Binding of Isaac

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The Binding of Isaac (Hebrew: עֲקֵדַת יִצְחָק, romanized: ʿAqēḏaṯ Yiṣḥāq), or simply "The Binding" (הָעֲקֵדָה, hāʿAqēḏā), is a story from chapter 22 of the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament. In the Biblical narrative, God orders Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on the mountain called Jehovah-jireh in the region of Moriah. As Abraham begins to comply, having bound Isaac to an altar, he is stopped by the Angel of the Lord; a ram appears and is slaughtered in Isaac's stead, as God commends Abraham's pious obedience to offer his son as a human sacrifice. Especially in art, the episode is often called the Sacrifice of Isaac, although in the end Isaac was not sacrificed. Various scholars suggest that the original story of Abraham and Isaac may have been of a completed human sacrifice, later altered by redactors to substitute a ram for Isaac, and some traditions, including certain Jewish and Christian interpretations, maintain that Isaac actually was sacrificed. In addition to being addressed...

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