BTW I did not mean to imply that I thought Abraham was not a free agent.

As you know, The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century.

Chaucer likes to play with the idea that his characters (pilgrims on the way to Canterbury) live their lives as free agents, but their actions are in reality determined by the author (Chaucer) who like God already knows how the story ends and who can create a his own “butterfly effect” at will

I probably had something like the “picture” above in my mind.

Thanks,
Mike

I agree, “it doesn’t seem to me that the Hebrew account bears the weight of God already knowing how Abraham would react”.

I said “I like to think” that God already knows Abraham will pass the test, but don’t see any evidence for onniscience in the text

What do you mean by agency?

I have visited your website a number of times and always enjoy the visit; it is very informative and I really like the “look and feel.”

Finding Rabbi Gorelik’s audio on Devarim was a pleasant surprise and listening to him speak on it was a wonderful way to spend some time Saturday afternoon.

Thank you for your very detailed and interesting answer to my question, I now have a much better understanding of this amazing biblical event.

If that is the case, and the Hebrew phenomenological verbal structure bears it out, then agency is the most powerful force in human existence – and the most serious. The Butterfly Effect is real. (to a limit which would have to be discussed in detail).

Voila. The “test” of Abraham is real. But it is a test. Therefore, as Sarna points out, it is never a question of the status of child sacrifice. The point of the Adekah is not a polemic against child sacrifice. It is a story about the depth of one man’s trust in the living God.

I am sure that this comment will cause a great deal of discussion about omniscience. I only suggest that before you go crazy with the implications, you consider the fact that the early church fathers developed the doctrine of omniscience in relation to the Greek idea of metaphysical perfection, not knowledge.

Back to the question concerning human sacrifice.
According to Sarna, “Turning to the ancient Near Eastern World, we note that, if human sacrifice had ever, in fact, been widely and regularly practiced, by the second millennium B.C.E., the age of the patriarchs, it had long been accepted that animal offering was, in normal circumstances, a perfectly satisfactory surrogate… Canaan however, seems to have been an exception in this respect, for there is much archaeological evidence to show that human sacrifice was more in vogue here than elsewhere, from very early times until far into the second millennium…. a belief in the efficacy of human sacrifice as a means of propitiating the deity was not unknown even in Israel. The mere fact thatthe armies of Israel and Judah desisted from further military engagement as a result of the rite just referred to, (Moab sacrificing his son) shows the impression it made on the popular imagination… kings Ahaz and Manasseh may well have been consciously aping alien cults. But the prophets were certainly preaching popular Israelite beliefs when they felt repeatedly called upon to disassociate God from this horrible aberration”…. even in Israel this monstrous idea was not totally eradicated from the popular consciousness until the Babylonian Exile.”

I hope that answers your question.

When you envision the period of time Abraham lived in, he would not have been shocked that this was asked of him, as God was still teaching His people how to be His separated people, and even at that time they were “being a light to the world” by learning and expressing the will of the God of Abraham as a compassionate and trustworthy God.

Now to your question. How could God offer up His first born? Ah, but God didn’t. His first born volunteered to be offered up. God accepted the sacrifice of the first born. It is as if Isaac had asked to be sacrificed.

There is another element here as well. Yeshua is GOD manifest in the flesh. The real mystery is how it is possible for God Himself to be sacrificed for us.