James Swetnam 114 2. Hebrews 5,1-10 in Its Context in Hebrews a) The Relation of Hebrews 5,1-10 to the Sacrifice of Isaac In the suggested structure of Heb 3,7 – 6,20 given above, the verses 4,12-13 are central because of their focus on the lovgo~ as the pervasive agent for the attainment of the promises made to Abraham of spiritual- ized land and spiritualized progeny. Heb 4,13 contains an allusion to the sacrifice of Isaac under the image of an outstretched neck waiting for the sacrificial knife (tetrachlismevna). In the interpretation of Heb 5,7-8 which serves as the occasion of the present article, the ‘offering’ of Jesus ‘with a loud cry and tears of prayers and petitions to the one able to save Him from death’ (dehvsei~ te kai; iJkethriva~ pro;~ to;n dunavmenon swzein aujton ejk qanavtou meta; kraugh`~ ijscura`~ kai; dakruvwn v/ prosenegka") was said to take place on the cross when He cited the v opening verse of Ps 22 as an indication of His willingness to undergo the fate of the protagonist of the psalm and not be saved by a divine inter- vention through Elijah.64 The fact that He was ‘heard although Son’ (eisakousqei~ . . . kaivper w]n uiJov") was attributed in part to an implied j ; contrast with the Aqedah in Heb 11,17-19 65. A problem with this interpretation is that in Hebrews there is no appar- ent indication that Isaac willingly offered himself as a sacrifice: in the text of the Aqedah at Gen 22,1-18 he seems to be purely passive and this passivity seems to be the background of the use of Gen 22 at Heb 11,17-19. Thus the imagery of Heb 4,13, if understood against this background, would argue for a purely passive attitude on the part of Isaac. But this problem can be solved if one takes the free-will offering of Jesus in Heb 5,7-8 as an indica- tion that the author of Hebrews was referring to the tradition current in Judaism at the time that Isaac offered himself willingly at the Aqedah. Though Gen 22,1-18 as it stands in the biblical text gives no indica- tion that Isaac took an active part in the sacrifice 66, by the first century A.D. the tradition accompanying this scriptural account had developed in Jewish tradition to the point where Isaac freely offers himself as a sacrifi- cial victim. This is clear in 4 Maccabees 13,12 and at 16,20, where Isaac’s comportment is invoked as an example to be imitated by Jews when tempted to renounce their faith 67. The same tradition is found in Pseudo- 64 Cf. Swetnam, «Hebrews 5,7-8», 353-355. 65 Swetnam, «Hebrews 5,7-8», 356. 66 But cf. the argument of H. C. White that the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham origi- nally represented a rite of initiation in which Isaac is made to face death and to accept it (H. C. White, «The Initiation Legend of Isaac», ZAW 91 [1979] 1-30). 67 Cf.: J. Swetnam, Jesus and Isaac: A Study of the Epistle to the Hebrews in the Light of the Aqedah (AnBib 94; Rome 1981), 46; J. Levenson, The Death and Resurrrection of the Beloved Son: The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity (New Haven–London 1993), 187-187. Levenson dates 4 Maccabees to between 18 and 55 A.D.