Rosh Akedah
15 September 2007 - 4 תשרי 5768 by Huw
At New Years, the traditional Synagogue lectionary turns to the Binding of Isaac, in Hebrew, the Akedah, or “Binding”. (Props to Rachel.)
This is is one of those odd passages in the scriptures. It’s never mentioned again in the OT and only once in the NT. I’ve heard it referenced to talk about Jesus: unlike Isaac, Jesus actually died. Isaac is not the Jesus parallel. The ram that God provides in replacement for Isaac is the messianic parallel. It plays out as important in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
One disturbing sermon I’ve heard focused on the possibility that at one time the people of YHVH sacrificed their children to him - just as other tribes did to their deities. The story of the Akedah may tell of a time when the people learned not to sacrifice their children… a theological evolution of culture-shaking proportions.
Back in seminary in 1974 or 1975, I was taught about the possibility of child sacrifice by the people of Abraham. The professor said that the fact the Abraham did not argue strongly against God, nor did he refuse seemed to show that Abraham did not regard the request as incomprehensible, but as a “reasonable sacrifice.” It would not have been an unusual sacrifice in the area in which they lived.
Note that even in the Andean mountains of South America, child sacrifice offerings are periodically found in mummified condition. Imagine the ones that have never been found because they decayed! Part of the dark secret of humanity was how high technology (pyramids, calendars, etc.) could co-exist with the basest of practices. Hmm, sort of like today. (Think Abu Graihb, Stalin, Pol Pot, pedophilia, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.)
*nod*
It’s just, being biased… one is prone to surprise that “the Good Guys” ever did this. Of course that was before they were the “Good Guys”, but you get my point.
Happy Sunday!