Abraham\u27s Folly

This study is a philosophical reflection, not a formal exegesis, on the text of Genesis 12-22, tracing the interaction between Abraham and God, which led gradually to the Akedah, the binding of Isaac on the altar of sacrifice. The study rests on the hypothesis that Abraham, under the wise tutelage of Yahweh, slowly discovered that he had profoundly misunderstood God, thinking that God, like all the other gods Abraham had known, would eventually demand the sacrifice of his son as a condition for his having any more offspring. In the light of this assumption attention of given to the rich diversity of insights into the many problems posed by the narrative of Genesis which are found in the various Hebrew traditions, ancient and contemporary, in Christian reflections, in the mystical meditations of Jews and Christians and in the hostile rejection of all divine interventions and revelations, especially against the story of Abraham as a dangerous and pernicious myth