Abraham's Temptation: only a matter of Faith, or also of Hope?

Saturday, November 22, 2008, 10:47 AM CET [General]

Caravaggio: The Sacrifice of Isaac (1603)

Abraham Tested (Genesis 22:1-13)

1
Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!"
"Here I am," he replied.
2
Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of
Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."
3
Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his
servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the
place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the
distance. 5 He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We
will worship and then we will come back to you."
6
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself
carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his
father Abraham, "Father?"
"Yes, my son?" Abraham replied.
"The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"
8
Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the
two of them went on together.
9
When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged
the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he
reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called out to
him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"
"Here I am," he replied.
12
"Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear
God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."
13
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and
took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.

(Genesis 22:1-13 - NIV)

Fear and Trembling (Soeren Kierkegaard)

But what did Abraham do? He arrived neither too soon nor too late. He mounted the ass, he rode
slowly along the way. All that time he believed - he believed that God would not require Isaac of
him, whereas he was willing nevertheless to sacrifice him if it was required. He believed by virtue
of the absurd; for there could be no question of human calculation, and it was indeed the absurd that
God who required it of him should the next instant recall the requirement. He climbed the
mountain, even at the instant when the knife glittered he believed … that God would not require
Isaac. He was indeed astonished at the outcome, but by a double-movement he had reached his first
position, and therefore he received Isaac more gladly than the first time.

( Fear and Trembling, by Johannes De Silentio, alias Søren Kierkegaard, 1843, tr. Walter Lowrie,
1941, Problemata: preliminary expectoration)

Analysis and comparison

The sense of “Abraham’s temptation (or trial) is essentially this:

1. God (the same God YHWH that made Himself known to Moses with His true name, but did not
reveal it to Abraham – Exodus 6:3) established a pact with Abraham. By its very nature this pact
had these two essential features:

a. it was free

b. it was asymmetric, and therefore it implied a relationship of:

i. obedience (on the part of Abraham)

ii. protection (on the part of God)

2. the bonding element of the pact was “trust”, that is the free prospect of the covenant mutually
agreed, by both covenanters.

3. God wanted to make Abraham fully aware of the nature of the covenant, through a (dramatic)
experience. Faced with a request to sacrifice his only son, that God had put to him, Abraham could
only keep his side of the covenant (viz. faith and obedience) but, at the same time, he could reserve
for himself a fundamental margin: hope. Hope that this was only a trial, a temptation.

What really matters, in Abraham’s behaviour, is essentially this: God, in His Omnipotence, can
demand from Abraham the respect of the covenant, viz. obedience, unto the extreme of sacrificing
Isaac. But, by carrying the request to the extreme consequence, God would have broken the pact
freely and mutually agreed.

In fact God, by carrying his demand to the extreme consequence, would not have complied with his
side of the covenant, viz. protection: how could God claim that He was protecting Abraham, and at
the same time deprive Abraham of his son?
Abraham has faith, or rather hopes, that God cannot really demand the sacrifice of his son, and
dares to run the double risk of Isaac’ life of God’s covenant.

Risking both, Abraham saves both (Isaac and the pact with God)

NOTE

What I have written above is an attempt to explain what Soeren Kierkegaard only affirms briefly.

The only difference is that, unlike Kierkegaard, I used the verb to hope, instead of to believe.

I hope this is an effective illustration of the difference between Hope, and Faith.