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.

Isaac as if he were bound and placed upon the altar, Abraham as if he were stretching forth his hand and taking the knife to slay his son. God then said to Moses: Moses, My children are in distress, the sea forming a bar and the enemy pursuing, and you stand so long praying? Moses said before Him: What then should I be doing? Then He said to him: ‘Lift thou up thy rod’, etc. — you should be exalting, glorifying and praising... Him in whose hands are the fortunes of war’³⁵.

        This passage may indeed relate the sacrifice of Isaac to Mt. Moriah, meaning the Temple Mount, but it scarcely says anything about the meritorious or expiatory value of Isaac’s sacrifice. It is relating Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac to the crossing of the Red Sea, with scarcely a word about the iniquities of Israel or any expiation of its sins.

        In the fifth-century A.D. Genesis Rabbah 56,7 God does ascribe merit to Abraham: ‘for indeed I ascribe merit to thee as though I had bidden thee sacrifice thyself and thou hadst not refused’³⁶. Yet no indication is given of what that merit might be, and it says nothing of merit due to Isaac himself.

        The upshot of this discussion is that Vermes has amassed dubious evidence for the interpretation of this Qumran text. It is clear that this pre-Christian Qumran fragment reveals important steps in the developing tradition about the sacrifice of Isaac, especially in (1) the testing of Abraham at the Prince Mastemah’s request; (2) the mention of ‘fire’ that identifies the mountain to which Abraham was going; (3) Isaac’s request that Abraham ‘bind’ him fast; (4) the mention of holy angels standing by, weeping over (the altar or Isaac’s death); (5) the mention of ‘angels of Mastemah’ rejoicing and saying, ‘Now he will perish’; and (6) an unclear reference to the ‘binding’ of Mastemah.

        That, however, means that there is no mention in the Qumran text of six of the elements that Vermes has put in his ‘Synoptic Table’: no mention of Isaac’s adult age, of Isaac being informed by Abraham about his status as a victim, of Isaac’s consent separate from his request to be bound, of the connection with the later Temple, or Passover, or the Tamid lamb sacrifice, or Isaac’s blood or ashes, and especially of the ‘merit of Isaac’. One wonders why the extra elements have been put into that Table, because they have nothing to do with the