Monday, December 02, 2013

The Context for Abraham

Troll Question:
God tells Abraham to bound his son Isaac and kill him to test his fear for the Lord. Right before he doesn't an angel rushes to stop him at the last minute and ofcourse to please god he merely just kills an innocent ram that was stuck in the bushes. My question is if you believe in this God, what if he told you to make that same sacrifice to someone you loved would you do it?

Of course, this question completely robs Abraham's story from its time and place, making this a weird hypothetical instance of blind faith ignoring the actual implications Abraham was presented with. A better question would be (in fact, the only question we should ask is), what was Yahweh's promise to Abraham about Isaac, and why is Abraham's relationship with Nimrod and Molech important for understanding anything about the staggering contradictions the narrator implies? The moral of the story isn't to convey a normative, mindless obedience to God if He asks us to do something crazy. The introductory verse clearly implies that God never intended to allow the sacrifice of Isaac.

Some further reading:
Why did God punish the Canaanites for child sacrifice, when He personally ORDERED Abraham to do it?!
The evil Nimrod vs. the righteous Abraham (legend)
Isaac: Jewish views - Wiki

No comments:

Post a Comment