Abstract
This chapter examines the ways in which Christianity utilized and changed the Jewish Abrahamic Story it inherited. Abraham became above all a symbol of faithfulness to God and his son, Isaac, near sacrificed as part of his father’s fidelity, became the prototype of Jesus who was sacrificed on the cross to atone for the sins of humanity. The Story comes to play a different role as Christianity becomes more Romanized and less Jewish dependent, although its broad acceptance of its place in Judaism’s foundational claims persists.
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Notes
- 1.
Perhaps the text became part of the Christian canon, later defined by the Roman Church, only because it was somehow wrongly identified as coming from Paul’s hand.
- 2.
Rahab was a harlot who sheltered the soldiers from Joshua’s army when they entered Jericho to spy on its defences.
- 3.
See the reference to a list of ten ‘tests’ in the text of Jubilees 19.
- 4.
It is of course possible that the Servant Songs in Second Isaiah (chs. 40–55) had been themselves influenced by the Abraham and Isaac story.
- 5.
We are not convinced by some of the other so-called parallels with Genesis 22. The text of John 19:17 (‘And carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha.’) might or might not have Isaac as its type. Other examples such as John 1:29 (“The next day he (John the Baptist) saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, ‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.’”) presumes that all lamb sacrifice references have been based on Genesis 22, which requires further substantiation.
- 6.
This is an alternative spelling sometimes used in the literature.
- 7.
The text used is that of Thackeray et al. 1926–1965.
- 8.
The text used is Colson and Marcus 1929–1953.
- 9.
The text used is James 1971.
- 10.
In about the same time slot, Carthage shows evidence of widespread child sacrifice with 20,000 urns containing child remains dating from the period 400–200 BCE. The Carthaginian practice is confirmed by Plutarch in Babbitt (1962, p. 493).
- 11.
See Crotty (2001, pp. 17–22) with a relevant reference to the excavations under the church of San Clemente in Rome.
- 12.
Cyprian (c. 200–258 CE) had been a pagan orator and firmly established the language of priesthood, temple, altar and sacrifice within Christian dialogue. He applied the priestly imagery of Hebrews to the Christian bishop.
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Lovat, T., Crotty, R. (2015). The Story from the Vantage Point of Christianity. In: Reconciling Islam, Christianity and Judaism. SpringerBriefs in Religious Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15548-7_4
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