Login to comment

IMPORTANT Did you have an account on the old ThinkChristian.net site? Click here transition your account. This will sync all your comments with your email address.

Comments (3)

Some thoughts:

+1 on the pun, Chris!

I like the approach; the story of Abraham and Isaac has always disturbed me a little as well, and seeing it in a modern-ish context just solidifies that. I know all of the theology behind it, the symbolism, blah blah. What it comes down to for me, though, is that hearing the voice of God telling you to murder your own son has got to be a little creepy.

I, too, reject the punchline. It is as "apalling" [sic] as the original author's spelling of "appalling". :-P However, while it's easy to reject the author's conclusion, it should be equally as easy to recognize when an unregenerate person simply does not recognize God's true wisdom, when the message of Christ is foolishness. What SHOULD the author conclude, if he is unable (based on the lack of a personal relationship with Jesus) to conclude that God is holy and loving?
The Abraham/Isaac story gets brought up a *lot* by critics of the Bible (and of the "Old Testament God" in particular). Growing up I never understood why people had trouble with it, as it seemed perfectly obvious that this was a life-affirming story, not a horrific one.

But thinking about it now, I've realized that my interpretation of this story, starting with my very first introduction to it, has been completely shaped by a Christian education that put perhaps too much emphasis on finding the "Sunday school moral lesson" in every Old Testament story. Stepping back as best I can from that well-intentioned framework... this story actually is kinda creepy and uncomfortable on several levels.

Not that I agree with the video's conclusion either... but I think this is a story that is not well-served by our instinctive Western Christian attempts to find a palatable-to-modern-sensibilities explanation for it.
The key, of course, is not to read the story with modern western eyes and sensiblities, but to ask what it meant to its original readers in the flow and context of the full story. I'm not prepared to offer a full analysis, but I can wonder. What did it mean for an ancient Near Eastern sheik to be childless? How did Abe come to finally have a son? What would it take then to give him up, even to sacrifice him in bloody violence? What other kinds of people offered child sacrifice? To what kinds of gods? At the end of the story, what is different from the beginning? What kinds of emotions and reactions would the first listeners of this story have?

Though I do agree this is not ultimately a moral story about the bravery of Abraham, but a story about God and his character. The problem is (as usual) the assumptions we bring to the text.

See the latest in:

Promotion

promo 1 promo 2
promo 3 promo 4

Donate Now