Hmmmmm...this story of Abraham is getting a little hard to take.  I find it hard to believe that God would ask Abraham or anyone to sacrifice their child.  And there are apparently different interpretations of the story...some even say that Isaac was killed.  And some disagree and say it was Ismael that was offered.  I know this is a story we all learned as young children.  But as an adult and a parent it takes on a different feel.  I am just voicing some feelings as I read thru this book, Abraham, A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths.

Since both Isaac and Ishmael have people that claim them as their progenitors, I think we can feel fairly confident that neither was killed.

Well, the one consensus was that Isaac was killed but came back.  Just like Jesus.

Which traditions believe Isaac was killed?

Quote from Abraham, A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths by Bruce Feiler:

"The idea that Isaac died on Moriah has deep roots in Jewish interpretation.  As Shalom Spiegel showed in his 1950 study, The Last Trial, commentators once again grounded their view firmly in the text.  They pointed to the fact that Isaac does not return with Abraham from the mountain, and that the word for the ram, hr, is actually a cognate of hryt, or "end of days," which suggests Abraham understood that his descendants would be ensnared in thickets until the end of time.  But the biggest hook is that, as Abraham was binding his son, the angel called out twice to stop him.  The first time he said "Do not raise your hand."  The second time, "Because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your favored son, I will bestow my blessing upon you."  Interpreters pounced.  Why call out twice if Abraham actually stopped the first time?  Also why say Abraham did not withhold his favored son?  Only one reason suggested itself:  Abraham actually killed his son the first time.".....

"So if Isaac was actually dead for a limited time, what happened to him?  He clearly returns later, fathers Esau and Jacob, and dies in old age.  Here the commentaries get even more complex, and show their deepest allegiance to Christianity.  Isaac, the rabbis said, actually went away for three days, then returned.  In some versions he went to heaven; in others he went to the Garden of Eden, or even to study Torah.  (The significance of three days actually predates Judaism and Christianity and was well known among Mesopotamian pagans as the time the gods traveled to the netherworld, then returned.)"

"Yet even for Jewish interpreters, the point is not that Isaac died but that he was resurrected.  God revived him as a reward for his righteousness so he could provide salvation for his descendants.  The idea that Isaac was sacrificed and reborn became so widespread that Jews in the Middle Ages began to put ashes on their foreheads to remember their slain forefather.  "

"The idea of Isaac's death and resurrection is so powerful that once it entered the tradition it never entirely disappeared.  If anything, Isaac's agony may be more responsible for the story's enduring influence.  Abraham's test is so extraordinary it makes him seem remote in many ways, while Isaac's plight is more immediate.  Abraham has become so godlike, he is no longer human.  He is no longer us."

"Isaac is us--our willingness to trust our fathers, our constant pain, our everlasting desire to be rewarded for our righteousness.  At any point in hisotry when innocent people have suffered, poets have cited Isaac as a beacon of dignity and injustice."

Remember that this author is really digging into past interpretations and some of this gets very complex for me.  But it also goes to show that interpreting the bible is very hard and much of it can be explained to show whatever view you want in some cases.  I just had never heard of the idea that Isaac was actually killed.  And this was an interesting perspective.  The author is also looking at the three faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and finding their connections to Abraham.  I am a little over half way through the book and I might have to reread it!  LOL

Honestly, I have never previously heard this idea that Isaac was killed.  I would think that something as significant as Isaac's death and resurrection would be recorded in the bible.

I have not read Walking the Bible yet.  I got sidetracked with some other books!  Has anyone else read it?

Okay, I have started reading Walking the Bible.  Not sure if this is going to bolster my beliefs or shatter some of them.  We will see.

This book is very interesting.  As they come to different locations that are supposed to be places described and referenced in the bible they pull out the bible and read the appropriate bible stories.  I find that these stories seem more and more fantastic.  Why would God require mere mortals to perform such tests?   It just does not seem right...God can do anything, can cause anything, but yet he demands acts from us mere mortals and why?  I am having a hard time believing the stories and feel like they just seem too fantastic.  I believe in a higher being (is that human nature)  but I find some of these stories just too too...what am I looking for?  When I think of the universe and I cannot comprehend the depth of it, I cannot comprehend anything about it!  God to me is an ultimate creator who controls everything and yet why would he ask such things as Abraham sacrificing Isaac?  And now look at the struggles in the middle east.  They are not so much over actual religion as they are over land.  I am also having a hard time following the timeline....I really need to make a chronological list of what happened when.....but I must say this book is very interesting!  Has anyone else read it?