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.

        These are the main differences brought to the account of the sacrifice of Isaac in this Qumran text, which reveals new ways in which the basic biblical account was already being developed within the Jewish tradition in pre-Christian Palestinian Judaism.

        Before we pass on to other ancient forms of the account, we should take note of how this Qumran text has been interpreted in addition to the editio princeps. I have cited already another article of J.C. VanderKam, in which he discusses further aspects of the text, especially its relation to Passover²⁰. Geza Vermes has also interpreted this Qumran text, and I have to comment on his treatment.

        Before the Qumran text was published, Vermes had written earlier on the Aqedah, "Redemption and Genesis XXII: The Binding of Isaac and the Sacrifice of Jesus"²¹. There he analyzed the Jewish tradition that grew out of Gen 22 and found its simplest development in the oldest Palestinian targumic tradition (found in the Fragmentary Targum and Targum Neofiti I). The main features of that development he maintained to be the following:

1.·Abraham tells Isaac about his role as a sacrificial victim.
2.·Isaac gives his consent.
3.·Isaac asks to be bound so that his sacrifice may be perfect.
4.·Isaac is accorded a heavenly vision of angels.
5.·Abraham prays God to remember his own obedience and Isaac’s willingness on behalf of Isaac’s descendants.
6.·His prayer is answered ²².

        Vermes also noted an expanded form of this tradition in what he called ‘Tannaitic and Amoraic sources’, which do not concern us now. More important, however, is the way in which Vermes interprets the fragmentary Qumran text, 4Q225, when he sees it as a refutation of the thesis of P.R. Davies and B. Chilton²³. They restricted the term Aqedah to the first meaning mentioned at the beginning of my introductory remarks, viz. the sense of the vicarious expiation of the sacrifice of Isaac. They sought to ascribe the ‘invention’ of the Aqedah in this sense to ‘the Rabbis’ (mostly Amoraic), who ‘went so far as to