Early Judaism- A Comprehensive Overview

This is indeed intended as a precise explanation of the two occurrences of

“and the two of them walked together” in the Genesis tale; the first refers to

their physical walking (what Philo designates as the motion of “their bod-

ies”), whereas the second refers to their agreement that Isaac should be

sacrificed (Philo’s “with regard to their thinking”).

Remember...thefather [= Abraham], by whose hand Isaac would have

submitted to being slain for the sake of religion. (4 Macc. 13:12)

When the altar had been prepared (and) he had laid the cleft wood

upon it and all was ready, [Abraham] said to his son: “My child, myriad

were the prayers in which I beseeched God for your birth, and when you

came into the world, I spared nothing for your upbringing....Butsince

it was by God’s will that I became your father and it now pleases Him

that I give you over to Him, bear this consecration valiantly....”Theson

of such a father could not but be brave-hearted, and Isaac received these

words with joy. He exclaimed that he deserved never to have been born

at all if he were to reject the decision of God and of his father....

(Josephus,Ant.1.228-32)

And as he was setting out, he said to his son, “Behold now, my son, I am

offering you as a burnt offering and I am returning you into the hands

of Him who gave you to me. But the son said to the father, “Hear me, fa-

ther. If [ordinarily] a lamb of the flocks is accepted with sweet savor as a

sacrifice to the Lord, and if such flocks have been set aside for slaughter

[in order to atone] for human iniquity, while man, on the contrary, has

been designated to inherit this world — why should you be saying to me

now, ‘Come and inherit eternal life and time without measure?’ Why if

not that I was indeed born in this worldin order tobe offered as a sacri-

fice to Him who made me? Indeed, this [sacrifice] will be the [mark of ]

my blessedness over other men....”(Ps.-Philo,L.A.B.32:2-3)

The Wisdom Connection

It was suggested above that the common ancestor of all the diverse biblical

interpreters of ancient Judaism and Christianity was the ancient Near

Eastern sage, who pursued what the Bible calls “wisdom.” Wisdom was an

international pursuit, and a very old one; some of the earliest texts that we

possess from ancient Sumer and Babylon and Egypt are collections of

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Early Jewish Biblical Interpretation

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