![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.aniyostsef.com\/kahal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/akedah-whose-son-is-isaac-300x230.jpg?resize=300%2C230\")
His name was Isaac, and in the first version of this tale he was a child sacrifice. This is obvious just from carefully reading our inherited text. But, the following is not so obvious, as evidenced by all the debates over the akedah throughout thousands of years:<\/p>\n
Whose son did Abraham sacrifice to the ancient Elohim god, the high god of the Canaanite pantheon whose position YHWH god later usurped? Was Isaac King Abimelech’s son, from the brief sexual encounter between he and Sarah, initiated by Abraham’s direction and followed through unwittingly by him? (Genesis 20) Was Isaac the son of YHWH god, who visited Sarah alone in her tent, while having his armless winged cherubim distract Abraham with conversation outside, then promising afterwards Sarah’s eventual birth? (Genesis 18) Or, was Isaac the son of Abraham, who managed somehow to impregnate Sarah decades long after she had already reached menopause? (Genesis 21)<\/p>\n
The answer is actually: Isaac is Sarah’s son, regardless who was the father! And, the reason that Abraham sacrificed Isaac on the alter (Genesis 22), killing his “only son,” was because of the historic time period of the first writing of this story. One of the earliest laws of ancient polytheistic Israelite society was the sacrificing of *all* firstborns to the land’s god-King. (Exodus 22:28-29)<\/p>\n
Yes, the continent was broken up by nations, and each nation had it’s god-King that rules it. Thus, Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac on an alter to the god Elohim was a test of his loyalty to this god-King. A loyalty test which he, Abraham, indeed passed, to Elohim’s delight and pleasure! The reward, according to the tale, is that Abraham would have children (descendants) like the number of stars (Genesis 15:5), and that they would survive for as long as there is skies and a land upon which to live (Deuteronomy 11:21). Note, in ancient lore, there is always a price when dealing one-on-one in Brit bein HaBetarim, a pact, with a god-King (Genesis 12-17).<\/p>\n
The beauty of Torah is that it *does not* try to explain everything. And it *does not* try to cover up early thought for later thought. There is no *absolute truth* in Torah! Rather, the Torah blends far-ancient stories, laws, and beliefs with near-ancient stories, laws, and beliefs – like a highly conflicted woven tapestry of words – thus, allowing the Torah to speak on its own terms in its multi-historical periods to those who read it. To those who read it, in whatever historical time period they happen to be reading Torah.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.thetorah.com\/article\/the-sacrifice-of-isaac-in-context-recovering-a-lost-ending-of-the-akedah<\/p>\n
The Sacrifice of Isaac in Context – Recovering a Lost Ending of the Akedah
\nDr. Rabbi Tzemah Yoreh, theTorah-com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
His name was Isaac, and in the first version of this tale he was a child sacrifice. This is obvious just from carefully reading our inherited text. But, the following is not so obvious, as evidenced by all the debates over the akedah throughout thousands of years: Whose son did […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n