Joseph A. Fitzmyer, «The sacrifice of Isaac in Qumran literature», Vol. 83 (2002) 211-229

Gen 22,1-19 the account of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac, is discussed first in its Hebrew and Old Greek form; then as it was developed in the Book of Jubilees 17,15–18,16, and especially in the form of Pseudo-Jubilees, as it is preserved in 4Q225 2 i and ii (4QPs-Jub^a 2 i 7-14, 2 ii 1-14), in order to ascertain how much of the development of the account can be traced to pre-Christian Palestinian Jewish tradition prior to the New Testament. Finally, building on such evidence, the article traces the development in other texts of the first Christian century and in the later targumic and rabbinic tradition about the Aqedah.

Qumran text to be discussed. It first appears in the rabbinic tradition of the third-fourth century of the Christian era. For this reason I shall not use it again until I come to discuss that tradition. I shall be speaking of the sacrifice of Isaac in a sense that mediates between the first and second senses just mentioned, because I am concerned to determine how much of the first meaning can really be found in the Jewish tradition that develops out of Gen 22,1-19 in the pre-Christian Palestinian Jewish tradition prior to the New Testament.

        My further remarks will be made under four headings: (1) the Genesis account in its original Hebrew form and in the Old Greek version; (2) the understanding of the account in the Book of Jubilees; (3) the Qumran text that interprets it; and (4) later developments of the understanding of the sacrifice of Isaac.

I. The Genesis Account in Its Original Hebrew Form
and in the Old Greek Version

The Hebrew narrative of the sacrifice of Isaac is recounted in Gen 22,1-19, which can be summarized thus:

1After these events God put Abraham to the test... ²... ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall point out to you’. ³Abraham rose early the next morning, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. He cut wood for the burnt offering and set out to go to the place of which God had told him. ⁴On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from afar... ⁶Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and put in on his son Isaac’s shoulders; he himself carried the fire and the knife; and the two of them went on together. ⁷Isaac said to his father Abraham, ‘Father!’ Abraham answered, ‘Yes, my son?’ He continued, ‘Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ ⁸Abraham answered, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son’. Then the two of them went on together. ⁹When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built there an altar and arranged the wood (upon it); then he bound (dq(yw) his son Isaac and placed him upon the altar on top of the wood. ¹⁰Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹The angel of the Lord cried out to him from heaven, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ He answered him, ‘Yes?’ ¹² ‘Do not lay your hand on the boy; do not do anything to him, because I now know that you are a God-fearer, since you have not withheld from me your son, your only son’. ¹³As Abraham raised his eyes, he saw a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. Abraham went, took the ram, and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴Abraham called that place ‘Yahweh-Yir’eh’. So it is called to this day: ‘On the mount of the Lord it will be provided’.