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.

tradition reflected in the fragmentary text 4Q225 developed still further and gradually became the classic topic of ‘the Binding of Isaac’.

        In conclusion, then, one realizes how important the Qumran text, fragmentary though it be, is not only for the background of New Testament references to the sacrifice of Isaac, but especially for the later targumic and rabbinic teaching about the Aqedah, as the Jewish expression of that sacrifice as an expiatory and redemptive act for all Israel.