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.

elements were introduced into it as it became part of Jub 17,15-18,16⁴.

        The first is the role of ‘prince Mastemah’. Whereas God’s command given to Abraham in Gen 22 to offer his son is simply stated without any reason for it other than that God would ‘test’ Abraham, in Jubilees prince Mastemah is used to supply the motivation for it. He functions in the heavenly court as Satan does in Job 1–2, for he challenges God to put Abraham to the test:

The prince Mastemah came and said in God’s presence, ‘Look, Abraham loves his son Isaac and is more pleased with him than anything else; command him to offer him as a burnt offering on an altar and see whether he will carry out this order. Then you will know whether he is faithful in every test to which you subject him’ (Jub 17,16).

        Second, the account in Jubilees gives a list of tests to which Abraham was subjected by God prior to the great test of the sacrifice of Isaac. God’s answer to Mastemah’s challenge runs as follows:

The Lord knew that Abraham was faithful in all his afflictions, because he had tested him with a command to leave his country, and with famine; he tested him with the wealth of kings, and he tested him again with his wife, when she was taken away from him; and with circumcision; and he had tested him with Ishmael and Hagar, his slave-girl, when he sent them away. In every test to which the Lord subjected him, Abraham had been found faithful. His soul was not impatient, or slow to act. For he was faithful and loved the Lord (Jub 17,17-18).

        In this passage we learn about six tests to which Abraham was subjected by God ⁵: (a) the command to leave his country (= Gen 12,1); (b) the famine in Canaan that makes him go down to Egypt to get grain (= Gen 12,10); (c) the wealth of booty retrieved from the defeat of the eastern kings that Abraham did not keep from the king of Sodom (= Gen 14,21-23); (d) the abduction of Sarah by Pharaoh (= Gen 12,14-15); (e) the command to circumcise himself and all his men as a sign of the covenant (= Gen 17,10-12); and (f) the sending away of Hagar and his son Ishmael (= Gen 21,9-14).