Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

I just read a book called "Why Abraham Murdered Isaac". It was written by a rabbi rather liberal in his theology I assume.

Anyway, he argues in his book that the Bible originally had Abraham sacrifices Isaac. The author based this theory on textual criticism. Also, no. Biblical Jewish literature written long ago tends to point to a time when the text did indeed state old Abe sacrifices his son.

Any opinions on this?

Huh. Interesting.

I love it when someone stirs the pot.

It's certainly a theory -

We know from archeological studies and other historical records, that child sacrifice in Canaan and among the Phoenicians (think 'Carthage') was extremely common.

The Torah condemns the practice strongly - but it was something 'the Canaanites' (and Phoenicians) did indeed engage in, with their own interpretations as to why it was important.

there is a story somewhere - Kings? Samuel? I forget - where the Israelite forces were attacking a city, but the king of the city sacrificed his son to his gods to protect the city, and the Israelites were so disgusted by this that they indeed did turn back and did not attack ( I assume the king assumed his sacrifice was effective - the story in the Jewish Bible says the reason they turned around was because this act was simply too abhorrent).

there wouldn't be so much talk about it if it wasn't actually some kind of issue.

Plus it is mentioned that it was practiced IN JERUSALEM in certain periods - when the text mentions that king so and so sent 'his sons through the fire to Moloch'. This is a known practice of the Phoenicians, and meant dropping children alive into a furnace.

the place this happened was the valley adjacent to the heights of the City of David - the valley called 'ge - hinnom' (Gehenna - meaning 'hinna valley').

Certainly even the story we HAVE shows Abraham planning to sacrifice Isaac, clear up to binding him on an altar, and taking up a knife.

One tradition says he actually did kill Isaac, but the angel of God resurrected him.
The text has the angel of God showing up in the nick of time.

It is a 'hard' story - a DIFFICULT story - and one that is tough to handle, but we have to, because it is there. It is also the Torah reading for Rosh Hashana, so it is something EVERYBODY hears, because that is one of the times when 'everybody' actually attends services.

(yes, Jews have their 'Christmas and Easter' members, except it's the Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur ones.

It turns out a book has been found where the writer claims to be Moses that has all the laws except those commanding sacrifices. The book may be pretty old going back to before Qumran. In one of the prophets God says when he brought them out of Egypt he never told the Jews to gives sacrifices but to live good lives, be known nd, or such.

The book has been known since the late 1800s and is lost again, but the discoverer had photos taken. He was charged with making forgeries but it was never proven this book was. He found a lot of legitimate stuff.