Nahor, will become the father of Rebekkah, who will have a key part to play later in Genesis. The sheer nastiness of this chapter is astonishing. Any loving parent would defend their children against anyone wanting to harm or kill them, rather than co-operating with a thug, no matter how powerful. Given God’s power Abraham was unlikely to win a fight or war against God, but if he had a shred of decency he would have offered some resistance. That God even sets such a task on Abraham says God should not be trusted or loved by anyone, period. Many actual killers, including some who genuinely murdered their own children, have claimed that they committed the offence because God or angels told them to do it. Abraham fortunately stopped just in time, but many religions and cults subject followers to such deadly loyalty tests, often using Abraham putting God before family as an example. We never see how Isaac felt about his father through or after this ordeal. Had my parents tried any such activity, with or without belief that they were told to do it by an invisible giant wizard, I would have had them arrested. Arthur Chappell