Binding of Isaac
The Binding of Isaac ( Hebrew עֲקֵדַת יִצְחָק 'ǎqedat jiṣḥaq ) is a story from the Old Testament ( Gen 22.1–19 EU ). In it God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac . At the sacrificial site, however , an angel stopped Abraham at the last moment from killing his son. Abraham is then rewarded for his fear of God because he was ready to make this great sacrifice. The term " sacrifice of Isaac" , inspired in the Christian tradition by the Abraham-Christ typology , is rarely used in the more recent specialist literature. Since Abraham ultimately bound his son ( Gen 22.9 EU ), but not sacrificed ( Gen 22.13 EU ), the name Akeda (h) ( Hebrew ), which has always been used in Jewish tradition , describes עֲקֵידָה 'ǎqedāh , German ' bond ' ) make the narrative more precise.
History has seen numerous interpretations in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. She plays a role in the liturgy and has been depicted frequently in art.
Text and interpretation
There is no definite knowledge about the time the text was written. The more recent research tends towards a rather late period, because all major topics of the Pentateuch are presupposed - a "late expansion of an already very well developed Pentateuch" - and are brought together integrally into an overall view of the biblical understanding of God. That is why the text is a “theological sum” of great significance and depth. The “theological teacher narrative” from the second century BC represents “a belief orientation of a fundamental kind about the path of Israel with Yahweh”; According to its literary form, it is a "parabolic representation of history", so that "not the empirically tangible processes, but their metahistorical informational content" is presented, which is why the historical-geographical information (but not only they) "should be interpreted typologically-symbolically" are. Particularly noteworthy is the symbolism of the mountain and the name Morijah , which indicates an inner "ascent" to the unity of opposites, as understood by Christian mysticism and encountered in the coincidentia oppositorum in Nikolaus von Kues.
The preservation of Isaac from death at the last moment by heavenly decree (Gen 22.12) does not mean that the sacrifice did not take place or remained incomplete (cf. Heb 11.17 EU ; Jak 2.21 EU ), but it will understood in the Jewish and Christian tradition as a reference to the overcoming of death, prefigured therein, for the new life of the resurrection ( Heb. 11:19 EU ). The story raises the difficult question of the relationship between faith and reason (ethics), which, at least according to Catholic teaching, cannot be in contradiction in principle (see Fides et ratio ). An external imitation of Abraham (see below 9) fails to recognize the underlying meaning of the text.
Text structure
The story is divided into five parts, which are arranged chiastically (crosswise opposite): A (verses 1–2): Conversation between God and Abraham; B (verses 3–6): Wandering of Abraham and Isaac; C (verses 7–8): Conversation between Abraham and Isaac; BB (verses 9-10): Walk to the sacrificial site; AA (verses 11-19): Conversation between God or the angel and Abraham. The four outer parts A (A) and B (B) can be divided four times each, the middle part C five times (silence, question, answer, question, answer). Abraham's answer in the formal middle of the whole composition is: "God will choose the sacrificial lamb, my son" (v. 8), which is an expression of Israel's providential belief.
The key word see seven times in the text appears in different word combinations, as well as the words God and go . Seven verbs are used in the narration of the act of sacrifice: Abraham builds the altar, layers the wood, ties his son, lays him on the wood, reaches out his hand and takes the knife to slaughter - the turning point comes with the seventh verb slaughter . The biblical number symbolism is therefore of great importance for understanding . Another key word is Abraham's “fear of God” with the root jr ' (to fear), which in the play on words is connected with the similar-sounding root r'h (to see). Because the faith of Israel, as expressed in Gen 22: 1-19, essentially includes providence and “seeing God” ( Genitivus subiectivus and obiectivus ), the text with biblical mysticism and wisdom as a gift of the Holy Spirit be interpreted.
The binding of Isaac in Gemetria
The biblical narratives in sensual images are based on numbers as the spiritual principles of meaning. The path of creation leads from unity in God via the duality of opposites of the finite or the world back to unity. The spirit principle of unity is expressed in the odd numbers 1 (10, 100), 3 (30, 300) and 5 (50, 500), the matter principle of duality in the even numbers 2 (20, 200) , 4 (40, 400) and 6 (60, also 666, cf.Rev 13.8 EU ). In the “covenant” the opposites of the two sides of creation, male (3) and female (4), are married to the seven days of creation ( Gen 1 EU ). “The 'three' and the 'four' as the contrast between the male and the female mark the seventh day, because 3 + 4 = 7. But with the completion of the seventh day it becomes 3 2 + 4 2 = 5 2 . That is the point of the seventh day. Whenever the opposites have found each other, the fruit comes. "
Unity of opposites
In order to achieve perfection, the covenant strengthens the heavenly spirit principle of unity - the spirit of God ( Gen 1,2 EU ) or ruach elohim , 200-6-8 1-30-5-10-40, has the numerical value 300 So it aims at the becoming one of the duality of the created (Hebrew bara = 'created' is in numbers 2-200-1) and thus at life as a unity of opposites on a higher level, symbolized in the number eight (8 = 2 3 ) or the eighth day as the completion of the seventh day. Without the spirit principle, the earthly matter principle of duality becomes absolute, it then leads to division, doubt and discord, ultimately to death (Hebrew meth, 40-400, or maweth, 40-6-400). Instead of the hope of the “spirit” in the unity of “heaven”, the striving of the “flesh” for the multiplicity of the earthly or the persistence in the finite and this world becomes decisive; then death appears as the "wages of sin" ( Rom 6,23 EU ; cf. Rom 5,12 EU ; 19–30 EU ; Phil 3: 18–21 EU ). The unity of the opposing principles 3 and 4 shows itself on the level of the hundreds as a unit of 300 and 400, the numerical values of the last two letters of the Hebrew alphabet Shin and Taw (cf. the name Scheth: Gen 5,3 EU ). With the short form of the divine name Yahweh (Jah), Shin and Taw form the term shethi-jah . The ewen scheti-jah is the cornerstone of creation. Jacob lays his head on him during the dream of the ladder to heaven, which he then anoints with oil as the foundation stone for the “house of God” (Beth-el) ( Gen 28: 18f EU ).
Place of redemption
The ewen shethi-jah lies in the holy of holies of the Jerusalem temple in front of the ark. It symbolizes the center or the origin of creation (the first word of the Bible, Bereschith , is read as be-resch-ith: beth = house or body and resch = rosch as head, beginning, that is, as the covenant of head and body or heaven and earth, cf. Col 1.15–18 EU ). In the dream of Jacob's ladder , this point of origin or the place of the beginning is called “Lus” ( Gen 28:19 EU ), which means “nut” or “almond”, which in Jewish tradition is counted as the eighth fruit (the almond tree is the first to bloom in winter and is thus a sign of the “resurrection” in spring): “Jacob lies down in the place of the almond, the place of the eighth day, the place of redemption. Then he sees the sky open and sees God. ”Christ, who is represented in the eight-shaped mandorla in Christian iconography, also has something to do with the almond. And similar to the five-part Torah in its mystical understanding of Jacob's ladder, the ladder to heaven has also been seen in the cross, which connects heaven and earth ( Jn 1.51 EU ).
The 'ascent to heaven' and 'seeing God' is the real meaning of the sacrifice of Isaac, which is why there is a close analogy to the Jacobean dream: “And without knowing it, Jacob lies there on the 'ewen schetijah', on the origin of the world , the stone 'ewen' from which the world arises. […] There is the first point from which the crystallization of the world started, there is the 'reschith'. At this point the world begins, at this point man lays his head down. ”And:“ On this stone, according to tradition, Abel makes his sacrifice, there he comes closer to God. […] From this stone, it is said, Enoch is taken to God in heaven (Genesis 5:22 EU ). It is on this stone, it is said, that Isaac, the promised Son, is offered to God, and on the 'ewen schetijah' rests in the temple, the dwelling place of God, the most holy place. "
Circumcision and Sacrifice
Isaac is the first named in the Old Testament ( Gen 21.4 EU ) who was circumcised on the eighth day after his birth and for whom this circumcision should mean or seal that he was accepted into a "covenant" with God.
The Jewish Hasidic narrator and writer Friedrich Weinreb (1910–1988) wrote that circumcision as a sign of the covenant means strengthening the spirit principle in removing or pushing back the covering of the flesh “so that the core becomes visible; it [the covering] is not destroyed, but only pushed back. So this is the 'brith', the bridge, the covenant. ”By circumcision I become
“The body is brought to humility and subjected to an order that arises from a different world than that which rules the body. [...] The body only returns through the 'mila' [circumcision]. And that is why the 'korban' [victim] is basically nothing other than the 'mila'. It consists in bringing the body to God, whereby it becomes the covenant, the connection, the bridge between this and the other world. Man comes to God through the 'korban'. "
In the biblical sense, circumcision and sacrifice have the same purpose: to reunite the person who became “flesh” in the fall with God, the “heavenly” side or the “spirit” and thus to restore the “covenant”. Paul may have understood the cross of Christ in a similar way : “All who belong to Jesus Christ crucified the flesh and with it their passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, then we also want to follow the Spirit ”( Gal 5,24f EU ). The crucifixion means, so to speak, the “circumcision of the heart” (cf. Rom 2.29 EU ; Col 2.11 EU ; Dtn 30.6 EU ); it lies in the line of the internal sense of external circumcision.
Because blood is shed during circumcision (cf. Ex 4,24-26 EU ), Weinreb also saw in it a form of sacrifice or a pars pro toto sacrifice , which belongs to the sacrifice of the lamb and the "blood of the covenant" ( Heb 9.20-22 EU ):
- "The blood of the Lamb and that of the circumcision say the same thing. This blood tells of the invisible, which is recognized in the house (Hebrew beth = two) and which then marks the door, the Daleth, the four. Abraham experienced this circumcision. From then his house is marked by the lamb and his door opens as a connection to the world of the hidden.
The number two ( beth = house and world) is, according to Daniel Krochmalnik biblically for the finite world, the number four on the manifest or material physical world, which is the one as the number of hidden unity of God, the infinite and the sky to join. This 1-4 principle symbolizes the covenant, whereby man as Adam, Hebrew adm or 1-4-40, himself embodies this connection between heaven (1) and earth (4). The omission of the one (Aleph) or the heavenly spirit dimension in sin as a breach of the covenant makes A-dam just dam (4-40), that is, "blood" or the mortal side of the body. The test of Abraham at the Akedah was the final tenth test; the first was the departure from home ( Gen 12.1 EU ), the fifth was circumcision ( Gen 17 EU ).
The mystical dimension of the sacrifice of Isaac
The connection point to the other, otherworldly world of unity is also expressed biblically through the horn (Hebrew keren ) of the sacrificial animal; therefore only animals with horns were or are considered suitable as sacrificial animals. (Source ?)
Ram's horn
According to Gen 22:13, the ram gets caught with its horn in the tree or bush: “It is the 'keren' of the ram that 'got caught in the bushes' with Isaac's 'akeda' (Genesis 22:13). And with the 'keren' of this ram [that is, with the ram's horn or 'shofar'] the world is created. That is why every year on New Year's Day [in the Jewish liturgy] this piece of Isaac's 'akeda' is read. […] God blows through this horn of the 'ajil' [= Aries] and creates the world. ”The breath of life or spirit of God enlivens the world through a certain tone and sound, a voice (Hebrew col) and mood of being loved and therefore becoming one: "Only through the 'kol', it is said, can the word be formed."
- “The Passover Lamb is a sign of the miracle of the skipping [= passover] of the rule, the miracle of the exception to the rule. It gives itself here in silence because it has confidence in eternity, because it knows that the breath of God is blown through its horn, that it will be recognized by God as the new being. Accepting the law without protest, without resistance, trusting that God means well. Because with that love comes into the world. [...] Life is actually there for that, that it experiences the surprise of love as an extract from the law. "
Weinreb interprets creation as the way from the unity of God into the duality of the world or the multiplicity of the finite and back to the original unity, in letters: from A to B and from B to A (= Abba : Father).
- "So the 'kol' of the 'shofar' is in principle the path one-two-one, whereby two means 'a lot'."
The way to unity
The son is essentially the second after the father , Isaac is also the second of the three patriarchs and so in a special way "son" (in Gen 22: 1-19 Isaac is called ten times son). “Son is ben , 2-50. The son ( ben ) starts with the Beth “, more precisely: the Beth or the two of the father. “The path through this world is laid out in him. He leads through the world of the seventh day. It is the son who comes to an end. The way through the world is the third, the Gimel. ”On the way of the Exodus from Egypt, Israel has already left the duality of the world (analogous to Abraham: Gen 12.1 EU ), but has not yet reached the unity of the Promised Land. Only Joshua, the “son of Nun” ( Num. 27.18.23 EU ), that is, the fifty beyond the 7 × 7 (= 49), can lead to this land of unity .
The Sabbath has its reason in the seventh day as the day of rest of the Creator after the six-day work ( Gen 2.2f EU ; Ex 20.8–11 EU ). Just as the Sunday of the Resurrection as the eighth day exceeds the seven-day creation, so the 50th day as Pentecost (Greek pentecoste = the fiftieth) exceeds the 7 × 7. In Jewish terms , Pentecost is the day of the submission of the five-part Torah to Moses , Christian the day of the sending of the Holy Spirit from heaven ( Acts 2, 1–4 EU ). Just as the sixth day of the creation of the male-female human being as a sexual being, parallel to the earth animals, corresponds to the flesh ( Gen 1,26–28 EU ), so the eighth day corresponds to the spirit.
Guided by this spirit, the Son “walks the path through the 7 × 7 of this reality, in which one experiences the duality exhaustively. But he also leads beyond that. He has 50 in his name [ben, 2-50], he breaks through into the world of the eighth day. The son's destiny is to unite the opposites: this world and the hereafter. The fiftieth - after the 7 × 7 - is the calm of the beginning, the world from which one came when the path began. The way is expressed in the terms 7 and 40, the country is 8 and 50. Only in the country is the destination reached. There is the Gan [= garden] of Eden. […] In the regained Paradise, the Son of David, the Beloved, builds the house for the Father, ”that is, the temple. “The word 'ben' is also the stem of the term 'boneh', to build. The road is built and the house is built. It grows. ”“ In the storytelling, the temple builds itself, as it were. ”
Victim
The word sacrifice, Hebrew korban , like the Greek ana-phora, has the meaning of bringing up, lifting up, bringing back to the divine origin. Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig translate God's demand for sacrifice to Abraham as “and raise him there to the boon”. In the narrative of the transfiguration (metamorphosis, transfiguration) of the body of Jesus, the three disciples whom Jesus takes with him to the “mountain” are “brought up / exalted” - a formulation that has clear echoes of Gen 22.2. The Septuagint translates the "land of Morijah" (Gen 22.2) as "high land"; the Vulgate with “terram visionis”. The Church Fathers interpret Morijah as “a place of vision,” which means the same as Zion. “Look” and (inner) “height” belong together, because one cannot exist without the other; this can be seen, for example, in the inner ascent of Benedict of Nursia (see below) .
The place of sacrifice chosen by God is repeatedly emphasized in the text: "The place of sacrifice and the animal for sacrifice are determined by God, yes, the animal only comes into play through a divine miracle." Because the place name Morijah is also the name for is the place of the building of the Jerusalem temple ( 2 Chr 3,1 EU ), the narrative wants to report at the very beginning of the history of Israel “about the foundation of the worship service and thus show the special relationship between God and Israel”: “That is so inhuman The biblical story that appears about Abraham, who is to sacrifice his son, does not reflect an extremely primitive religious level that we - thank God! - have overcome. Rather, it introduces us to the mystery of sacrifice, as Israel understood it. [...] God of his own accord gives Israel the opportunity to meet him by caring for the sacrifice himself. Israel does not sacrifice anything in worship, it sacrifices itself. There can then be no more talk of 'sacrifice' in the traditionally understood sense. "
Morijah
Israel encounters God in the reading of the Torah and in the cult sacrifice of the divine service, the two are inseparable (cf. the celebration of the Word of God and the Eucharist in Catholic worship). In the Jewish tradition, the 13-year-old boy who has become the “son of duty” ( Bar Mitzvah ) is considered to be one who “ascends to the Torah”. The name Mori-jah (Gen 22.2) means “YHWH is my teacher”: “The word moria is related to the word Torah. Torah comes from learning, showing, and more is a teacher, someone who shows others. The land of Moria is therefore the land in which one will see . ”“ A mountain in this world is always considered a place where a different state prevails, where a concentrated event takes place. ”Also the Garden of Eden or Paradise as The “archetype of the temple” (Hartmut Gese) is therefore traditionally located on a mountain.
- “To learn means to get to know the Torah, to get to know the meaning of life […] In order to start with this getting to know one another, you have to cross this threshold. And your teacher has the task of taking you over this threshold [...] The teacher is expected to take the person concerned with him first in his sleep, in the sense that he relativizes this [earthly] life in the student just as it does in sleep becomes. ”“ Crossing the threshold is nothing more than surrendering, in other words: dying. Then you come over the threshold. "
temple
Sacrifice and dying do not refer to external death here. The animal sacrifice in the temple “in ancient knowledge does not mean that people kill the animal in the hope of appealing to the gods; Rather, it wants to say: There is a connection between here and there, a connection between what happens here and what happens there, and in reality it is the person who comes closer to God, something from the person, a certain part, 'behema' [ Cattle], 'bakar' [cattle] and 'zon' [small cattle like young goats and sheep] that comes closer. ”Only these three of the ten edible animal species (which together make sense of man) are for the korban (sacrifice) in Suitable for the temple. Man does not actually offer the sacrifice, but it happens to him every moment as he lives and dies in time: “Time sacrifices, time continually eats these sacrifices, it has to get these animals all the time. [...] The food that wanders through the body is this passage of time through man. [...] Something goes continuously from our body: that is the 'korban', which is brought closer to God and offered in the temple, which is called the temple above, the 'beth hamikdasch schel mala' [...] the 'house of the sanctuary' " . When it comes to the biblical temple and house of God, one should always think of the human body at the same time ( 1 Cor 6:19 EU ).
Animal species
In addition to this normal daily sacrifice in the morning and in the evening as the “basis of human existence in the world”, there is an additional sacrifice on the Jewish feast days ( Passover , Feast of Tabernacles , Day of Atonement , New Year , New Moon ) as “concentrations of events”; but here “a certain way of life” is required, which is related to the three “animal species” of the korban : behema stands for human sexuality with a negative meaning (“fornication”), bakar for external vision (negative: judging by visual appearance ) and zon , "that part in man, corresponding to the first and tenth sign of the zodiac", for which favor finding (negative for lowering, lowering, ultimately "bloodshed", but more means than the "murder". see Mt 5.21-26 EU ). Similarly, the New Testament names a threefold lust in the world: “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the bragging of property. The world and its desires are passing away; but whoever does the will of God remains forever ”( 1 Jn 2: 16-17 EU ).
The mystical ascent to the mountain in the sacrifice of the beast or the ram means turning and returning from a certain way of being-in-the-body-world (the duality of finitude, which is painful) to unity in God. Therefore the “two” young servants (Gen 22: 3, 5) and the “donkey”, characterized by the duality of the big ears, must remain as a symbol of the body: Abraham “says to the two boys, Eliezer and Jischamael: Stay here, and the donkey too , 'Chamor', the body, has to stay here. So Abraham actually goes away without a body; one could also say: Abraham and Isaac die here. They leave the body behind and the duality that has accompanied them so far remains behind. Abraham sees the place where he is going in the other world, but the two boys cannot go. "
Priestly service
That Abraham and Isaac go together in harmony is expressly noted in two places, literally it says: “And their duality was his unity” (Gen 22: 6, 8). In an external event, one would expect the servants to carry up the wood for the sacrifice. But this is about something else: Abraham carries fire and knife to perform the sacrifice, Isaac carries the wood of the sacrifice without any contradiction or murmur - in contrast to Sarah: Gen 18.12–15 EU - in great unanimity with the father. Origen remarks, “that it was the task of the priests to fetch the wood for the burnt offering (cf. Lev 1,7 EU ; 6,5 EU )”, Abraham “is a priest; and when it is then said that both went together, it should be made clear that both performed the priestly service together. "
inner eye
This priestly service in the house of God, like the reading of the Torah as the word of God, is at the service of the encounter with the living God. To do this, people have to prepare their hearts inwardly and open themselves upwards: “The horn is the point of contact with the other world. [...] Being human comes from this point. There is also the eye that sees through everything. ”The eye that sees through space-time is the hidden one eye or the“ third eye ”of contemplation beyond the“ two eyes ”of man (mind and sensuality). This duality only appears when the human being, who has split into the duality of being a man and a woman, reaches for the fruit of the tree of knowledge and thereby opens his two eyes ( Gen 3.7 EU ), while the one contemplative eye (the one view) closes: Instead of the “light dress” ( doxa ) comes the animal “fur dress” ( Gen 3.21 EU ), Hebrew both spoken or spoken, but once written with Aleph (= 1) at the beginning, the other time with it Ajin (= 70). This means that the unity has become the multiplicity (duality), which is then shown in the many "hairs" of the "reddish" Esau ( Gen 25.25 EU ), the firstborn son of Isaac and ("outer") twin brother of Jacob ( see Fall of Man ). The multiplicity is also shown in the great natural fertility, which as such is not simply evidence of the creator's blessing, as it is then bestowed on Abraham after demonstrating his obedience to faith (Gen 22: 15-18).
The word keren (horn) is related to Hebrew akar (“sterile”) or akara , in the pronunciation ikar (the “main thing”, the “most important thing”, the “inside”): “The 'kol shofar' [voice of Horns] is the great secret of creation, because with it the sterile becomes fertile. And it becomes fruitful because there is a 'keren'. The 'keren' in animals, also in the human body, is the location of the 'tefellin' [phylacteries] on the head. There is a connection to something else. It is only through this connection that the world exists. ”This is why the place between the two eyes of the king and high priest, where the hidden eye is, is anointed:“ This anointing at this point opens the other eye again. [...] The human being has the ability to look through time and space, is no longer dependent on seeing in space. "
The place of seeing God, which is no longer seeing in time, is indicated by the phylacteries with the prayer capsule on the forehead. It has to do with the fontanel , the opening at the top of the head that is not closed at birth. This opening is called the Hebrew kadkod , 100-4-100-4 (= 208). Kadkod is written according to the Hebrew alphabet with the fourth letter from the back and from the front, double = 8. The name Isaak or Jizchak, 10-90-8-100, has the same numerical value 208. Where the horn is on the sacrificial animal, is the point of opening and connection upwards in humans or the “third eye”, which closes with the “descent to earth” and the bodily senses. This place is called totafoth (mark: Dtn 6.8 EU ), 9-9-80-400 = 498. The value 498 already touches 500, it is “something that the human being as human must have determined”.
Circumcision on the eighth day
According to the biblical number symbolism, the number 500 symbolizes the unity beyond the world, which is expressed by the number 400 as the number of the outermost extension of the "fourness" (multiplicity) and therefore the number of the last, originally cross-shaped letter Taw. 400 + 100 results in the 500 of heaven or the temple with the dimensions 500 × 500 (Ez 42.20). Abraham is "100 years" old at the birth of Isaac ( Gen 21.5 EU ). This statement shows Isaac as a “child of promise” or “child of God” by virtue of the Spirit of God in contrast to Ishmael, the son of the handmaid Hagar. He is not circumcised until he is “13 years old” ( Gen 17.25 EU ), whereas Isaac is circumcised on the “eighth day” ( Gen 21.4 EU ). This "eighth day" transcends the seven-day creation towards the new creation or perfection and therefore symbolizes the resurrection (see Sunday ), which is introduced with the circumcision .
“The eighth day is as clear a reality in the Bible as the sixth or seventh. If it were not so, death at the end of the seventh day would have to be a desperate fact. With the reality of the structure, however, which gives the eighth day an equally clear position as this seventh, death takes on a completely different character. Then death is evident as long as this seventh day still exists, the transition into the eighth day. […] It is also this certainty that makes the Bible the tree of life, the tree with the dimensions of the 'five hundred', the tree that is 'one' in relation to multiplicity. ”The tree of life in Paradise also includes that Knowledge tree, like the 500 includes the 400 or eternal life also includes temporal life, but the reverse is not simply the same. That is why Ishmael (the only temporal man) is excluded from the inheritance of Abraham: "For the son of this maid shall not be the heir with my son Isaac" ( Gen 21,10 EU ). Only Isaac is in truth the “son” (= heir), he is the “only” and the “beloved” (Gen 22.2), only he is the “child of God” as a timeless gift in the context of the covenant of circumcision through the visit God in the form of the “three angels” ( Gen 18.1–15 EU ).
That is why Paul can speak of "our father Isaac" ( Rom. 9,10 EU ) and praise the "sterility" with Isa 54,19 EU : Only the "power of the Spirit" begotten Isaac is Abraham's (faith) heir, but not him Ishmael conceived “naturally” by the “unfree” maid Hagar, whom he understands in allegorical interpretation as an image for the “old” covenant, while Sarah as an image for the “new” covenant ( Gal 4 : 21–31 EU ; Rom 9.6-11 EU ). The Christians belong to this “new” covenant by virtue of baptism (in octagonal baptisteries), which corresponds to the circumcision of Isaac “on the eighth day”. The renewed promise of “numerous offspring” as a blessing for all peoples of the earth (Gen 22: 16-19), renewed with the sacrifice of Isaac, therefore refers to the “offspring in faith” (according to Paul on Christ: Gal 3:16 EU ).
The third day
When Abraham looks up on the “third day” he sees the place of sacrifice from a distance (Gen 22: 4). The Bible gives various information about the motif of the third day (cf. Hos 6.12 EU ; Gen 42.18 EU ; Ex 19.16 EU ; Jona 2.1 EU ). In the week of creation, the third day and the sixth day are the summaries of the two preceding days, i.e. a synthesis (both days are therefore also considered to be “wedding days”, cf. Joh 2.1 EU ). In a certain way, the twin Jacob-Esau is also a synthesis of Abraham and Isaac. From the sixth day (Friday) of the creation of the male-female human being, the third day is also the eighth day or Sunday and therefore a symbol of the resurrection as a new creation (cf. 1 Cor 15.4 EU ).
In order to be able to establish the connection to heaven, the king and high priest must be anointed with the spirit from heaven: "The king is anointed through 'heaven', and the image for this is exactly what appears here as 'oil'." The anointing oil (Hebrew 'schemen', 300-40-50, in total 390) linguistically hangs with heaven (Hebrew 'shamajim', 300-40-10-40, in total 390) and the 'eighth day 'together: “Oil is eight, oil only comes on the eighth day!” - “The eighth day is the world in which the king, who was predicted on the seventh day, appears, he who will be able to build the solid house, the temple, whom David [the seventh after Moses] was not yet able to build, but about whom it was said to David that his son [= Solomon] would be able to build him. It is also the king who comes after this world [of the seven days], and who is called in the tradition 'the anointed king', the one who is called the 'Messiah' in Hebrew. Messiah means 'anointed one'. "
The point of unity (the “third”) as a synthesis beyond duality is the point of seeing God, the opening of heaven and the eighth day. In it the opposites of spirit and matter, heaven and earth, eternity and time, soul and body, fire and water fall into one. This point is marked by the sign Aries in the beginning of spring, and at this point Abraham and Isaac ascend to the burnt offering, at which they themselves, i.e. the right side of the fire and the left side of the water of creation, become completely one. The Hebrew shamayim (heaven) unites these opposites of fire (spirit) and water (matter) in the highest way: “So the word 'shamayim' is also used as a contraction of the words 'esch' (fire) and 'majim' (water ) seen."
In ancient Egypt, the pharaohs wear the udja , the opened "third eye" on their foreheads as a symbol of "the unifying center of both the right and left eye, as well as all other polarities", for example macrocosmically of the sun and moon eyes. In enlightenment as the union and integration of opposites (heaven and underworld, understanding and sensuality) “man is enabled to use his instincts from the unifying center in the sense of the order of creation. [...] The serpentine power is only beneficial when used vertically. "
The enlivening seeing of God
The book of Job belongs to the broader context of Gen 22: 1–19, where the protagonist is led “into a kind of death meditation” and at the end of his test of faith and his path of faith has become “a seeer”: “Wanting to see God is the innermost part Desires of the human soul. ”In Gen. 22:14, Abraham calls the place of sacrifice“ Yahweh-Jire ”(the Lord sees), as one still says today:“ The Lord is seen on the mountain. ” Irenaeus of Lyon put it:“ The The glory of God is the living man, but the life of man is to see God. ”Similar to Nikolaus von Kues in De visione Dei :
- “Your seeing is nothing other than bringing it to life. [...] The creatures cannot be otherwise, because they are through your gaze. If they did not see you, the seer, they would not receive being from you. The being of the creatures is at the same time your seeing and being seen. By looking at me, you, hidden God, let you see me. "
In the pilgrimage song Psalm 121 LUT the psalmist prays: “I lift my eyes to the mountains: where does help come from? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth ”(v. 1f). To go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem at the three pilgrimage festivals Pesach, Shavuot and Tabernacles is to ascend or ascend to the “vision of the perfect” or the whole (as the translation of Jeru-salem , Hebrew ro-e , see as jira ); pilgrimage (hebr. oleh rule ) literally means "ascent of the foot". Friedrich Weinreb sees in this “ascent” a reversal of the fall into sin on the 6th day of creation as “becoming blind” for the whole: because we “fell through the beast, through the snake. Our body shows it. But how could the animal have been exalted if it had not been for man? The person whom God expects to bring all creation to him? The person [...] who will be moved by the gift of love, to stand in freedom, in equality, in the likeness of God. "
Likeness of God
The image of God is a central concept of biblical creation theology, Christian ethics and theological anthropology. According to Eph 4,24 EU , a person is renewed in baptism as “putting on” Jesus Christ (the white robe of light) “in the image of God in true righteousness and holiness.” For Christ is the “image of the invisible God” as a connection with The visible and the invisible ( Col 1.15–16 EU ). "Man's likeness to God, intellect, freedom and conscience ultimately make it possible to read the [visible] world towards the [invisible] Creator".
After the fourfold (!) Sin catastrophe (fall of man, fratricide, deluge, Babylonian tower), the path of man's return to God begins with Abraham in the Bible and thus also to the restoration of man's likeness to God, in Christian terms through the initiation sacrament of baptism. The invitation of God in Gen 12.1 EU (and Gen 22.2): "Go ..." (Hebrew Lech Lecha ) has, according to the Jewish scholar Abraham Elkayam, the character of "pilgrimage and initiation rite, both of which are threshold experiences": " Our forefather Abraham, the prototypical Jew, gives up his previous world, a world of idolatry. After crossing its boundaries, he is reborn in a new world of monotheism. Lech Lecha is a message of salvation ... ”“ Lech Lecha stands for the symbolic death of the old and the rebirth of the new personality. ”In Kabbalah , Lech Lecha is interpreted as“ as 'go to yourself', to your own self ”, which is faith includes.
Philo of Alexandria († after 40 AD) described in De migratione Abrahami the path of Abraham as a “soul ascent” in three stages to the mystical vision of God: the lowest stage (“darkness”; “stupidity”) is that of the “world -People ”or the body (in the number 4 and in the symbol of fish); the middle level is that of the fivefold divided sensory perception with the sense of sight as the highest sense; Finally, at the highest level of reason, “man can 'see' with the 'eye of the eye' [...] the 'divine reason', the 'source of wisdom' [...] or the 'light of truth' [...] [ ...] Philo calls the perfect person who sees with the 'pupil of the eye' 'a soul of the soul'. […] According to Philo, the true 'Israel' […] represents the perfect human being. 'Israel' looks […] God with the spiritual eye […] One could also say that Israel is the human being, whose fifth sense (sense of sight) is completed and who in his vision of God has thus himself become the 'image of God' (eikona theou). "
Philo, but also Meliton of Sardis, translate the name Isra-el , which Jacob receives after the nightly fight with God at the Jabbok ( Gen 32,23-33 EU ), where it is also about seeing God, with "the one who sees God" . Meliton continues in his Passover homily that Christ (the image of God) was already in Isaac: "He (Christ) was murdered in Abel, bound in Isaac". The sacrifice of Isaac means crossing the death threshold as an initiation into seeing God in creation analogous to Job's vision of God after passing through his passion, which allows him to find the longed-for "place of insight" and wisdom (cf. Job 28 EU ; 42, 5 EU ). Abbess Christiana Reemts (Mariendonk) sums up the meaning of Isaac's sacrifice as follows: "Every encounter between God and man takes place on Mount Morija, only where man gives everything he finds God."
Name and age of Isaac
The name Yizchak (Isaak) means “ridiculous!”, “Not possible!”, “Incredible!”, That is: “It doesn't mean that something is not born according to the usual norm!” Sarah is 90 years old when Isaac is born old and dies after the sacrifice on the Morijah at 127 ( Gen 23.1 EU ), so that Issak is 37 years old at his sacrifice according to the biblical calendar.
- “This '37' also means that the phase of the 'six' was just over, the 36 had just happened, and that he was thus entering the seventh. Because this path of unification always takes place as the principle of the seventh. "
The seventh or the 7th day ( Sabbath ) is a symbol of the way (the exodus) from this finite body world of twosity (6th day) into the infinite unity of the world of God (8th day, “promised land”, “paradise” or "Sky"). While the creation of the sexually determined male-female human being with the “earth animals” takes place on the 6th day (Friday) and the “Fall of Man” also happens on this day, the 7th day (Saturday) already means going beyond that Sexual-physical in the sense of the soul or the interior.
The bond (Akedah)
The same transition is also expressed in the number five as the “fifth” essence of the four of the body world. Friedrich Weinreb explains: “The essence of the whole [sacrifice] event [on the mountain] is this binding of the 'four' [limbs] into 'one'. It means not wanting to see what the world has to do with logic, circumstances, appearances, and it means being clearly oriented towards wanting to do what God asks, and then listening to Moria and learning which one Makes sense. And that is why at the Moria, at the place of one, where image and essence coincide, the deed in the image exists in this connection of the 'four' to the 'one'.
The word for this “bond”, akedah (70–100–4–5), like gan be-Eden (Garden of Eden), has the numerical value 179: “What happened to Isaac, this bond of the 'four' to the 'one', is therefore identical to coming to paradise. By bundling the 'four' of the world together and making 'one', one is actually in the state of paradise and one has the tree of life, which was also the 'one' compared to the 'four' of the tree of knowledge. “So wherever the“ invisible unity ”of God is seen in all the visible multiplicity and diversity of the appearances of the world, man lives in faith and thus in grace (of paradise):“ To be a monotheist means to confess the unity in all things and recognize. ”Similar to the letter to the Hebrews :“ Because of faith we recognize that the world was created by God's word and that the visible was created out of the invisible ”( Hebrews 11: 3 EU ; cf. Col 1:16 EU ).
Wisdom and joy
The biblical one-God belief is the result of the wisdom of the right knowledge of God. According to Philo of Alexandria, Abraham “learned” this wisdom, Jacob “acquired” it through practice and asceticism, but Isaac was “innate”; Philo even speaks of a “virginal” birth of Isaac from Sarah / Sophia and identifies him as a figure of wisdom with the “Logos”, so that the Jewish Isaac theology appears as a direct forerunner of the Logos-Wisdom Christology of the Gospel of John . Isaac is "not only the martyr par excellence, but also the one who testifies to death and resurrection with his story".
For wisdom , the joy and the laughter heard as the basic meaning of the name Isaac ( Gen 17:17 EU ; Gen 18.12 EU ; 21.6 EU ) because the joy that is closely linked with the hope of heavenly after Philo 'home "Is:" The Johann [Anneische] conception of joy coincides conspicuously with that of Philos. "On the occasion of the joy of the birth of Isaac the 8-day (!) Feast of Tabernacles was established .
Rise of the soul
In terms of numbers, the ascent of the soul is a path from four (body world) to one or the “almost 'four'” via the “five” to the “perfect five”; The Gospel of John uses the same symbolism in the scene of the division of the upper garment of Jesus (the “covering”) by the four soldiers under the cross in four and the leaving of the one seamless undergarment ( Jn 19 : 23-24 EU ): “Analog The concept of Philos shows a 'four-one-structure' with the 'four' as a sign for the 'external', 'physical' and the 'one' as the invisible 'spiritual', that with Jesus, the 'light of the world' ', is directly connected. ”The same 1–4 structure can also be found in the scene of the one favorite disciple and the four women under the cross ( Jn 19.25–27 EU ), in the five wounds of the crucified one in proportion to a heart wound four times on the hands and feet ( Joh 20,26-28 EU ) as well as in the shape of the cross itself with its four ends and one center: “The number of the cross is four. More than that, it's the five ... This fifth point [in the middle] is the most important point of the four. [...] This common point is the decisive intersection of thinking. The levels often change here, only here does the transition from one world to the other take place. This point is the omphalos of the Greeks, the navel of the world of our ancestors, the sacred staircase of so many religions, the ladder to heaven. Here one arrives from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven, here space, time and eternity are connected with each other. ”The Christian tradition has the cross in this sense as heavenly ladder (cf. Jn 1,51 EU ) and as Scala Paradisi (cf. Lk 23.43 EU ) interpreted (see above place of redemption).
Isaac is also considered to be the “prototype of the suffering servant of God”. The four (!) Servant songs of Deutero- Isaiah ( Isa 42 EU ; 49 EU ; 50 EU ; 53 EU ) serve in the New Testament as a foil for the interpretation of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. According to Michael Krupp , Judaism has not developed a real theology of the death and resurrection of Isaac, even if "all the building blocks for such a theology" had been there since the early Middle Ages at the latest, because there is no "through and through binding dogmatics in Judaism". In the New Testament the sacrifice of Isaac is read as a symbolic narrative of death and resurrection and thus as an anticipation of the Christian Easter faith ( Heb. 11.17–19 EU ), which is why Gen 22.1–19 in all church traditions is related to the liturgical reading texts on Easter vigil heard.
The liturgical dimension of the sacrifice of Isaac
Easter night and moon symbolism
The Jewish liturgy of the Pesach celebration in the Easter Vigil distinguishes four nights: The first night is the original night of creation before the creation of the original light ( Gen 1,3 EU ); the story of the sacrifice of Isaac belongs to the second night; the third relates to the beating of the firstborn of Egypt at the Exodus of Israel ( Ex 11-12 EU ); the fourth night is that of the final judgment and the dissolution of the world at the appearance of the Messiah King. The celebration on the night of Nisan 15 takes place at the spring full moon; the Christian Easter Vigil is on the first Sunday after the spring full moon. Luna biblically symbolizes the physical and feminine (= enveloping; see Adam and Eve ), matter (cf. Latin mater) and the dark, also the duality of the finite compared to the infinite unity of the spiritual symbolized in the sun: “Man in its physical appearance applies to the lunar world. The sun is there, but only works indirectly, from the hidden. The beginning is always in the night world. "
In the seven-day week of creation, Sunday is the first day of the week, corresponding to the seven “planets” (including the sun and moon) (as the eighth day after the seven-day creation, it is the symbol of the resurrection) ; Mon (d) day is the second day on which the separation into the upper and lower waters (= eternity and time) is accomplished ( Gen 1,6f EU ). The cyclical moon is the measure of the month and time (cf. Ps 104,19 EU ), "in the female body even the lunar period shows itself". The Jewish tradition assigns the three patriarchs and four other central figures of Israel to the seven days of creation and planets: “Abraham belongs to Sunday, on the second day, by the moon, stands Isaac, on the third Jacob [Tuesday = Martian day], Moses belongs to Wednesday [ Mercury day], Ahron on Thursday [Jupiter's day], Joseph on Friday [Venus day] and David stands for the seventh day [Saturday, Saturn day, Sabbath]. "
According to this system, Isaac, the second of the three patriarchs, belongs to the second, that is, the left, physical, temporal and "feminine" water and night side of creation, which is also the side of the world, judgment and God's righteousness is. Opposite it is the hidden first side: the right, spiritual, timeless, fire, light or day side of heaven, grace and mercy. The two trees in the middle of Paradise ( Sephiroth tree) also correspond to these two sides . That is why the sacrifice of Isaac has to do with the fall of man and the severe judgment of God over the “sin of the world” ( Jn 1:29 EU ) or over the flesh, insofar as it is not in covenant with the Spirit.
The covenant of the Spirit is made through the blood of the Lamb. Right at the beginning of Jesus' baptism, John the Baptist said twice: “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” ( Jn 1:29, 36 EU ). Jesus' “(death) hour” ( Joh 2,4 EU ; 13,1 EU ) coincides in the Gospel of John with the hour of the slaughter of the Paschal lambs on the day of preparation before the Sabbath ( Joh 19,14,31 EU ): “In the moment there the Passover lambs are slaughtered [on the day of preparation in the forecourt of the temple], Jesus sheds his blood as the true lamb. "
New Years Day
In the background of God's sacrifice to Abraham, in connection with the interpretation of Isaac as the side of the body in the rabbis, but also in Qumran texts and in Paul ( Rom 8,31ff EU ), the mythical idea of a heavenly court battle between God and Satan or the personified power of death as the accuser ( advocatus diaboli ) of the righteous with God (similar to Job 1, 6–12 EU ). According to this, the self-sacrifice of this righteous person causes the disempowerment of Satan (or death, cf. Heb 2: 14–15 EU ; Weish 2 : 23–24 EU ), because God judges humanity instead of the “measure of justice” or the strict judgment can judge by "the measure of mercy" or by grace. "In this respect, the Akeda has both an eschatological effect at the end of time for Israel and an influence on the continued existence of the world in time."
The day of divine judgment is liturgically New Year's Day in the 7th month of Tishri. “The aqedah symbolism of Nisan went over to the later fall of the year in Tishri. As in the 3rd / 4th In the 17th century AD the festive liturgy took on its final form, prayers relating to the aqedah, which is considered a pledge of justification in court, were also included. The blowing of the shofar horn should remind God of the ram of the Aqedah and thus of the recognized sacrifice and the promise. "
The cosmic dimension of the sacrifice of Isaac
The sacrificial system in the Temple of Jerusalem served to praise God and atone for guilt and thus to restore the original divine world order. "The Torah does not tell about creation as well as other topics, but it is about the experience of creation in the ritual acts of its restitution." Just as the churches had been easted since the 5th century, so was the temple literally to the east ( = Spring equinox) "oriented". According to the Old Testament scholar Othmar Keel, it was therefore originally a “solar sanctuary”, with the judging sun god already being flanked by “law” and “justice” in the Mesopotamian art of sealing (cf. Isa 1.21 EU ; Mal 3.18–20 EU ).
Establishing the world order
Guaranteeing the world order in justice and mercy was the task of the king or “Good Shepherd” (cf. Jn 10 : 1–21 EU ) in antiquity through the erection of the stake that connects the earth with heaven. “The erection of the world pillar is also part of the rite of the Egyptian coronation. It happens cosmologically in the sign of the 'Aries' when the sun has reached its 'height'. In this sign the king proves to be the guarantor of the cosmic order. However, the sun does not reach its 'height' in the whole of 'Aries', which lasts for a month, but receives it in the so-called vernal equinox. "The vernal equinox symbolizes the beginning, middle and end of the world and is the cosmic connection point to the other, beyond World of heaven.
In ancient China, too, the sacred center, which was the constant guideline to be followed, was symbolized by the “cosmic pillar” or the “great bar” (t'ai chi), which extends from the earth and the underworld to the sky: “The ruler the advice is given to set up only 'what has center'; so he will keep his people in the middle and thus in happiness and harmony. Yes, he himself, the ruler, the emperor [son of heaven or sun], is for the empire the bodily representative of middle and height at the same time. 'Unite around him who has the ridge beam!' Was the standard of life of the subjects in ancient China. Just as one chose to be the leader who was the first to climb the top of the post in the middle of the Ming t'ang, so later the term for the accession to the throne - teng chi - was synonymous with 'to climb the ridge beam'. "
Natural revelation
In the New Testament the event on the cross can therefore also be understood as an “act of enthronement” ( Michael Theobald , cf. Rom 1,3-4 EU ): “Jesus dies at the beginning of the Passover, so that his kingship is exalted from the cross, which takes the place of the main Jewish festival. The crucifixion is an enthronement event ('See your King'; [Joh] 19.14 EU ; 19.19 EU ). For Jesus his death is the very last 'work', the completion of his path. ”The Messiah-King ascending his“ throne of the cross ”becomes closer to the pierced“ cosmos man ”of the Ezekiel vision (cf. the cosmos visions of Hildegard von Bingen ) or in Paul to the “heavenly man” (cf. 1 Cor 15 : 45-49 EU ). “The central process of creation can also be represented by the cosmic X shape of the pierced 'heavenly man'. As a 'lamb-bearer' and 'servant of God' who lets himself be slaughtered like a lamb ( Isa 53,7 EU ), this 'pierced' figure is a natural revelation in creation. In the old iconography, this image of revelation already shapes the idea of Adam paradisus. "
With regard to the pre-Christian conception of the cosmic lamb or ram carrier, the art historian Herbert Schade refers to the ram pectoral of the Cushite king Shabaka (around 700 BC), the ends of which were provided with a ram's head crowned by the Uraeus; a much larger ram's head of the same kind in the center of the pectoral hung down below the king's throat: “The king therefore knows the fate of the ram that is pierced by the sun [s. next section]. […] He undertakes to maintain the cosmic order that we owe to the 'hidden God' who reveals himself in the sign of Aries. ”Maintaining the cosmic order means here in the spirit of God the world (4) with heaven (1) connect.
Vernal equinox and aries
The restoration of the original order is also symbolized by the return of the sun in the course of the year to its starting point, the equinox in spring. At the time of Abraham this point was in the first sign of the zodiac Aries, the cosmic archetype of the lamb, which is slaughtered at the celebration of Passover (from which the Christian Eucharistic symbolism of the Agnus Dei is connected ): “When the sun at the beginning of the astronomical year, on March 21st, its course begins, it penetrates the fixed star sky in the image of Aries. Moses celebrated this blow from the ram as a Passover sacrifice or as Easter (cf. Ex 12.46 EU ). The lamb, or the sign of the zodiac of Aries, was pierced, but - since it returned the next year - it was considered indestructible; therefore one could 'break no bones in him' (at the celebration of the Passover) [cf. Joh 19,36 EU ]. His return in heaven shows the resurrection of the whole world in spring and the reawakening of life. As a process in the universe, this event was also a symbol of a natural revelation. "
“In view of these events in the sky [the“ piercing of the 'Aries' and his devotion ”], the 'tree', that is, the ribbon of signs of the zodiac on which the planets [= walking stars] wander, becomes a symbol of the cross or, like the Jewish one Tradition says, to the tree 'sabek' (= remissio), d. H. the epitome of forgiveness, because in 'Aries' [and thus in spring] life begins again. ”As the beginning of the zodiac and symbol of the beginning of the world (in“ spring ”), Aries is the“ head of the world ”,“ birthday of the World ”,“ middle of the world ”or“ middle of heaven ”.
Christian approaches to interpretation
The Akedah of Isaac is constitutive for the understanding of the event on the cross as the redemption of the world; therefore Christian theology says: "The key to understanding Christ's sacrifice on the cross lies in the binding (akedah) of Isaac (Gen 22: 1-19)."
The letter of Barnabas (around 60 or 100) explains: “There is a model for our salvation: Isaac, who was offered to God on the altar. In the same way, God, Jesus, his Son, vessel of the Holy Spirit, should be offered like a sacrifice. ”In Christian iconography, the sacrifice of the“ beloved son ”(Gen. 22.2) was therefore often depicted as the type of the sacrifice on the cross for example in the Lateran basilica in Rome, in the cathedral in Meissen, in the Cologne cathedral (axis window of the choir) or in the Verduner altar of Klosterneuburg near Vienna. Both victim narratives illuminate each other. The early Christian interpretation understands the Old Testament as a “model and draft” of the salvation event in Christ; however, it is also said that while this previous model was once “great”, it has now become obsolete, “meaningless” and “worthless”: “The law [of Israel] was great before the light of the gospel shone. (...) Once the blood of the Lamb was valuable, now it is worthless because the Lord has sent the Spirit to us ”, Meliton von Sardis said in his Passover homily (160 AD). From this, however, the abolition of the Old Testament was not demanded as with Marcion and partly again today, but the Christian Church always rejected such a conclusion. Because without the Old Testament, God's saving action in Jesus Christ, in whom the eternal plan of salvation is fulfilled, as it is based and revealed in the Torah ( 1 Cor 2,7 EU ; 15,3–6 EU ), must remain completely incomprehensible.
No other passage in the Torah prefigures the cross sacrifice of the “beloved Son” ( Mk 1,11 EU ), which God “did not spare” ( Rom 8,32 EU ), but gave to the life of the world ( Joh 3.16 EU ), like the sacrifice of the “beloved son” Isaac (Gen 22.2): “The continuation of Rom 8:32 'but gave him up for us all' supports the allusion to the Akedah. Similar uses of 'to give, to give up' in Gal 1: 4 EU ; 2:20 EU ; Eph 5: 2 EU , 25 EU ; Tit 2:14 EU ; and 1 Tim 2: 6 EU to express Christ's loving act of self-immolation also recall the targumic portrayal of Isaac's selfimmolation. "
Carrying the wood and the cross
The parallel between Isaac carrying the wood as a priestly act ( Lev 1.7 EU ; 6.5 EU ) and Jesus carrying the wood of the cross ( John 19.17 EU ) was seen early on. Both the Greek church fathers (Irenaeus, Clemens, Origen, Gregory of Nazianz, John Chrysostom, Theodoret), and the Latin (Tertullian, Cyprian, Hilarius of Poitiers, Zeno of Verona, Ambrosius, Augustine) via Isidore of Seville , Bonaventure and the Biblia pauperum to Jakob Böhme evaluate this typology - with different accents. A stained glass in Bourges Cathedral shows Isaac carrying the cross instead of wood.
Already the famous passage in the Midrash Bereschit Rabba (BerR 56,3) says that Isaac was given the sacrificial wood "like someone who carries his cross on his shoulder". This was taken as an indication that the punishment of the cross was seen as martyrdom in early Judaism and that Isaac is considered the prototype of the martyr. Michael Krupp considers Christian influence here to be unlikely, pointing out that the image of the death on the cross could also be imagined outside of Christian thought. Erich Dinkler refers to the interpretation of the logion of carrying the cross in the imitation of Jesus on Mt 11.29 EU (“my yoke does not press and my burden is light”): in contrast to the “heavy” yoke of the Torah (the “rule of God”) that is "Yoke of the Cross" easy.
Pope Benedict XVI interpreted in his sermon at his inauguration on April 19, 2005 in Rome, the pallium, which was placed on his shoulder as an ancient symbol of papal authority in the form of the Eastern Church Omophorium, as “an image for the yoke of Christ, which the bishop of this city , the servant of the servants of God, on his shoulders. The yoke of God - that is the will of God that we accept. And for us this will is not an alien burden that presses us and makes us unfree. To know what God wants, to know what the way of life is - that was the joy of Israel ”.
Foundation of the cult
According to Joseph Ratzinger, Isaac's gaze on the sacrificial wood is that “mysterious moment” which is the basis for the Jewish and Christian cult and which is to be recorded and conveyed in it: “This is how Jewish tradition tells that God at the moment when Isaac gives a cry of fear ejected, tore open heaven, where the boy saw the invisible sanctuaries of creation and the choirs of angels. This is related to another tradition, according to which Isaac created the worship rite of Israel; therefore the temple was not built on Sinai, but on Morijah. All adoration comes from this view of Isaac, as it were - from what he saw there and therefore conveyed. ”According to other Jewish sources, Isaac saw the“ shekhinah ”(presence of God) there.
Ratzinger and the Fathers of the Church interpret this gaze into the torn sky as a gaze at the (heavenly) ram that is caught in the undergrowth (Gen. 22:13); because this ram is the image of the (coming) Lamb of God as the basis of the Christian cult of the Eucharist (“See the Lamb of God”): “The look at this ram was the look into the open heaven. Because in it he saw the God who provides and also stands on the threshold of death, right there. […] When Isaac saw the lamb, he saw what cult is: God himself is preparing his cult, through which he replaces and redeems man and gives him back the laughter of joy that becomes the hymn of praise for creation. "
The original light of the first day
Joseph Ratzinger also points out that “the date of the Passover is in the constellation of Aries - the Lamb”: “The constellation in the sky seemed to speak beforehand and for all time of the 'Lamb of God' who takes away the sin of the world ( Jn 1.29 EU ), of the one who sums up all the victims of the innocent and gives them meaning. The mysterious story of the ram that got caught in the undergrowth and took the place of Isaac as the sacrifice determined by God himself - it is now understood as the pre-history of Christ, the fork in the tree in which it hung, as the image of the zodiac sign of the Aries and this in turn as the heavenly model of Christ crucified. It should also be noted that Jewish tradition dates the Abrahamic sacrifice to March 25th. This day was also seen as the day of the creation of the world - as the day on which God's word decreed: 'Let there be light!' "
From the original light of the first day of creation (cf. 2 Cor 4 : 6 EU ) it then says: “In creation itself that light is already there, which then on the eighth day in the resurrection of the Lord and in the new world to its full brightness comes, lets us see the splendor of God. ”Jewish tradition explains that the primordial light“ is taken away by God in order to come back on the real day ”, that is, on the eighth day. The primordial light "is identical in its non-material sense with 'chessed', which can be paraphrased as love, grace, goodness, a giving completely free."
Grace, goodness and love underlie creation as its invisible right side of the day from day one. The visible left side of the night and body of the second day, which is not approved in Gen 1.6–7 EU , that is, is blessed like the other days, however, conveys the image of a finite world with the mortality of all life, the scarcity of goods and violence between creatures ("eating and being eaten"). That is why only the wisdom of believing in the fallen creation can read the character of its creation in grace, goodness and love: "On the basis of faith we know that the world was created by God's word and that the visible arose out of the invisible" ( Heb 11.3 EU ). “By faith, Abraham offered up Isaac when he was tried and gave up the only son ... He relied on God to have power even to raise the dead; and that is why he got Isaac back. That is a symbol ”( Heb 11: 17-19 EU ).
King (Shepherd) and Lamb
Relying on God's omnipotence and providence is not groundless, but has its ground and logos in the order of creation, as it is especially recognizable in the cosmic event of the return of spring and new life: "The return of the sun to the spring equinox or in the 'ram' reveals not only the 'logos' of the cosmos, but also the goodness of its originator, because life returns in it. ”Therefore, Gen 22 does not end with the opening of the heavens and the prevention of real sacrifice, but leads directly to seeing of the ram (lamb) in the tree in "a stir" to heaven and to the vernal equinox.
In the sacrifice on the cross of the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” ( Jn 1.29 EU ), on the day of preparation before the Sabbath (7th day) near the vernal equinox as a symbol of the beginning of the world, the redeeming connection to heaven becomes or made on the eighth day. This is synonymous with the construction of the temple of the resurrection body of Christ “in three days” or on the third day ( Jn 2 : 20–22 EU ), that is - counted from the 6th day (Friday) on - Sunday as the first day of the week or as the eighth day. Herbert Schade points out that an inscription on a medallion on the door of Santa Pudenziana in Rome (4th century) reads “that shepherd and lamb are identical: Hic agnus mundum restaurat sanguine lapsum mortuus et vivus idem sum pastor et agnus . This text is easy to translate, but difficult to understand. 'This Lamb renews the fallen world by his blood. Dead and alive I am the same, Shepherd and Lamb. ' Actually, 'restaurare' means 'to raise the stake'. So it is first spoken of the re-erection of the world pillar in spring, which takes place in 'Aries'. "
The intersection of time and eternity
The “lance stab” or the process of “piercing” at the crucifixion of Jesus ( Joh 19,34,37 EU ) has its typological model in the fourth song of Isaiah about the servant of God, with which Isaac is identified: “He was pierced because of our crimes, because of our crimes of our sins ”( Isa 53,5 EU ). Justin Martyr (2nd century) calls "Christ simply the 'pierced' one". The “drilling through” of Aries thus corresponds to the intersection of the ecliptic , the course of the seven planets on the band of the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the celestial equator , the apparently opposing course of the fixed stars. These two "heavenly circles" stand for time and eternity and intersect at two points: the two equinoxes in spring (= east point) and autumn (= west point). The zodiac becomes from the point of east or spring as a symbol of the “beginning” of the year and the world to the “tree of forgiveness” because here a remembrance or return to the origin takes place.
This whole cosmic structure of the two intersecting heavenly circles appears in Ezekiel's vocation vision as God's throne chariot or “wheelwork” (Hebrew galgal), which is related to the temple ( Ez 1 EU ; 10.13.18-22 EU ). The four four-faced primordial beings as “wheels” (bull, lion, eagle, man, the later symbols of the four evangelists) are moved by the spirit of the cherubim. These are the four middle quadrants of the zodiac (eagle is the spirit side to Scorpio, man or angel stands for the winter sign Aquarius). In the John Apocalypse these four beings stand around the divine throne with the lamb (ram) in the center ( Rev 5,6 EU ).
The four signs of the zodiac or primordial beings also embody the four letters of the name of God or tetragram YHWH: “J corresponds to the human being, H to the lion, W to the bull and the second H to the eagle. This chariot symbolizes God's work in the world, it is another possibility of revelation through nature or the cosmos ”. Above the throne carriage appears in the Ezekiel vision the glorious figure of the Lord, “who looked like a person” ( Ez 1.26–28 EU ). Ephraem the Syrian identifies this human-like figure of God with Christ and the cosmic throne chariot with the throne of the cross: "He [Christ] left the chariot of the four beings and descended - and created the cross as a vehicle for himself in the four directions of the world."
Herbert Schade writes: "This mechanism of the circling sun also forms the spherical cross or the spherical human being in the shape of the Greek letter X (= Chi)." In Plato's natural philosophy , in the dialogue Timaeus , the Greek letter X (= Chi) symbolizes this intersection of celestial equator and ecliptic and therefore the world soul, which keeps the world body of the earth alive. Medieval illustrations of the sacrifice of Isaac, such as the Ingeborg Psalter (around 1200), show the tree in which the ram is caught (Gen. 22:13), as well as the two pieces of wood for the burnt offering that Isaac carries, in a cross-shaped X shape (so cross-carrying). Justin already relates Plato's chi to the cross of Christ. “What Plato says about the world soul appears to him (Justin) as an indication of the coming of the Logos, the Son of God. And so he can now say that the shape of the cross is the greatest symbol of the reign of the Logos, without which there could be no connection in the whole of creation (1. Apol. 55). "
In the Gospel of John, the logos is the creator's word as an idealistic order of creation or heavenly wisdom ( John 1 : 1–3 EU ), in which everything endures (cf. Col 1: 16–18 EU ). The incarnation of this Logos ( Jn 1.14 EU ) means the restoration of the covenant of spirit and flesh (on the cross) so that God's glory (v. 14; cf. Jn 2.11 EU ) can again be seen in faith. The actual place of the revelation of glory (glory of God) is the (self-) humiliation of the Son of God in obedience to the will of the Father until death on the (slave) cross ( Phil 2: 6–8 EU ). In the Didache (around 60/65), the "Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles", in which there is no mention of the cross and the resurrection, the name of Jesus is always given the addition: "who was obedient". According to the biblical principle: "Whoever exalts himself will be humiliated, and whoever humiliates himself will be exalted" ( Mt 23.12 EU ; Lk 14.11 EU ; 18.14 EU ) the humiliation on the cross means profoundly exaltation on the throne of the cross (cf. Joh 12.32 EU ; 3.14 EU ), that is, the return to the origin, as it is symbolized in the Aries in the tree.
Exegetical Perspectives
Overarching aspects
Matthias Köckert sums up the objectionable part of the story : “What kind of God is that who demands such a sacrifice? What kind of father is that who does not oppose this suggestion? ”He takes up Kant's idea that Abraham should have opposed the divine order for moral reasons, because the command called into question the divinity of God: that is Kant's standard moral law that God has to guarantee and not endanger. Köckert classifies this interpretation as problematic because it makes God a prisoner of our morality.
After the separation of Ishmael (Gen 21) from the narrative strand, Isaac is now the "only" (remaining) son of Abraham. What began in Gen 12 as the story of the promise is now at stake in Gen 22: Due to the sacrifice required, the future of the offspring is virtually impossible.
The framework of the narrative is created by the loose connections between v. 1a (“after these events” [in Beersheba]) and v. 19b (return to Beersheba) with the previous narration. Key words contribute to the coherence of the extremely condensed narrative:
- Place / place (V. 2.3b.4b.9a.14)
- see / see / let see / appear (v. 4.8.13.14)
- V. 4: Abraham sees the place from afar.
- V. 8: Adonai will see a sheep for himself
- Verse 13: Abraham sees the ram
- V. 14: Morija is interpreted as the mountain on which Adonai sees or appears / is seen.
- phonetic echoes of "God sees" (elohim jiräh v. 8.14), "god-fearing" (jere elohim v. 12) and "Morija" (v. 2)
- 3 times Abraham says "Here I am" (הִנֵּנִי) (V. 1.7.11)
- towards Elohim, Isaac and Adonai
- 2 × Isaac as "your son, your only one" (v. 4.13)
- 2 × the reference to the place of sacrifice, "which God had told him" (v.3.9)
- 2 × "So the two went together" (v. 6.8)
The economic narrative style only communicates what is absolutely necessary, which opens up spaces for imagination and enables identification with the main characters.
Verses 15-18 (the second angelic speech) are omitted from the narrative because they go far beyond the situation. V. 14b also changes from the narrated world to the narrator's world and could therefore be added later.
Gen 22 can be read as a narrative addressing the theodicy questions: What for and why are terrible challenges in life? The narrative's answer to the why question would be that they are tests from God. Readers are encouraged to trust God as much as Abraham did. The why question is neither explicitly asked nor answered, but it is God who tests what is enough.
The headword field " see " can be interpreted as follows: Abraham lifts his eyes and sees the place from a distance, after having been lost in thought (v. 4). He also lifts his eyes and sees the Aries after having been too busy with the emotionally challenging preparations for the sacrifice (v. 13). This seeing is contrasted with God's seeing, which Abraham hoped for in his answer to Isaac and which was later confirmed and led to the naming of the place (v. 14a). Seeing God is not neutral, but it means salvation (cf. e.g. Ex 3.7: "I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt"). Seeing Adonai is therefore a saving intervention.
"And God looked at the Israelites and took care of them."
The threefold "Here I am" (הִנֵּנִי) (V. 1.7.11) refers not only to the physical presence, but also to the inner willingness to act. Normally, an asymmetrical personal relationship is expressed, in which the subordinate answers with "Here I am" (הִנֵּנִי). Abraham and God are in a mutual trusting relationship that makes obedience possible in the first place. Abraham reacts to both divine interventions with the "Here I am" (הִנֵּנִי) (in v. 1 and v. 11). In the middle of this tension arises the further "Here I am" (הִנֵּנִי) - statement, which he now expresses to his son, which is also an asymmetrical personal relationship, but here not God commands, but the son speaks. "Abraham's relationship with Isaac reflects God's preliminary relationship with Abraham".
In addition to the Book of Job, Gen 22 contributed to highlighting the cliché of the arbitrary God in a particularly typical way. What is forgotten is that the sacrifice of the son is not the intention of the text, not even in its original context. The deliberate use of different names of God is also to be considered : The determined use of Elohim with article ( ha 'elohim "the god / deity" ) is taken up again by the narrator in v. 3 and v. 9, whereas the indeterminate use without article in Mouth of the narrative characters Abraham and God occurs in v. 8 and v. 12. The tetragram is only used in the introduction to the redeeming talk of God in v. 11f. This use is no more accidental than the use in v. 14 and in the secondary verses 15 and 16. Elohim is used as the name of God as long as the abysmal demand dominates the narrative. With the turning point in v. 11 the designation of God also changes (with the exception of the phrase "godly" in v. 12). In the story, two opposing perceptions of God are processed: Elohim stands for the hidden God who is inscrutable and monstrous. Adonai (YHWH) stands for the saving God, who is characterized by his permanent devotion. So theologically central it is about the contrast experience of the concealment of the saving God. The paradox of the presence and absence of God is expressed in this story. Abraham trusts the God, who initially hides himself under his opposite, not because the latter is arbitrary, but because he recognizes God as free and thus as God. Abraham does not perform "cadaver obedience", but his trust consists of the temptation because he not only experiences the hidden, but also the experience of the saving God. The use of the different names of God is therefore not accidental, but deliberately chosen, but is also no indication of different literary strata. As long as God hides behind his self-contradicting command, the name Adonai (YHWH), which is connected to Israel's experience of salvation (Ex 3:14), is not used
Linking the different uses of God's names with different meanings stands in tension to the other texts of the Abrahamic tradition: Elohim can also save (Elohim heals Abimelech after Abraham turns to Ha-Elohim in prayer - not to YHWH, cf.Gen 20, 17), and it is YHWH (and not Elohim) who destroys Sodom (Gen 19:14). For exegetes, for whom Gen 22 and 19 are on a literary level (e.g. Gese), the division of the divine names into "good / saving" / "hidden / destructive" becomes obsolete - likewise for exegetes, for them Gen 20 and Gen 22 are on the same literary level (e.g. Blum).
The gaps in the narrative have made this masterfully composed narrative effective. The effectiveness is shown in the intensive history of the impact in media of all kinds, the Qur'an also takes up the narrative (see below). The blank spaces encourage active participation and cannot be clearly resolved. The research is beyond a stage of blanket condemnations of this difficult, but also productive text passage.
Context analysis
Gen 22 can be considered the climax of the Abraham story. There are parallels to 21, which are continued and increased in 22. Intertextuality contributes to a better understanding of the text (see e.g. Gen 12.1 with Gen 22.2). Gen 21 can therefore be interpreted as a prelude to Gen 22. This can first be illustrated by the similarities between the two narratives. The following can be mentioned as the main similarities:
- A paradoxical command from God is issued, the execution of which leads to a life-threatening crisis.
- There is the wordless, immediate implementation of Abraham.
- At the climax, God intervenes to save.
- The rescue happens through a messenger (Elohims or Adonais).
An important difference is that in Gen 21 the command of God arises from a human conflict in which God takes Sarah's side against Abraham. However, the harshness of the command is immediately tempered by the fact that God also utters promises about Ishmael. In Gen 22 the situation is much more open, Abraham receives neither a reason nor a moderation.
There are also elements that can be increased:
- While Gen 21 describes the lack of water, Gen 22 is about the "slaughter" of the son.
- While in Gen 21 Abraham is more passive or distant in a safe home (and Hagar wanders through the desert with her son), in Gen 22 he is the acting subject in the middle of the action.
- Abraham is already obedient in Gen 21. From this point of view his obedience in Gen 22 can also be understood, which at the same time is more clearly outlined.
In addition, Ex 20.20 can be considered as a parallel to Gen 22, because only in these two passages is the testing of God linked with the fear of God. Also in the theophany from Ex 20.20, Elohim is determined by articles, as well as in the first part in Gen 22. The communication of the divine will is also understood in Ex 20.20 as a test. The fear of God is not based on a decision, but is the result of an experience that can only grasp the unfathomable dialectic of God's distance and nearness in retrospect. Fear of God precedes observance of the commandments. Its purpose is "that you do not fail". In Gen.22, too, one can deduce from the observance of the divine commandment the underlying fear of God. Ex 20.20 do not necessarily have to depend on each other in literary terms, but the parallels mentioned are still striking. Because both Abraham and Moses are representative figures who serve as an example for the people to imitate.
Dating
The current consensus is probably an at the earliest exilic or rather post-exilic origin (after 587 BC), because deuteronomistic theologoumena are assumed. Gen 22 reflects disaster experiences. Abraham serves as the archetype of an obedience that hopes against all hope. Israel identifies with Isaac (Gen 21:12) and addresses the theodicy question in its monotheistic variant: How can one and the same God be responsible for both evil and salvation?
Single verse exegesis
Verse 1
“After these events” recalls Gen 15.1, where the same wording is found (אַחַר הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה). However, space and time remain approximate, we only know that they are classified according to the events of Gen. 21.
V. 1 gives the reader an information advantage over Abraham, verse 2 an information advantage Abraham over Isaac: Abraham does not know that it is a test and Isaac does not know that he should be sacrificed.
The first half of verse, v. 1a, can best be interpreted as a heading that is supposed to prepare the reader for what to expect: You already know that the abysmal demand is a temptation / test. In Gen 18.1, too, the readers have the advantage in knowing that they are not simply normal visitors, but an appearance of Adonai, which Abraham only has to find out in the course of the story. Here, too, readers watch with excitement when Abraham breaks through to the realization that the narrator has already anticipated. Another parallel is the Job prologue, in which the reader also knows that it is a test situation, but Job himself does not (Hi 1–2). Only in v. 12 can Abraham recognize that it is a divine trial. Thanks to the knowledge advantage, readers can already anticipate the outcome.
The use of the article in front of the divine name (" we ha 'elohim " וְהָאֱלֹהִים) can be interpreted in such a way that this very God tests Abraham, who has been with him since Gen 12: 1. The relationship of trust between God and Abraham has grown over a long history together.
Elsewhere, the Hebrew word " check " can also mean the assurance of what one already knows (cf. Judge 6:39). So God does not want to make Abraham insecure here either, but rather to prove him to be tried and tested. What exactly should be checked or which criteria lead to the passing of the exam, however, remains unclear.
God only speaks here (וַיֹּאמֶר), there is no mention of an apparition in a certain place (as in 18.1). Abraham's answer "Here I am" (הִנֵּנִי) is less meant locally, but expresses his relationship with God, his readiness to listen to the call.
Verse 2
Here God speaks three imperatives. The first relates to Isaac, who is now the only son because Ishmael was driven out (21:14, 20). Without Isaac, God's promises could no longer be fulfilled. The claim that Abraham loved him has an emotional ring to it.
The second command contains the location "Land Morija", an unknown place which otherwise only appears in 2Chr 3,1 (as "Mount Morija") and there designates the Temple Mount. But it is not a precise location, it is about a mountain that God will show. This indeterminacy is reminiscent of God's command to Abram in Gen 12.1 to move to an initially indeterminate place.
The third command appears all the harder due to the emotional coloring of the first ("whom you love"): the son is to be offered as a burnt offering. With burnt victims there are no remains that could be consumed as a sacrificial meal, but the slaughtered, bled and divided sacrificial animal is completely burned, which is why it is also referred to as a whole sacrifice (kalil).
The demands place Abraham in an insoluble conflict: both the refusal of obedience and obedience destroy the hopes for the future; for Abraham cannot expect a blessing from God if he does not obey him; and if he obeys, he himself destroys his future. The loss of the son is worse than the loss of one's own life in the ancient Israelites, because only through the son can the family continue to exist and the memory of the father can be cherished. When the son dies, there is no memory of the father either.
Verse 3
Abraham gets up early in the morning , i.e. immediately, and makes the preparations for the sacrifice (saddle the donkey, take the servant and son with him), which is why the sacrifice begins for him. Abraham's answer is his silent obedience.
In other places too, Abraham sets out early in the morning, such as the "sacrifice" or loss of his other son Ishmael (Gen 21:14) or the fall of Sodom (Gen 19:27). In Gen 21:14, too, the immediate breaking out highlights the unconditional obedience of Abraham: He does what God wants, although it is most likely contrary to his own will.
It is astonishing that this obedience of Abraham is paralleled with the obedience of Abimelech, who also gets up early in the morning to obey God's ordinance (Gen 20: 8).
It can be indirectly concluded from this that God spoke to Abraham at night in vv. 1–2. The increasing order of objects in v. 2 ("Take your son, your only one whom you love, Isaac!") Is contrasted with the decreasing order of Abraham's actions (getting up, harnessing the donkey, taking two servants, then Isaac; then split the sacrificial wood, get up, go). Splitting the wood is strangely the last act before setting out. It gives Abraham a last respite, even if it is very depressing due to the purpose ("for the burnt offering").
Verses 4-5
What happens on the three-day journey, whether or what is spoken, etc. is not told. These and other blank spaces have made creative interpretations possible, such as the paintings in Kierkegaard's "Fear and Trembling".
Abraham tells his servants that he and his son want to worship. Worship can also take place elsewhere through sacrifice (1 Sam 1: 3).
The statement that they are both returning can be interpreted as a well-intentioned concealment of the actual project: the father does not want to pronounce the terrible at the wrong time. Or one understands this statement as an indication of Abraham's hope that there is another way out, contrary to the appearance.
Read from the end of the story, Abraham's statement is not wrong, because they both sacrifice and, as one can guess between the lines, they both return.
The statement about the return of the two is thus ambiguous and can be understood in at least two directions: On the one hand, it serves to reassure the servants, on the other hand, to calm themselves due to the paradoxical hope of a divine rescue action.
Isaac is referred to as a "boy" in v. 5. In any case, the story takes place within the Bible after weaning (Gen 21). According to the story, the boy must at least have been able to walk, speak and carry wood. Josephus (Antiquitates 1,227) and the Jubilee Book 16.15 assume an age of 25 years. The rabbinical exegesis (Midrash Tanhuma) assumes the age of 37 years because Sarah died immediately afterwards (23.1) at the age of 127 and Sarah at birth about 90 years (17.17).
Verses 6-8
Father and son are alone now after the servants have been left behind. Isaac carries the sacrificial wood on which he will lie later without knowing it. Abraham has fire created by striking stones together (2Makk 3:10). The knife is intended for slaughtering.
This is where the only brief exchange of words between father and son takes place. The intimate relationship is underlined again by the respective address "my father" and "my son". Abraham stands between the demand of God and his son - he answers both with "Here I am" (הִנֵּנִי cf. also v. 1). By answering that God will take care of the sacrificial animal, Abraham expresses his trust in God also in the face of the sacrificial site. Against all expectations, Abraham is telling the truth here too, without actually being able to know it - because ultimately God provides a substitute sacrifice. He hopes against the appearance of other expressions of will of Adonai.
The conversation has both a retarding and a centering function due to its length and inner calm. Isaac, who was previously a passive object of God's command and Abraham's action, now takes action by taking the initiative and addressing the problem of the situation. It gives the impression of a responsible boy.
Verses 9-10
Tying the sacrificial animal is otherwise unusual for a burnt offering. But Abraham does it here (v.9) and this act becomes the title of the whole story in Jewish tradition: The " aqedah " (binding) of Isaac.
The Hebrew verb "bind" (ויַּעֲקֹד) is a Hapaxlegomenon , which emphasizes the uniqueness of the events described. Verses 9-10 form the climax of the story because the place is finally reached here. The explicit subject of the actions (building an altar, tying layers of wood for Isaac) is Abraham. Nevertheless, the impression arises that the son might consent, which suggests Isaac's cooperation. The narrative seems to freeze drastically at the image of the knife raised.
Verses 11-12
The insoluble conflict can only be resolved by God himself, because only God can save before God. Abraham has to do with the one God, who first addresses him as "the God" (ha elohim v. 1), but now speaks through the messenger Adonais. Unlike in v. 2, the address to Abraham is doubled here ("Abraham, Abraham"), which indicates an increase. Following Blum, Köckert states: The saving god reveals himself in the tetragram, the enigmatic god who hides behind his threatening order is referred to as "the god" (ha elohim).
Abraham has proven himself and now God knows more than in V. 1. The fulfillment of the command is marked as fear of God. The fear of God does not consist in the sacrifice, but in the fact that Abraham "does not withhold his Son" from God, that is, he places the son's destiny in God's hands. Abraham does not obey blindly or absolutely, but trusts God on the basis of all previous experiences, which make it possible in the first place to follow the voice from v. 2 in the hope that this cannot be God's last word.
The fear of God category here has a retrospective structure. A concrete example of Abraham's fear of God can be seen in the interpretation of vv. 6-8, according to which Abraham hopes that God will see himself a sacrifice and thus resolve the situation. Even though what God originally demanded is not carried out to the bitter end, the willingness is already the valid sacrifice, which is weighted higher than the actual execution. Fear of God is a concrete practice that goes hand in hand with the risk of giving up oneself: man has to leave himself as man in order to let God be God. From a Christian point of view, this prefigures the New Testament theology of the cross.
Verses 13-14
The sacrifice of the son does not have to be performed, since Abraham's obedience has taken the place of the sacrifice. But thanks for salvation is expressed through the sacrifice of Aries. Here, too, Abraham raises his eyes, but not full of worry as in v. 4, but the liberated gaze can now see the ram in the undergrowth. Only after Adonai's liberating interruption can Abraham perceive the ram, which now serves as a substitute for sacrifice in place of his son. This is where the original story ends together with the return note that has since slipped into v. 19. V. 15–18 are probably subsequent insertions.
Abraham names the place after what he had already hoped for in the answer to his son, namely that "Adonai sees" (יִרְאֶה jireh ), which is connected with the name of the mountain on which Adonai appears (יֵרָאֶה jeraäh ). “The place that God had told him” recalls the Deuteronomic phrase “the place that Adonai will choose” (e.g. Deut 12: 5, 14, 26), which means the Jerusalem temple. According to Ps 78: 8, Zion is the place where the god of gods appears ( jeraäh ). These hidden connecting lines from the Jerusalem Temple Mount and the story of Abraham can be explained by the fact that David is traditionally considered the founder of the temple shrine. Abraham only sacrificed here (although he otherwise builds many altars), which takes account of the instruction that sacrifices may only be made in Jerusalem (Deut 12: 13f; 2 Kings 23: 8).
Verses 15-18
Here Abraham's obedience and God's promises are brought into the relationship between requirement and reward. Abraham listens to the voice of God, which is otherwise associated with Torah obedience. He becomes a role model for the offspring. And what is more, his merit also benefits the descendants on a representative basis (Gen 26: 3–5.24).
Exactly what obedience is related to remains unclear: does it refer to obedience to bind Isaac, or to obedience not to harm him?
The fact that descendants, land promises and universal blessings of the people are again promised to Abraham, but obedience appear as a condition for this, gives the otherwise rather open narrative a rational aspect of divine pedagogy.
Verse 19
This epilogue that closes the story is surprising because one has to wonder where Isaac went . The story so far would suggest that both of them return to the servants and not just Abraham. The further course of Genesis also assumes Isaac. The blank space can be interpreted to mean that it is primarily about Abraham's trial, for whom Isaac is only an object that does not need to be explicitly mentioned again. In Jewish traditions, Isaac was either sent to Shem by Abraham to learn the Torah there in the Garden of Eden, or he was actually sacrificed - or died at the sight of the knife - but with an immediate resurrection. The void can also be interpreted to mean that it was deliberately created by the narrator to make it clear that for Isaac life cannot simply go on as before.
One possible interpretation of the lasting effect that this incident must have had on Isaac is the variant in Kierkegaard's "Fear and Trembling", in which Isaac loses his faith in God.
If Isaac can simply be considered in the sense of togetherness from vv. 6-8, the question still remains, why he is not mentioned. Like every other detail, this obscurity also seems intentional, because the readers are encouraged to think further and made to take the perspective of Isaac, who is now likely to be unable to return to everyday life without further ado.
Further approaches to interpretation
Animal sacrifice versus human sacrifice
A religious historical interpretation assumes that the sacrifice of Isaac is about an etiology that seeks to justify the replacement of human sacrifice by animal sacrifice. This is accompanied by at least the following assumptions:
- Gen 22 had an older layer of tradition in which this logic of separation emerges. In the form of the narrative available to us, it is no longer about that, but only originally the narrative was thematically linked to it.
- For a certain period of time (possibly in a pre-Israelite period) it was perfectly normal to sacrifice children. At some point, the regular child sacrifice stopped and animal sacrifices were introduced instead.
There are arguments in favor of this interpretation . For example, child sacrifices seem to have been an obvious topic because there are different texts that deal with it: For example the three stories from Gen 22, Jud 11 and 2 Kings 3. In addition, 1 Kings 16:34 (cf. Jos 6:26 ) to call. Ez 20,25f also shows that there used to be child sacrifices for Adonai, even if they are condemned from the author's perspective.
There are also arguments against this interpretation , e.g. B. Abraham's statement in Gen 22: 8 that God will see a "sheep" - this seems to suggest that it was already common to sacrifice animals. Accordingly, the child sacrifice here (and also in Ri 11 and 2Kön 3) would be an extreme exceptional situation with a singular character - and thus anything but a regular sacrificial ritual. But even if one assumes that Gen 22 came into being at a time of regular child sacrifices, the story does not reveal any critical examination of it, because God's demand is initially not criticized at all. So it cannot have been in Gen 22's interest to deal with the child sacrifice issue. Also, nowhere is it explicitly mentioned that the narrative should serve to establish a new practice of sacrifice (a sentence such as "That is why one sacrifices animals and not people to this day" is missing).
Ez 20,25f does not necessarily have to be understood as a child sacrifice, but the phrase "let go through the fire" can also be interpreted as a ritual consecration. Mi 6.7 emphatically rejects child sacrifice. In addition, the nomadic societies of the ancient Orient do not know of any human sacrifices. The inscription and archaeological findings of the Phoenicians and Punic are inconclusive.
Neither in the Jewish nor in the Christian tradition (apart from the religious historical interpretation from the 20th century) was the story of the sacrifice of Isaac ever understood as directed primarily against human or child sacrifice ; Hermann Gunkel (1862–1932) was the first to represent this “salvation” of the narrative from the history of religion, which was received with lasting effect . “It is the God of Israel himself who commands Abraham [to sacrifice his son]. And the text does not reveal any fundamental discussion of the subject of human or child sacrifice. Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son is even expressly approved. 'For now I know that you fear God and have not withheld your only son from me.' ”There was a tradition in Israel to expressly reject human sacrifices as“ pagan ”( Deut. 12.31 EU ; Jer 32.35 EU ; Ps 106.37 EU ) and in Isaac's question about the lamb (v. 7) the animal sacrifice is assumed.
The preservation of Isaac from the sacrificial death (Gen. 22:12) does not make the sacrifice incomplete or invalid, but rather it is considered ideally provided by the spirit of sacrifice in the "heart" - in the Jewish tradition even the "blood of Isaac" and the " Ashes of Isaac ”the speech; His voluntary “everlasting” sacrifice is also assigned salvation significance for the whole world, and Isaac's “merits” for his sacrifice are “remembered” in the morning prayer and in the liturgy. This is the point when the sociologist Gunnar Heinsohn tries to pin down the "core conflict" between Judaism and Christianity in the ultimately prevented sacrifice of Isaac: "To this day, the concepts of the child-sparing Abraham god and the son-sacrificing Christian god are irreconcilable."
According to the Old Testament scholar Jürgen Ebach , Gen 22 can only be understood from the change in the designation of the “name of God”: “The command [to sacrifice] comes from 'the deity' ( ha-elohim ). But the moment a messenger of God appears and tells Abraham not to harm the boy, it is YHWH's messenger. At the very moment when God appears with his own name, it becomes apparent that human sacrifice should not be. ”There is an“ identity and difference between life demanding and life giving God. ”This is“ identity and difference ” ultimately the one between justice and mercy, which, however, are supposed to become one in the story.
Becoming oneself versus myth of nature
According to Eugen Drewermann , one of the main statements of the story lies in the “blatant contradiction to the fertility religions”, according to which the sacrifice of people is “an ancient motif of the fertility rites”; That is why “in the context of the natural religions it is not so surprising that God instructs the ancestor of Israel to sacrifice his son; on the contrary, it must be much more surprising that he expressly forbids him to do so on Mount Morija through the appearance of an angel (Gen. 22.11-13). [...] Without a doubt, she wants to emphasize in particular that the God of Israel looks at the life of every individual and does not want it to be trampled underfoot like something insignificant in the service of nature. [...] The value of the individual before God - and thus at the same time the discovery of history - distinguishes the faith of Israel, as shown by the example of Abraham, in principle from the conceptions of the natural religions. "The story aims at the distinction between person and nature, Individuals and genres, history and the myth of fear, psychologically speaking: the dissolution of the inner father-son bond. It is true that it is a question of suppressing natural fertility, but not simply in the sense of personal self-development, but in the sense of spiritual fruitfulness in faith, that is, being children of God as a restoration of the original image of God.
Reception in Islam
“In Islam, the memory of the Abraham sacrifice marks the end of the festival of sacrifice and the climax of the annual pilgrimage to the Kaaba ('House of God') in Mecca . The festival is celebrated throughout the Islamic world on the 10th day of the month of pilgrimage. It is remembered that 'Ibrahim' was ready to sacrifice his firstborn son at God's command (the temple mount Morija becomes the Kaaba in Islamic tradition). In this way, according to the Islamic point of view, he demonstrated his 'faith' in the sense of 'devotion', submission to God's will, which makes him an exemplary Muslim and the archetype of the true believer for all people. "
Popularly, Isaac is also reinterpreted as the firstborn Ishmael (Arabic: 'Ismail'). This is made possible in the Koran sura 37 : 99-109, in which in connection with the biblical story of sacrifice only a "good boy" without a name is mentioned. There he himself affirmed “his will to self-sacrifice: 'Father, do what you are commanded to do. You will, God willing, find that I belong to the steadfast '”(Sura 37,102). In view of the namelessness in the Koran, the identification as Isaac, which the Koran does not contradict, is likely to have been replaced by Ishmael, who is more prominent as the assumed ancestor of the Arabs there.
Reception in art
The theme of the sacrifice of Isaac is often found on early Christian sarcophagi , Romanesque capitals and Trumeaupfeilern as relief shown. In one of the rare religious dramas in Byzantine and post-Byzantine literature, the anonymously handed down Θυσία του Αβραάμ ("Sacrifice of Abraham") by an unknown Venetian-Cretan poet of the 15th century, it is presented as a scenic portrayal. The theme was also dealt with dramaturgically in the 20th century. Pope John Paul II also dealt more closely with the sacrifice of Isaac as part of the meditations in his three-part cycle of poems, Roman Triptych .
In 2020, the sacrifice of Isaac was the subject of the French computer animation film It Wasn't the Right Mountain, Mohammad , directed by Mili Pecherer .
Quotes
“There is only one world and only one true view of it; the world would also be legible as the first book of God, but man in an emergency of sin first has to let his eyes clear for it. This leads to the definition that he must (again) learn to see like God. Cosmic order and Torah are one; Knowledge and belief are one because there is only one truth; but they have to become one first. "
“So all the work in this life of ours, brothers, is to heal the eye of the heart so that it may see God. In addition, the most sacred mysteries are celebrated, and the word of God is preached; therefore the moral exhortations of the church are given ... The sun that we want to see with healthy eyes was certainly made by God. Far more and much more luminous is the one who made them. It is not the sun-type light that hits the mind's eye. This light is eternal wisdom. God made you, human, in his own image. Shouldn't he have given you something so that you could see the sun that he made? And shouldn't he have given you something so that you can see him who made you in his own image? He gave you this too. He gave you both. How much do you love these outer eyes of yours, and how much do you neglect that inner eye. [...] After he [Adam] sinned, his eye was injured and he began to fear the divine light [...] He fled the truth and sought the shadows. "
“His (Benedict of Nursia) whole life was an inner ascent, step by step on the 'straight ladder'. [...] He can see the whole thing because he sees from above, and he can find it because he has become wide inside. The old tradition of man as a microcosm that spans the whole world may linger. The essential thing is this: Man has to learn to rise, he has to get far. He has to be at the window. He has to look out. And then the light of God can touch him, he can recognize him and from him gain the true overview. […] The great people who, in the patient ascent and in the purifications they have suffered, have become sighted and therefore guide through the centuries, concern us today too. "
“True exaltation [...] - according to the categories of the kingdom of heaven - means to be reinstated by God in the dignity of sonship with God. Such elevation is at the same time the summit of the highest humilitas, not a desire to rise above the given possibilities, but an ascent in which one progresses on the ground of present life. At the last stage of this path, one identifies oneself according to the instruction of Benedict with the tax collector in the Gospel: Lord, I, a sinner, am not worthy to lift my eyes to heaven. "
“It was early morning, Abraham got up early, he kissed Sarah, the young mother, and Sarah kissed Isaac, her lust, her joy for all time. And Abraham rode thoughtfully on his way. He thought of Hagar and her son, whom he once drove out into the desert. He climbed the mountain; he drew the knife. It was a quiet evening. Abraham rode out alone, he rode to Mount Moriah. He threw himself on his face and asked God to forgive him for the sins that he had wanted to sacrifice to Isaac, that the father had forgotten his duty to the son. He rode his lonely way more often, but he had no rest. He could not understand how it was sin, that he had wanted to sacrifice to God the best that he had, that which he valued a thousand times more than his own life. Yet if it was a sin if he hadn't loved Isaac the way he should, then he couldn't understand that it could be forgiven. Was there a more terrible sin? "
“The talk of God's self-sacrifice in creation is, in the strict sense, not a general term, but a name of God […] because God's self-sacrifice is the only case in which one can speak of self-sacrifice in an emphatic sense. Only God is so perfect that his relationship with another has the character of complete indispensability and freedom. ' 'God's relation to the world in sacrifice also transcends God's lordship over the world, because God does not need the world for his lordship. The sacrifice and service of God to the world is the freest relationship that can be imagined for God's relationship to the world. '"
See also
- Sacrifice of Iphigenies by Agamemnon
- Milgram experiment : The Max Planck Institute in Munich carried out the Milgram experiment “on the problem of obedience and authority”. An attempt should 'prove' that people in conflict situations are capable of cruelty. ”The film documentary was published in 1970 under the title Abraham - An Attempt . "The title 'Abraham' refers to [...] 1st Book of Moses 22".
literature
overview
- Ed Noort, Edward Kessler, Alexander Even-Chen, Barry Dov Walfish, James A. Grady, Gert J. Steyn, Hans-Josef Klauck, David Bertaina, Eric Ziolkowski, Ori Z. Soltes, Nils Holger Petersen, Marsha B. Edelman, S. Brent Plate: Aqedah . In: Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR). Volume 2, de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2009, ISBN 978-3-11-018370-2 , Sp. 526-565.
- Klaus W. Halbig: The alphabet of revelation. Re-spelling of Faith in the light of Jewish mysticism . St. Ottilien 2013; ISBN 978-3-8306-7582-2 ; especially pp. 461–508 (Abraham and Isaac)
- Helmut Hoping , Julia Knop, Thomas Böhm (eds.): The binding of Isaak. Voice, writing, image. Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-506-76868-1
- Myth of Abraham: Texts from Genesis to Franz Kafka. ed. by Michael Niehaus and Wim Peeters. Reclam, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-15-020180-0 .
- Michael Krupp : Sacrifice the son? The Isaac tradition among Jews, Christians and Muslims. Kaiser, Gütersloh 1995, ISBN 3-579-00289-9 .
- Theresa Heither, Christiana Reemts: Biblical figures with the church fathers: Abraham. Münster 2005, esp. 154–173 (Gen 22: The Sacrifice)
- Klaus W. Halbig: The tree of life. Cross and Torah in a mystical interpretation. Würzburg 2011, esp. 295–338 (The Sacrifice of the Easter Lamb)
- Klaus W. Hälbig: The ascent to see God in creation. Isaac's sacrifice and Christ's sacrifice on the cross under the sign of Chi (X). In: Zeitschrift für Katholische Theologie , 2/2002, pp. 145–176.
- Thomas Hieke: Abram / Abraham. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 24, Bautz, Nordhausen 2005, ISBN 3-88309-247-9 , Sp. 1-49.
Jewish interpretations
- Friedrich Weinreb: The sacrifice in the Bible. Getting closer to God ; ed. by Chr. Schneider; Zurich 2010.
- Albert H. Friedlander : Medusa and Akeda . In: Michael Brocke et al. (Ed.): Wolkensäule and Feuerschein. Jewish theology of the Holocaust . Kaiser, Gütersloh 1993, ISBN 3-579-05131-8 , pp. 218-239.
- Roland Gradwohl: Biblical interpretations from Jewish sources , Volume 1: The Old Testament sermon texts of the 3rd and 4th year ; Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart, 1986; ISBN 3-7668-3346-4 ; Pp. 75-87.
- Verena Lenzen: Jewish life and death in the name of God. Studies on the Sanctification of the Divine Name (Kiddush HaSchem) . Pendo-Verlag, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-85842-460-9 .
- Rolf-Peter Schmitz: The Aqedat Jishaq. The main lines of the medieval Jewish interpretation of Genesis 22 . Olms, Hildesheim 1979, ISBN 3-487-06822-2 . (also dissertation, University of Cologne 1976)
- Shalom Spiegel: The Last Trial. On Legends and Lore of the Command to Abraham to offer Isaac as a Sacrifice . Jewish Lights Publication, Woodstock, Vt. 1993, ISBN 1-879045-29-X .
- T. Vejola: The sacrifice of Abraham. Paradigm of Belief from the Post-Exilic Age . In: Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche 85 (1988), pp. 129–164.
- Willem Zuidema (ed.): Isaac is sacrificed again. The "binding of Isaac" as a symbol of Israel's suffering. Attempts at an interpretation . Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1987, ISBN 3-7887-0797-6 .
Christian interpretations
- Ernst Dassmann: “Binding” and “Sacrifice” of Isaac in a Jewish and patristic interpretation ; in: Manfred Hutter et al. (Ed.): Hairesis. Festschrift Karl Hoheisel ; Yearbook for Antiquity and Christianity, Supplementary Volume 34; Aschendorff, Münster 2002; ISBN 3-402-08120-2 ; Pp. 1-18
- Lukas Kundert: The sacrifice / binding of Isaac. Vol. 1: Gen 22: 1-19 in the Old Testament, in Early Judaism and in the New Testament. Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1998, ISBN 3-7887-1668-1 . (Scientific monographs on the Old and New Testament, Vol. 78)
- Lukas Kundert: The sacrifice / binding of Isaac. Vol. 2: Gen 22: 1-19 in early rabbinical texts. Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1998, ISBN 3-7887-1680-0 . (Scientific monographs on the Old and New Testament, Vol. 79)
- Georg Steins : The "binding of Isaac" in the canon (Gen 22). Basics and program of canonical-intertextual reading. Herder, Freiburg 1999, ISBN 3-451-26916-3 . (Herder's Biblical Studies; Vol. 22)
- Herbert Schade: Lamb of God and sign of Aries. On the cosmological-psychological hermeneutics of the iconography of the “Lamb of God” ; ed. by Victor H. Elbern ; Freiburg et al. 1998
- Søren Kierkegaard : fear and trembling . Verlag Ruff, Simmerath 2004, ISBN 3-936762-13-9 . (Repr. Of the Cologne 1950 edition)
- Eugen Drewermann : Abraham's sacrifice. Gen 22: 1-19 from a depth psychological perspective . In: Bible and Church. Vol. 41 (1986), pp. 113-124.
- Klaus Hedwig: The Isaac sacrifice. On the status of natural law in Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus and Ockham . In: Albert Zimmermann et al. (Ed.): Man and nature in the Middle Ages . De Gruyter, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-11-013164-1 , p. 645 ff.
- Rudolf Kilian: Isaac's Sacrifice . In: Bible and Church. Vol. 41 (1986), pp. 98-104.
- Gerhard von Rad: The sacrifice of Abraham. With texts by Luther, Kierkegaard, Kolakowski and pictures by Rembrandt . Kaiser, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-459-00784-2 .
- Herbert Schmid: The figure of Isaac. Your relationship to the Abraham and Jacob tradition . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1991, ISBN 3-534-10414-5 .
- Magda Szabó : 1. Moses 22nd novel . Suhrkamp, Frankfurt / M. 1988, ISBN 3-518-38052-4 .
reception
- Willem F. Bakker , Arnold F. van Gemert (eds.): Η Θυσία του Αβραάμ . Κριτική έκδοση. Herakleion: Panepistemiakes Ekdoseis Kretes, 1995, ISBN 960-7309-96-0 .
- Marion Keuchen: The "Sacrifice of Isaac" in the 20th century on the theater stage. Interpretation impulses with a view to "Abraham's tent" (Theater Musentümpel - Andersonn) and "Gottesvergiftung" (Choralgraphisches Theater Heidelberg - Grasmück). LIT-Verlag, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8258-7196-7 . (Old Testament and Modernism; Vol. 19) (also dissertation, University of Paderborn 2002)
- Elisabeth Paneli: The iconography of the sacrifice of Isaac on the early Christian sarcophagi. Tectum Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3-8288-1152-3 .
Others
- Michael Roes: Jizchak. Trial of the Son Sacrifice. Verlag Mathias Gatza, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-928262-73-4 . (also dissertation, Free University Berlin 1990)
Web links
- Walther Zimmerli : Commentary on Gen 22: 22,1–19 Isaac's sacrifice. In: Genesis 12-25: Abraham. TVZ, Zurich, 1976, pp. 108–115 (reproduced on the website of the Institute for Evangelical Theology at the University of Duisburg-Essen).
- Romana Gerhard: The Sacrifice of Isaac in Biblical, Jewish and Christian Literature and Art of the 11th to 13th Century in Italy. (pdf, 4.2 MB) Dissertation at the Catholic Theological Faculty. Ruhr University Bochum, 2002, archived from the original on August 16, 2009 .
- Claudia Squara: Andrea del Sarto: The Sacrifice of Isaac. Institute for Art History at the University of Leipzig, 1999, archived from the original on October 26, 2007 .
- Sacrifice of Isaac / crucifixion of Christ. Cologne cathedral
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans-Josef Klauck: Aqedah IV. Christianity . In: Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR). Volume 2, de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2009, ISBN 978-3-11-018370-2 , Sp. 540-542.
- ^ Hanna Liss : Tanach. Textbook of the Jewish Bible , Heidelberg 2008, p. 36.
- ↑ Georg Steins: The "binding of Isaac" in the canon (Gen 22). Basics and program of canonical-intertextual reading. (Herders Biblical Studies), Freiburg 1999, p. 223.
- ↑ Renate Brandscheidt: The sacrifice of Abraham (Genesis 22.1-19). In: Trier Theologische Zeitschrift 1/2001, 1–19, p. 18 and p. 5.
- ^ Romana Gerhard: The Sacrifice of Isaac in Biblical, Jewish and Christian Tradition and in Art of the 11th to 13th Century in Italy ; Bochum 2002 (diss.); Fig. P. 28.
- ↑ Cf. Friedrich Weinreb: Creation in the Word. The structure of the Bible in Jewish tradition ; Zurich 2002 2 ; P. 894 (2nd column), cf. Pp. 52f and 155–181 (The male and the female), here especially p. 176f.
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: The Sacrifice in the Bible. Closer to God , Zurich 2010, p. 370 and p. 554f.
- ^ Friedrich Weinreb: Astrology in the Jewish mysticism. Munich 1982, p. 162.
- ↑ Photina Rech: Inbild des Kosmos. A symbolism of creation , 2 volumes; Salzburg 1966; Vol. 1, 515-546 ( world axis and heavenly ladder ): esp. Pp. 524-540.
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: The way through the temple. Rise and return of man ; Hamlet 2000; P. 43 f.
- ^ Friedrich Weinreb: The joys of Job. An interpretation of the book of Job according to Jewish tradition ; ed. by Chr. Schneider; Zurich 2006; P. 442f.
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb : The Sacrifice in the Bible. Getting closer to God ; ed. by Chr. Schneider; Zurich 2010; P. 615 and p. 727.
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: Miracles of signs - miracles of language. On the meaning and mystery of the letters ; Bern 1999; P. 46.
- ↑ See Daniel Krohabennik: Scripture interpretation - The Book of Genesis in Judaism ; New Stuttgart Commentary AT 33/1; Stuttgart 2001; P. 89f.
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: The Sacrifice in the Bible. Getting closer to God ; ed. by Christian Schneider; Zurich 2010, p. 284f.
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: Inner world of the word in the New Testament. An interpretation from the sources of Judaism ; Hamlet i. General 1988; P. 215; on Passover as “skipping the rule”, cf. ibid. 127.
- ↑ Cf. Friedrich Weinreb: number sign word. The symbolic universe of Bible language ; Hamlet i. General 1986, pp. 84–85 (Hebrew ab , 1-2, means father, the ba , 2-1, "the achievement of a goal, a coming together, as it were also a 'collecting'" for the original unity; p. 84) .
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: The Sacrifice in the Bible. Getting closer to God ; ed. by Christian Schneider; Zurich 2010, p. 286.
- ↑ Weinreb: miracles ; P. 50 f.
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: Miracles of signs - miracles of language. On the meaning and mystery of the letters ; Bern 1999 2 ; P. 52 f.
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: Miracles of signs - miracles of language. On the meaning and mystery of the letters ; Bern 1999 2 ; P. 55.116.
- ↑ Quoted from Verena Lenzen: The sacrifice of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Genesis 22 in rabbinic Judaism ; in: World and Environment of the Bible, 4/2003, pp. 13-17.
- ^ So Renate Brandscheidt: The Sacrifice of Abraham (Genesis 22: 1-19) ; in: Trier Theologische Zeitschrift 1/2001, 1–19, here p. 8f.
- ↑ Theresa Heither, Christiana Reemts: Biblical figures with the church fathers: Abraham ; Münster 2005; esp. 154-173 (Gen 22: The Sacrifice).
- ↑ Georg Steins: God's people - mysteriously endangered and blessed ; in: Georg Steins, Egbert Ballhorn: Light - Water - Life. The Biblical Readings on Easter Vigil ; Regensburg 2010; P. 45.
- ↑ Georg Steins: God's people - mysteriously endangered and blessed ; in: Georg Steins, Egbert Ballhorn: Light - Water - Life. The Biblical Readings on Easter Vigil ; Regensburg 2010; P. 46f.
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: The Sacrifice in the Bible. Getting closer to God ; ed. by Christian Schneider; Zurich 2010, pp. 420f.
- ^ Gérard de Champeaux, Dom Sébastian Sterckx: Introduction to the world of symbols ; Würzburg 1990; Pp. 169–259 (The Ascent), esp. 172ff (Mountain) and 218ff (Paradise).
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: The way through the temple. Rise and return of man ; Hamlet 2000; P. 30f and p. 36.
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: The Sacrifice in the Bible. Getting closer to God ; ed. by Christian Schneider; Zurich 2010, p. 25.
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: The Sacrifice in the Bible. Getting closer to God ; ed. by Christian Schneider; Zurich 2010, p. 28; 32; 39.
- ↑ Cf. Friedrich Weinreb: The Sacrifice in the Bible. Getting closer to God ; ed. by Christian Schneider; Zurich 2010; Pp. 39-51, especially p. 46.
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: The Sacrifice in the Bible. Getting closer to God ; ed. by Christian Schneider; Zurich 2010; P. 430, cf. P. 361). With Origen the two servants become representatives of “Judaism”, trapped in the “corporeal” sense of scripture, which remains at the foot of the mountain of “Christian ascent”.
- ↑ Theresa Heither, Christiana Reemts: Biblical figures with the church fathers: Abraham ; Münster 2005; P. 164.
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: The Sacrifice in the Bible. Getting closer to God ; ed. by Christian Schneider; Zurich 2010, p. 281.
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: The Sacrifice in the Bible. Getting closer to God ; ed. by Christian Schneider; Zurich 2010; P. 296, cf. P. 288 f. and p. 300 f.
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: The Sacrifice in the Bible. Getting closer to God ; ed. by Christian Schneider; Zurich 2010; P. 624 f. The anointing of the spirit with the sign of the Taw cross at Christian baptism as “sealing” means the same, 2 Cor 1.22 EU .
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: The Sacrifice in the Bible. Getting closer to God ; ed. by Christian Schneider; Zurich 2010, p. 331.
- ^ Friedrich Weinreb: Creation in the Word. The structure of the Bible in Jewish tradition ; Zurich 2002 2 ; P. 881f.
- ↑ Cf. Friedrich Weinreb: Creation in the Word. The structure of the Bible in Jewish tradition ; Zurich 2002 2 ; Pp. 37-41.
- ↑ On the “third day” as a resurrection motif in Gen 22.4 cf. Lukas Kundert: The Sacrifice / Binding of Isaac, Vol. 2: Gen 22.1–19 in early rabbinical texts ; Neukirchen-Vluyn 1998, p. 131f.
- ^ Friedrich Weinreb: Creation in the Word. The structure of the Bible in Jewish tradition ; Zurich 2002 2 ; P. 238.
- ^ Friedrich Weinreb: Creation in the Word. The structure of the Bible in Jewish tradition ; Zurich 2002 2 ; Pp. 239 and 236.
- ^ Friedrich Weinreb: Creation in the Word. The structure of the Bible in Jewish tradition ; Zurich 2002 2 ; P. 238.
- ↑ Detlef Witt: The evolution of the human relationship to God ; Bad Wurzach: Christian Zen Center, 1999; P. 52.55.
- ↑ Ludger Schwienhorst-Schönberger: A way through suffering. The book of job ; Freiburg et al. 2007; P. 9 and p. 256.
- ↑ Gloria enim Dei vivens homo, vita autem hominis visio Dei ; Adv. Haer. IV, 20.7.
- ↑ Quoted from O.-P. Hessel: The great vision. Or: God's gaze on light , in: Christ in der Gegenwart 1/2004, 5–6, here p. 5.
- ^ Friedrich Weinreb: Leiblichkeit. Our body and its organs ; Hamlet i. General 1987; P. 115f (on Jerusalem cf. p. 116).
- ↑ Ludwig Weimer: Wisdom as a gift of the Holy Spirit. A contribution to the problem of God's action in the world ; in: Walter Baier et al. (Ed.): Wisdom of God - Wisdom of the World (FS Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger); St. Ottilien 1987; Vol. 2, pp. 1245-1278, here p. 1257.
- ↑ Abraham Elkayam: Walking is an ascent ; in: Jüdische Allgemeine 42/2004, p. 14.
- ↑ Gershom Scholem: On the Kabbalah and its symbolism ; Frankfurt 1973; P. 26.
- ↑ Uwe Markstahler: The prologue in the light of Jewish tradition. The Johannes prologue - a creation account ; Bible Studies, 4; Berlin 2010; Pp. 168-170 and p. 174.
- ↑ On Philo cf. Lukas Kundert: The Sacrifice / Binding of Isaac , Vol. 1: Gen 22.1–19 in the Old Testament, in Early Judaism and in the New Testament ; Neukirchen-Vluyn 1998; Vol. 1, pp. 107–163 (Isaac in the work of Philos of Alexandria), here p. 115.
- ↑ Meliton of Sardis: About the Passover (69); quoted after: The New Testament and early Christian writings ; trans. and come by Klaus Berger and Christiane Nord; Frankfurt / M. among others 2005; Pp. 1300-1310, here p. 1311; on “Israel” cf. P. 1313.
- ↑ Klaus W. Halbig: The tree of life. Cross and Torah in a mystical interpretation ; Würzburg 2011; Pp. 195–229 (The Passion of Job as the Path to the Blessed Seeing of God).
- ^ Christiana Reemts: The Jacob's Ladder. Two conversations ; in: Geist und Leben 5/1999, pp. 364–374, here p. 367.
- ^ Friedrich Weinreb: The joys of Job. An interpretation of the book of Job according to Jewish tradition ; ed. by Chr. Schneider; Zurich 2006; P. 493.
- ↑ So also the oldest midrash to the book of Genesis (probably after 400), the midrash Bereschit Rabba, Parashen 55 and 56; see. August Wishes: The Midrash Bereschit Rabba ; Leipzig 1881.
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: The Sacrifice in the Bible. Getting closer to God ; ed. by Christian Schneider; Zurich 2010, p. 545. (3 × 37 is 111 as the full number of the one / Aleph, al-ph = 1–30–80; 37 ° is also the body temperature).
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: The Sacrifice in the Bible. Getting closer to God ; ed. by Christian Schneider; Zurich 2010; P. 78 (on this 1–4 principle see number symbols ).
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: The Sacrifice in the Bible. Getting closer to God ; ed. by Christian Schneider; Zurich 2010; P. 79. (The numerical value of the tree of life is 233, of the tree of knowledge 932, the ratio is 1–4).
- ↑ Daniel Krohabennik : "Sch'ma Israel - Hear, Israel". Jewish monotheism ; in: Freiburger Rundbrief 1/2005, 19–29, here p. 29.
- ↑ Lukas Kundert : The Sacrifice / Binding of Isaac, Vol. 1: Gen 22.1-19 in the Old Testament, in Early Judaism and in the New Testament ; Vol. 2: Gen 22: 1-19 in early rabbinical texts ; Neukirchen-Vluyn 1998; Vol. 1, p. 146.
- ↑ Lukas Kundert: The Sacrifice / Binding of Isaac , Vol. 1: Gen 22.1-19 in the Old Testament, in Early Judaism and in the New Testament ; Neukirchen-Vluyn 1998; P. 242.
- ↑ Lukas Kundert: The Sacrifice / Binding of Isaac , Vol. 1: Gen 22.1-19 in the Old Testament, in Early Judaism and in the New Testament ; Neukirchen-Vluyn 1998; P. 283f.
- ↑ Uwe Markstahler: The prologue in the light of Jewish tradition. The Johannes prologue - a creation account ; Bible Studies, 4; Berlin 2010; P. 170f.
- ^ Gérard de Champeaux, Dom Sébastian Sterckx: Introduction to the world of symbols ; Würzburg 1990; P. 51.
- ↑ Lukas Kundert: The Sacrifice / Binding of Isaac , Vol. 1: Gen 22.1-19 in the Old Testament, in Early Judaism and in the New Testament ; Neukirchen-Vluyn 1998; P. 16.
- ↑ Michael Krupp: Sacrifice the son? The Isaac tradition among Jews, Christians and Muslims ; Gütersloh 1995; P. 14.
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: Astrology in the Jewish mysticism ; Munich 1982; P. 143. On the origin of the Jewish Passover festival in the symbolism of the moon and the beginning of the year (spring) cf. Herbert Haag: From the old to the new Pascha. History and theology of Easter ; Stuttgart Bible Studies 49; Stuttgart 1971; esp. pp. 14-19; Pp. 39-53.
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: Astrology in the Jewish mysticism ; Munich 1982; P. 139.
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: Die Astrologie in der Juden Mystik , Munich 1982, p. 150. David is the seventh after Moses, his place of birth is Bethlehem, in numbers 2-10-400-30-8-40, in total 490 = 7 × 70.
- ↑ Klaus W. Halbig: The tree of life. Cross and Torah in a mystical interpretation ; Würzburg 2011; P. 11f.
- ↑ Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI.): Jesus of Nazareth. Part One: From Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration ; Freiburg et al. 2007; P. 294.
- ↑ Lukas Kundert: The "binding of Isaac" in early Judaism and its effect on the New Testament ; in: Bibel und Liturgie 3/1999, 135–154, here p. 153.
- ^ Johann Maier: History of the Jewish Religion. From the time of Alexander the Great to the Enlightenment with a view of the 19th and 20th centuries. Century ; Berlin, New York: de Gruyter, 1972; P. 120.
- ↑ Georg Steins: Canon and anamnesis. Towards a New Biblical Theology ; in: Egbert Ballhorn, Georg Steins (ed.): The Bible canon in the interpretation of the Bible. Method reflections and example exegeses ; Stuttgart 2007; Pp. 110–129, here p. 128 (Steins therefore regards the book of Leviticus as the center of the Pentateuch).
- ↑ Othmar Keel: Sun of Justice. Jerusalem traditions of the sun and judge god ; in: Bibel und Kirche 4/2008, pp. 215–218, here 217. Martin Wallraff : Christ Verus Sol. Sun worship and Christianity in late antiquity ; Münster 2001; especially pp. 60-68.
- ↑ Herbert Schade: Lamb of God and Sign of Aries. On the cosmological-psychological hermeneutics of the iconography of the “Lamb of God” ; ed. by Victor H. Elbern; Freiburg et al. 1998; P. 138.
- ↑ Klaus W. Halbig: The ascent to seeing God in creation. Isaac's sacrifice and Christ's sacrifice on the cross under the sign of cosmic Chi (X) ; in: Zeitschrift für Katholische Theologie 2/2002, pp. 145–176, here: pp. 157–162.
- ↑ Photina Rech: Inbild des Kosmos. A symbolism of creation , 2 volumes; Salzburg 1966; Vol. 1, p. 499.
- ^ KM Woschitz: Art. Cross ; in: JB Bauer ua (Hrsg.): Theological dictionary ; Graz et al. 1994 4 ; Pp. 375-382, here p. 379.
- ↑ Klaus W. Halbig: The wedding on the cross. An introduction to the middle . Don Bosco, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-7698-1637-2 , p. 467.
- ↑ Herbert Schade: Lamb of God and Sign of Aries. On the cosmological-psychological hermeneutics of the iconography of the “Lamb of God” ; ed. by Victor H. Elbern; Freiburg et al. 1998; P. 140.
- ↑ Herbert Schade: The "lance stitch". On the work of Klaus Iserlohe , in: Geist und Leben 2/1987, pp. 99–124, here p. 114.
- ↑ Herbert Schade: Lamb of God and Sign of Aries. On the cosmological-psychological hermeneutics of the iconography of the “Lamb of God” ; ed. by Victor H. Elbern, Freiburg et al. 1998; P. 99.
- ↑ Herbert Schade: Lamb of God and Sign of Aries. On the cosmological-psychological hermeneutics of the iconography of the “Lamb of God”; ed. by Victor H. Elbern; Freiburg et al. 1998; P. 99. On the astronomical-mythological equivalents of the ram, lamb and bull (as the central sacrificial animal) in the religious history of the Near East, cf. ibid. 93-132.
- ↑ Helmut Hoping: How to speak of the death of Jesus today? The sacrificial death of Jesus as the center of the Christian faith ; in: Gerd Häfner, Hansjörg Schmid (Ed.): How to speak of the death of Jesus today? New Testament, systematic-theological and liturgical-scientific perspectives ; Freiburg 2002; Pp. 81–101, here p. 92 (with reference to Hans Urs von Balthasar). For today's approaches to the interpretation of the sacrifice of Isaac cf. The 3/1999 issue of the Bible and Liturgy , topic: Abraham's Sacrifice (I) , with contributions from Georg Steins (Abraham's sacrifice in the exegesis of the 20th century, 124-134) and Lukas Kundert (Abraham's sacrifice in the liturgy); for modern times: JA Steiger: To God against God. Or: the art of believing against God. Isaac's Sacrifice (Gen 22) in Luther, in Lutheranism of the Baroque period, in the Enlightenment and in the 19th century , in: ders., U. Heinen: Isaak's Sacrifice (Gen 22) in the denominations and media of the early modern period , Berlin et al. 2006. Martin Luther emphasizes 'temptation' or 'temptation', so that Abraham is understood as the one who, in the “art of believing against God”, “has to wrest the resurrection hope from God in battle” (p. 202); see. 188–203: Luther's reading of Gen 22.
- ↑ The New Testament and Early Christian Scriptures , trans. and come by Klaus Berger and Christiane Nord, Frankfurt / M. among others 2005; Pp. 235–263, here p. 245 (= Chapter 7.3).
- ↑ The New Testament and Early Christian Scriptures ; trans. and come by Klaus Berger and Christiane Nord; Frankfurt / M. among others 2005; Pp. 1300-1318, here pp. 1306f (nn. 40-44).
- ↑ Robert J. Daly: The origins of the Christian doctrine of sacrifice ; London: Darton, Longman & Todd 1978; ISBN 0-232-51407-0 ; P. 50.
- ^ Romana Gerhard: The Sacrifice of Isaac in Biblical, Jewish and Christian Tradition and in Art of the 11th to 13th Century in Italy ; Bochum 2002 (diss.); Pp. 121-141. David Lerch: Isaac's sacrifice interpreted in a Christian way. An interpretative study ; Tübingen 1950; esp. 27-115. Jean Daniélou: La typologie d'Isaac dans le christianisme primitive ; in: Biblica (1947), pp. 363-393.
- ↑ Michael Krupp: The binding of Isaac after the Midrash Bereschit Rabba ; Texts & Contexts No. 65/66 1995, p. 39.
- ↑ Michael Krupp: Sacrifice the son? The Isaac tradition among Jews, Christians and Muslims ; Gütersloh 1995; P. 32. 39.
- ↑ Erich Dinkler: Jesus' word about carrying the cross ; in: ders .: Signum Crucis. Essays on the New Testament and Christian Archeology ; Tübingen 1967; Pp. 77–79, here pp. 82–75.
- ↑ Joseph Ratzinger: Looking at the pierced one. Try a spiritual christology ; Einsiedeln 1990 2 ; Pp. 93–101 (“The Lamb redeemed the sheep”), here p. 96f.
- ↑ Michael Brocke: Art. Isaak in Judaism ; in: Theologische Realenzyklopädie (study edition), Vol. 16, p. 298.
- ↑ Joseph Ratzinger: Looking at the pierced one. Try a spiritual christology ; Einsiedeln 1990 2 ; Pp. 93-101 (“The Lamb redeemed the sheep”), here p. 98 (the “laughter” is an allusion to the name Isaac; cf. Gen 17.17 EU ; 18.12 EU ; 21.6 EU ).
- ↑ Joseph Ratzinger: The Spirit of the Liturgy. An introduction ; Freiburg 2000; P. 86f (on the relational date of March 25, see ibid. P. 93). For this interpretation, Ratzinger refers to Herbert Schade (see above lit. Christian interpretation).
- ↑ Joseph Ratzinger: The Spirit of the Liturgy. An introduction ; Freiburg 2000; P. 106.
- ↑ Friedrich Weinreb: The Sacrifice in the Bible. Getting closer to God ; ed. by Chr. Schneider; Zurich 2010, p. 472 and p. 182.
- ↑ Herbert Schade: Lamb of God and Sign of Aries. On the cosmological-psychological hermeneutics of the iconography of the “Lamb of God” ; ed. by Victor H. Elbern; Freiburg et al. 1998; P. 148.
- ↑ Herbert Schade: Lamb of God and Sign of Aries. On the cosmological-psychological hermeneutics of the iconography of the “Lamb of God” ; ed. by Victor H. Elbern; Freiburg et al. 1998; P. 142f.
- ↑ Herbert Schade: Lamb of God and Sign of Aries. On the cosmological-psychological hermeneutics of the iconography of the “Lamb of God” ; ed. by Victor H. Elbern; Freiburg et al. 1998; Pp. 140-143. The “pierced” or servant of God in the Bible.
- ↑ Hugo Rahner: The beginnings of the veneration of the Sacred Heart, in the time of the father ; in: Josef Stierli et al. (Ed.): Cor Salvatoris. Ways to worship the Sacred Heart ; Freiburg 1954; Pp. 46–72, here p. 57.
- ^ Gerhard Voss: Astrology Christian ; Regensburg 1980; esp. pp. 86–88: The “stable cross” of the four beings. Othmar Keel: Strange Creatures ; in: Bibel und Kirche 3/2005, pp. 139–144, interprets the throne chariot of models in Near Eastern art of the 8th to 6th centuries as the embodiment of the “four cosmic winds that carry heaven” (p. 143).
- ↑ Gérard de Champeaux, Dom Sébastian Sterckx: Introduction to the World of Symbols , Würzburg 1990, 407–486 (The Tetramorph), here p. 464.
- ↑ Quoted from Photina Rech: Inbild des Kosmos. A symbolism of creation , 2 volumes; Salzburg 1966; Vol. 1, 475-546 (cross and cosmos), here p. 490.
- ↑ Herbert Schade: The "Heavenly Man". On the anthropological structure of the biblical image of man in art ; in: "Christ and Mary - Son of Man and Mother of God". Catalog on the occasion of the 86th German Catholic Day 1980 ; Berlin / Dahlem 1980; P. 26.
- ↑ Joseph Ratzinger: The Spirit of the Liturgy. An introduction , Freiburg 2000, 152–158 (Das Kreuzzeichen), here 156.
- ↑ The New Testament and Early Christian Scriptures , trans. and come by Klaus Berger and Christiane Nord; Frankfurt / M. among others 2005; Pp. 302-311.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Matthias Köckert: Abraham. Ancestor, role model, cult founder . 2017, p. 191-215 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Friedhelm Hartenstein: "Sacrifice your son!" - On Genesis 22 and its history of effects . In the S. (Ed.): The Enduring Significance of the Old Testament . 2016, p. 98-104 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Friedhelm Hartenstein: The concealment of the saving God. Exegetical and theological remarks on Genesis 22. In: Isaac's Sacrifice (Gen 22) in the denominations and media of the early modern period . 2006, p. 1-22 .
- ^ Abraham # historical classification and literary criticism
- ↑ a b c d Detlef Dieckmann: A nuisance. The bond of Isaac . In: Exegetical sketches for the biblical texts . Kirchentag Dortmund 2019, p. 44-54 .
- ↑ Cf. Konrad Schmid : The Sacrifice of the Son. A new look at the story of Abraham and Isaac , in: NZZ of April 15, 2006.
- ↑ Georg Steins: God's people - mysteriously endangered and blessed ; in: Georg Steins, Egbert Ballhorn: Light - Water - Life. The Biblical Readings on Easter Vigil ; Regensburg 2010; Pp. 41–49, here p. 44.
- ↑ Cf. Lukas Kundert: The Sacrifice / Binding of Isaac , Vol. 2: Gen 22.1-19 in early rabbinical texts ; Neukirchen-Vluyn 1998; esp. 5–19 and p. 146.
- ↑ Gunnar Heinsohn: What is anti-Semitism? The origin of monotheism and hatred of Jews - why anti-Zionism? Frankfurt 1988; P. 86.
- ↑ Jürgen Ebach: God's Name (s) or: How the Bible speaks of God ; in: Bibel und Kirche 2/2010, 62–67, here p. 66.
- ^ Jürgen Ebach: Theodicy: Questions against the answers. Answers to the biblical account of the "binding of Isaac" (Genesis 22) ; in: ders .: God in the word. Three Studies in Biblical Exegesis and Hermeneutics ; Neukirchen-Vluyn 1997; 1–26, here p. 9f.
- ↑ Eugen Drewermann: Abraham's sacrifice. Gen 22: 1-19 from a depth psychological perspective ; in: Bibel und Kirche 41 (1986), pp. 113–123, here pp. 115f.
- ↑ Eugen Drewermann: Abraham's sacrifice. Gen 22.1–19 from a depth psychological perspective , in: Bibel und Kirche 41 (1986), pp. 113–123, here p. 118.
- ↑ Klaus W. Halbig: The wedding on the cross. An introduction to the middle . Munich 2007, p. 443.
-
↑ Joachim Gnilka: Bible and Koran. What unites them, what divides them ; Freiburg et al. 2004; Pp. 130, 123 f.
Karl-Josef Kuschel: Dispute about Abraham. What divides Jews, Christians and Muslims - and what unites them ; Düsseldorf 2001 (1994); Pp. 196-201. - ↑ John Paul II: Roman Triptych. Meditations . With an introduction by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger; Freiburg et al. 2003; Pp. 54-55.
- ↑ Ludwig Weimer: Wisdom as a gift of the Holy Spirit. A contribution to the problem of God's action in the world ; in: Walter Baier et al. (Ed.): Wisdom of God - Wisdom of the World (FS Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger); St. Ottilien 1987; Vol. 2, pp. 1245-1278, here p. 1257.
- ^ Augustine | 86. Lecture on the healing of the blind ( Mt 20.30–34 EU ). Quoted from Herbert Schade: Lamb of God and Sign of Aries. On the cosmological-psychological hermeneutics of the iconography of the “Lamb of God” ; ed. by Victor H. Elbern; Freiburg et al. 1998; P. 185f, note 191.
- ↑ Joseph Ratzinger: Faith between reason and feeling. Lecture in the stock exchange hall of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce ; Messages of the Übersee-Club Issue 1, 1998; see. ders .: Faith - Truth - Tolerance. Christianity and the world religions ; Freiburg et al. 2003 2 ; P. 129f.
- ^ Gerhard Voss: Ascent to the origin. About the path of “humility” in the seventh chapter of the Rule of Benedict ; in: M. Langer, A. Bilgri (Hrsg.): Weite des Herzens. Expanse of life ; Regensburg 1989; Volume 1, pp. 183-191, here p. 184.
- ↑ Philosophische Schriften 2 (Verlag Zweiausendeins) p. 20
- ↑ Quoting from Peter Koslowski: Philosophies of Revelation. Ancient Gnosticism, Franz von Baader, Schelling , Paderborn et al. 2001, 794–702 (Self-sacrifice as an expression of God's freedom and perfection), here pp. 799–701.
- ↑ a b Abraham - An attempt ; Federal Agency for Civic Education, accessed on October 22, 2013.