Early Judaism- A Comprehensive Overview

4. Some parts of Scripture directly cite words spoken by God, “And the
   Lordsaid to Moses...”andsoforth.Otherparts,however,arenot
   identified as divine speech — the whole court history of King David
   and King Solomon, for example, or the book of Psalms, whose words
   are addressedtoGod. Nevertheless, ancient interpreters came to as-
   sume that all of Scripture wasof divine origin,that God hadcausedan-
   cient sages or historians or psalmists to write what they wrote, or that
   their writings had somehow been divinely guided or inspired. In
   short, all of Scripture came from God and all of it was sacred.

How Interpretation Worked

To see how these assumptions combined to shape the way in which inter-

preters interpreted, it might be appropriate to consider an actual text from

the Bible, the biblical account of Abraham’s near-sacrifice of his beloved

son Isaac:

And it came to pass, after these things, that God tested Abraham. He

said to him, “Abraham!” and he answered, “Here I am.” He said, “Take

your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of

Moriah. Then sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the

mountains that I will show you.” So Abraham got up early in the morn-

ing and saddled his donkey. He took two of his servants with him, along

with his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering and then set

out for the place that God had told him about. On the third day, Abra-

ham looked up and saw the place from afar. Abraham told his servants,

“You stay here with the donkey while the boy and I go up there, so that

we can worship and then come back to you.”

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and put it on his son

Isaac; then he took the fire and the knife, and the two of them walked to-

gether. But Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father?” and he said,

“Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Here is the fire and the wood, but

where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God Himself

will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of

them walked together.

When they came to the place that God had told him about, Abra-

ham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. He then tied up his son

Isaac and put him on the altar on top of the wood. Abraham picked up

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james l. kugel

EERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 12:04:00 PM