Genesis 22 · The Lantern

And it happened after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said to him, Abraham: and he said, Look, here I am.

And he said, Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and get you into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell you of.

And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and split the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went to the place of which God had told him.

Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place in the distance.

And Abraham said to his young men, Remain you here with the donkey; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.

And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.

Isaac is another type too (he can easily be taken in this other sense), this time of the Lord. He was a son, just as is the Son (he is the son of Abraham; Christ, of God). He was a victim, as was the Lord, but his sacrifice was not consummated, while the Lord's was. All he did was to carry the wood of his sacrifice, just as the Lord bore the wood of the cross.

After these things, "Abraham took," it says, "the wood for the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son, and took the fire in his hands and the sword, and they went together." That Isaac himself carries for himself "the wood for the burnt offering," this is a figure that Christ also "Himself bore the cross for Himself," and yet to carry "the wood for the burnt offering" i…

In the mystery of the calling, Christ is symbolized by the sacrifice of Isaac, because Abraham is a proper representation of God the Father. Christ is represented by Isaac who carried his own wood on his neck, like the wood of the Cross.

And Isaac spoke to Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Look, the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

What after these things? "Isaac said," it says, "to Abraham his father: Father." And this too, uttered by the son at that moment, is a voice of temptation. For how do you think the son, about to be immolated, shook the father's heart by this voice?

In two things then was Abraham victorious: that he killed his son although he did not kill him and that he believed that after Isaac died he would be raised up again and would go back down with him. For Abraham was firmly convinced that he who said to him, "through Isaac shall your descendants be named," was not lying.

Therefore he brings his well-beloved son to be sacrificed, and offered promptly him whom he had received late; nor is he restrained by being called by the name of father, when his son called him "Father," and he replied, "My son." Dear pledges of love are these names, but the commands of God are loved still more.

And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

And the angel of the LORD called to him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.

And he said, Lay not your hand upon the lad, neither do you anything to him: for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from me.

"And Abraham stretched out," it says, "his hand to take the sword, and to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called him from heaven, and said: Abraham, Abraham. And he said: here I am. And He said: do not lay your hand upon the boy, neither do to him anything.

We have heard enough on how God does not know the sinner, so we ought to consider now how the just man is known by Him. God said to Abraham: 'Leave your country, your kinsfolk.' [Gen 12:1] Abraham accordingly came into Palestine; he was in Abramiri; he sojourned a long time in Gerara.

In the same way he said to Abraham, "Now I know that you fear God," wherein he was saying, "Now I have made people (who up to now did not know) recognize what I, in my own mind, always held to be certain, [namely], that you fear God."

And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and look behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.

"And Abraham looking up," it says, "with his eyes saw, and behold, a ram was held by its horns in the thicket Sabech." We said, I think, in what preceded that Isaac bore the figure of Christ, but the ram here too nonetheless seems to bear the figure of Christ. But how each fits Christ, both Isaac, who was not slain, and the ram, who was slain, is worth knowing.

Very many deny that the Sacred writers wrote according to the rules of art. Nor do we contend for the contrary; for they wrote not according to art, but according to grace, which is above all art; for they wrote that which the Spirit gave them to speak.

But when the ram was killed and Isaac was not killed, it happened thus because Isaac was a figure and not the reality; for in him was designated what was later fulfilled in Christ. Behold, God is contending with people in great devotion. Abraham offered God his mortal son who was not to die, while God surrendered in death his immortal Son for the sake of humankind.

And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.

And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham out of heaven the second time,

And said, By myself have I sworn, says the LORD, for because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son:

In the former there was only speech, here an oath is interposed, which the holy Apostle, writing to the Hebrews, interprets, saying in this manner: "God," he says, "wishing to show to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his purpose, interposed an oath." And again: "men," he says, "swear by one greater than themselves." "But God, since he had no one greater by whom he m…

This is Isaac the co-heir of the promises and the blessings of God given to Abraham his father—who was a type of the sacrifice of the Lord Christ, since for three days he travelled on to death, and afterwards returned alive—who on his own shoulders carried the wood for his own sacrifice, as also the Lord Christ carried his own cross on his shoulder—who died in intention and was…

That in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. [Genesis 22:17] And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.

Rightly then is he blessed because he was faithful; and rightly was he faithful because he was patient.

But that Christ is the seed of Abraham and the son of Abraham, if you wish to learn it more plainly from the words of Scripture, hear how it is written in the gospel: "the book," it says, "of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." In this, then, that word also is fulfilled which it says: "your seed shall take by inheritance the cities of the adve…

And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because you have obeyed my voice.

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

And to Abraham's seed he promised—what? In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. His seed is Christ; because from Abraham came Isaac, from Isaac Jacob, from Jacob twelve sons, from these twelve the people of the Jews, from the people of the Jews the Virgin Mary, from the Virgin Mary our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the third age of the world, God, testing Abraham's obedience, commanded him to offer to him as a holocaust his one and only son, whom he loved. Abraham did not delay in doing what he was ordered, but a ram was immolated in place of his son. Nevertheless for his virtue of extraordinary obedience he was granted the inheritance of an everlasting blessing.

So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.

And it happened after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Look, Milcah, she has also born children to your brother Nahor;

Huz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram,

And Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel.

And Bethuel fathered Rebekah: these eight Milcah did bear to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.

And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she bore also Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash, and Maacah.

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