Child Sacrifice: An Adopted Mentality
In the Hebrew Bible, there exists only two documentations regarding child sacrifice and these two accounts together illustrate some of the beliefs and ethics of the writes who narrated them. During the time period that the bible is situated in, offering the life of your firstborn to the gods was a common practice found in the literature of the larger civilizations surrounding Israel. Although we cannot infer normality of child sacrifice among the Israelites themselves, it was a familiar concept and referenced in the Tanakh through its condemnation in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Despite the imprecations against human sacrifice, there are still narratives within the text that acknowledge this mentality …show more content…
It is a common belief that this story speaks of God testing Abraham’s blind faith to his Lord by following any orders that he may give to him. Although, it is interesting to note the lack of argument on Abraham’s part, which he did not repress when he contradicted God on the destruction of Sodom and …show more content…
He is fully capable of questioning God’s sense of justice and yet holds his tongue when it comes to his favoured son. Further inquiry can arise when it comes to the sacrificial procedure itself, including the question: Why didn’t Isaac protest it? Abraham was more than one hundred years old when this story occurs and it has been concluded that Isaac was in his late thirties, yet there is no indication that he resisted or refused his father. Furthermore, when Abraham goes to sacrifice his son, reaching for the knife to kill him, an angel of the Lord stops him, yet Abraham is the only one to descend the mountain. The ambiguity within the Hebrew phrasing also adds to the equivocality of this ancient text. It reads, “וְהַעֲלֵהוּ שָׁם לְעֹלָה”, commonly translated into “offer him there as a burnt offering” (Gen 22:2). Both words “עֹלָה” and “וּהַלֵעֲה” can however, be translated into “ascend”. These words share a root due to the core meaning of burnt sacrifices, which is to smoke up into the heavens; to ascend and be tasted by God himself. It is realized within the biblical scholarly community that Isaac may have been killed and the story was later altered to befit an evolved perspective on human sacrifice. Disparity within the narration and gaps found in the storytelling leave room for interpretation. Inconsistencies also include what the angel said to Abraham when he supposedly interrupted the sacrifice, “‘By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have
In the Hebrew Bible, there exists only two documentations regarding child sacrifice and these two accounts together illustrate some of the beliefs and ethics of the writes who narrated them. During the time period that the bible is situated in, offering the life of your firstborn to the gods was a common practice found in the literature of the larger civilizations surrounding Israel. Although we cannot infer normality of child sacrifice among the Israelites themselves, it was a familiar concept and referenced in the Tanakh through its condemnation in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Despite the imprecations against human sacrifice, there are still narratives within the text that acknowledge this mentality …show more content…
It is a common belief that this story speaks of God testing Abraham’s blind faith to his Lord by following any orders that he may give to him. Although, it is interesting to note the lack of argument on Abraham’s part, which he did not repress when he contradicted God on the destruction of Sodom and …show more content…
He is fully capable of questioning God’s sense of justice and yet holds his tongue when it comes to his favoured son. Further inquiry can arise when it comes to the sacrificial procedure itself, including the question: Why didn’t Isaac protest it? Abraham was more than one hundred years old when this story occurs and it has been concluded that Isaac was in his late thirties, yet there is no indication that he resisted or refused his father. Furthermore, when Abraham goes to sacrifice his son, reaching for the knife to kill him, an angel of the Lord stops him, yet Abraham is the only one to descend the mountain. The ambiguity within the Hebrew phrasing also adds to the equivocality of this ancient text. It reads, “וְהַעֲלֵהוּ שָׁם לְעֹלָה”, commonly translated into “offer him there as a burnt offering” (Gen 22:2). Both words “עֹלָה” and “וּהַלֵעֲה” can however, be translated into “ascend”. These words share a root due to the core meaning of burnt sacrifices, which is to smoke up into the heavens; to ascend and be tasted by God himself. It is realized within the biblical scholarly community that Isaac may have been killed and the story was later altered to befit an evolved perspective on human sacrifice. Disparity within the narration and gaps found in the storytelling leave room for interpretation. Inconsistencies also include what the angel said to Abraham when he supposedly interrupted the sacrifice, “‘By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have