Comparing Abraham’s test with those in other cultures
I. W. Doane’s “Bible Myths and their Parallels in Other Religions” is a comprehensive exploration of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, shedding light on their similarities with other ancient myths. The book’s unique structure, comprising forty chapters with detailed descriptions, footnotes, four appendices, and a list of authors and books quoted, is designed to equip readers with a thorough understanding of these parallels, making them feel well-equipped and knowledgeable.
Ten chapters of the book are dedicated to the Hebrew Bible, covering key events such as the creation, flood, tower of Babel, Abraham’s near sacrifice of his son Isaac, Jacob’s vision of a ladder, the exodus, the Ten Commandments, Samson, Jonah, and circumcision. The Amazon Kindle version of the book, a valuable resource for scholars and students, is readily accessible and free, making it an even more enticing resource for those interested in religious studies and ensuring they feel fortunate to have such a resource at their disposal.
The book compares Genesis 22’s story of Abraham’s near sacrifice of his son Isaac with similar events in other cultures. If readers pay close attention to this and the other comparisons, they will see that the biblical tales are not mere narratives but are written to teach proper behavior.
Some readers read the biblical event as God needing to test whether Abraham loves Him sufficiently that he would even obey God when he orders Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the son he loves.
Doane does not discuss the philosopher Maimonides, who explains Genesis 22. In his Guide for the Perplexed 3:26, Maimonides objects that reading this story as a test is unreasonable. It is unthinkable that a merciful deity would inflict a human in this way. Additionally, we should suppose that God is all-knowing and does not need to test Abraham to discover how he would act.
Maimonides explains that the Torah’s accounts of tests or trials should be understood as personal struggles with life’s difficulties that allow sufferers to learn how to improve themselves and their surroundings from lessons learned from the experience. In essence, Genesis 22 is placed in the Bible to teach us that difficulties in life have benefits.
This rational approach to Genesis 22, where God is not involved, would see Abraham struggling with the widespread view of his era that the way to show love to God is to sacrifice what is most dear to them, usually their child. Abraham struggles with the issue for three days. (This is the interpretation of Abraham’s journey to the mountain where the sacrifice would occur. In the story, Isaac willingly accompanies his father to the mountain.) As his struggle ends, Abraham realizes that such behavior is absurd.
This understanding of Genesis 22 is far more rational and humane than the similar legends in other cultures where the child was often taken to be sacrificed is female because of the belief that women are inferior to men, the self-centered reason for the sacrifice, and the terrible treatment of the child brought to be sacrificed. It is one of the many instances in the Torah where it teaches proper behavior. Even when the Torah needed to accept the primitive notions of the Israelites when the Torah was given, ideas such as slavery, an eye for an eye, and killing an enemy, it always hinted, as Maimonides was able to see, that the Torah desires better behavior.
The following are some of the many seeming parallel myths in other cultures that T. W. Doane describes. None has a lesson such as Genesis 22.
In an ancient Hindoo saga, a king who had no son prayed to his god for a son and promised to sacrifice the boy to the god. He was granted his request. When the child grew up, the king told his son about his promise. The son ran away, bought another mam’s son, and gave him to his dad as his substitute. The god released the father from his vow when this boy was about to be sacrificed.
Two differences from Abraham’s experience are that the king, not the god, came up with the plan, and Abraham’s son is depicted as going along with the sacrifice. The king’s son was appalled at the idea that he would die to satisfy his father. The Hindoo version is harsher than the biblical one, and the king’s desire to kill his son is self-serving.
In a Phoenician saga, a king sacrificed his son to his god in exchange for the god saving him from danger, another self-serving example.
In a similar Greek account, the goddess Diana ordered a king to sacrifice Iphigenia to save his country. However, as the priest was about to strike the blow, Iphigenia disappeared, and a beautiful goat stood in her place.
In another Greek legend, King Agamemnon tried to sacrifice his beloved daughter because of one god’s demand, while another god saved the girl and substituted a stag. This drama depicts one of the many Greek conflicts between the gods.
These are only some of the many somewhat similar experiences to Abraham’s in Genesis 22. The practice was widespread in antiquity. Maimonides’s explanation of the biblical story shows how Jewry differed regarding how to worship God and how Jewry used such tales to teach proper behavior.