Introduction to the Bible
There is a story called “the Akedah” in the Bible. It talks about the dilemma between loving one’s child and following God’s will. At least, there are two interpretations of the story, that is, Jewish one and Christian one. Explain and compare the two interpretations in detail.(20)
In this story, they, Jewish and Christian one, are having different views on “The Akeda: the binding of Isaac”. The differences between the two aspects are mainly about the ways to see the God’s action; God’s Test to Abraham.
At first, through the eyes of Jewish one, “the trial is not a means of God finding out whether Abraham loves and obeys him”. They says God (and the leader) knows this from the start, and at the crucial moment God intervenes because of this knowledge. However, in Genesis they depict this same situation differently. It happened only after Abraham has taken the knife that God, through the angel, says ‘for now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.’ (Genesis 22:12) And in Jubilees, they say the purpose of God’s action is to demonstrate to Mastema Abraham’s faithfulness and love of God. And they are also trying link the Abraham’s action to this fact that it makes Israel’s faithfulness to God know, so that ‘all the nations may bless themselves’ by them. (Jubilees 18:16) -referred to 1st paragraph of page 57.
On the other side, with Christian sights, this story is interpreted through its own central narrative of the crucifixion of Jesus. They say, despite of the obvious similarities of it, there are few actual literary allusions to the Akedah in the Gospel narratives. And here, we can read a certain message; echoes of Isaac’s questioning of his father and the subsequent traditions of his willing acceptance of his father’s purpose. Here, they says that there is no human father as mediator of God’s purpose; no relenting on the part of the heavenly father; no mere testing of the victim’s father.
In this story, they, Jewish and Christian one, are having different views on “The Akeda: the binding of Isaac”. The differences between the two aspects are mainly about the ways to see the God’s action; God’s Test to Abraham.
At first, through the eyes of Jewish one, “the trial is not a means of God finding out whether Abraham loves and obeys him”. They says God (and the leader) knows this from the start, and at the crucial moment God intervenes because of this knowledge. However, in Genesis they depict this same situation differently. It happened only after Abraham has taken the knife that God, through the angel, says ‘for now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.’ (Genesis 22:12) And in Jubilees, they say the purpose of God’s action is to demonstrate to Mastema Abraham’s faithfulness and love of God. And they are also trying link the Abraham’s action to this fact that it makes Israel’s faithfulness to God know, so that ‘all the nations may bless themselves’ by them. (Jubilees 18:16) -referred to 1st paragraph of page 57.
On the other side, with Christian sights, this story is interpreted through its own central narrative of the crucifixion of Jesus. They say, despite of the obvious similarities of it, there are few actual literary allusions to the Akedah in the Gospel narratives. And here, we can read a certain message; echoes of Isaac’s questioning of his father and the subsequent traditions of his willing acceptance of his father’s purpose. Here, they says that there is no human father as mediator of God’s purpose; no relenting on the part of the heavenly father; no mere testing of the victim’s father.