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Isaac

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   Isaac or Yitzchak (Hebrew: יִצְחָק, Standard Yiẓḥaq Tiberian Yiṣḥāq ;
   Arabic: إسحٰق, ʾIsḥāq ; "he will laugh") was the only son of Abraham
   and Sarah, and the father of Jacob and Esau as described in the Hebrew
   Bible. His story is told in the Book of Genesis. Isaac was the
   longest-lived of the patriarchs, and the only biblical patriarch whose
   name was not changed. Isaac was the only patriarch who did not leave
   Canaan, although he once tried to leave and God told him not to do so.
   Compared to other patriarchs in the Bible, his story is less colorful,
   relating few incidents of his life.

   The New Testament contains few references to Isaac. The early Christian
   church viewed Abraham's willingness to follow God's command to
   sacrifice Isaac as an example of faith and obedience.

   Isaac is a prophet in Islam. A few narratives of Isaac appear in the
   Qur'an. The Qur'an views Isaac as a righteous man, servant of God and
   the father of Jews. The Qur'an states that Isaac and his progeny are
   blessed as long as they uphold their covenant with God. Some early
   Muslims believed that Isaac was the son who was supposed to be
   sacrificed by Abraham.

   Some academic scholars have described Isaac as "a legendary figure"
   while others view him "as a figure representing tribal history, though
   as a historical individual" or "as a seminomadic leader, or as the
   founder of a cult."

Etymology and meaning

   The English name Isaac is a translation of the Hebrew term Yiṣḥāq which
   literally means "may God smile." The term conforms to a well-known
   Northwest Semitic linguist type, but is not known from elsewhere. As
   mentioned the term literally means "may God smile", and the Ugaritic
   texts from thirteenth century BCE refer to the benovolent smile of the
   Canaanite god El. The Bible(i.e. the canonical collections of sacred
   writings of Judaism), however, ascribes the laugher to be Isaac's
   mother( Sarah) rather than the Canaanite god El. The reason for Sarah's
   laughing, according to the Bible, was that God gave the news of the
   birth of Isaac to his parents. Since they were beyond the age of having
   children, they privately laughed at the prediction.

Hebrew Bible

   Isaac is mentioned by name more than 70 times in the book of Genesis
   but only mentioned 33 times elsewhere. The phrase "Abraham, Isaac, and
   Jacob" occurs 23 times in the Hebrew Bible. Chapters 17-28 of the book
   of Genesis contain the stories of Isaac. Historians and academics in
   the fields of linguistics and source criticism believe that the stories
   of Isaac largely belong to the J, or Yahwist source (See Documentary
   hypothesis). The beginnings of Genesis 17:15-27 and the end from
   Genesis 27:46 to Genesis 28:9 is however believed to belong to the P,
   or Priestly source while Genesis 21:1-7 and Genesis 22:1-19 is
   considered to be the E, or Elohist source.

   The account of the life of Isaac according to the Hebrew Bible

   God gave the news of the birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah. Sarah was
   beyond the age of having children and privately laughed at the
   prediction. When the child was born, she said "God had made me to
   laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me". Isaac was the only
   child that Abraham and Sarah had together. Sarah saw Ishmael mocking
   Isaac and urged her husband to banish Hagar and her child so that Isaac
   would be the only heir of Abraham. Abraham was hesitant but at God's
   order he listened to his wife's request.

   Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when the boy was eight days old.
   According to the book of Genesis, a great feast was held for his being
   weaned.
   The angel hinders the offering up of Isaac, by Rembrandt
   The angel hinders the offering up of Isaac, by Rembrandt

   Several years later, God tested Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice
   his son. Abraham obeyed and took Isaac to the mount Moriah. Without
   murmuring, Isaac let Abraham bind him and lay him upon the altar as a
   sacrifice. Abraham took the knife and raised his hand to kill his son.
   At the last minute, an angel of the Lord prevented him from doing so.
   Instead of Isaac, Abraham sacrificed a ram that was trapped in a
   thicket nearby.

   When Isaac was forty years of age, Abraham sent Eliezer, his steward,
   into Mesopotamia to find a wife for him, from Bethuel, his
   brother-in-law's family. Rebekah was sent and became the wife of Isaac.
   She was barren, so Isaac prayed for her and God granted her the favour
   of conception. She gave birth to twin boys, Esau and Jacob. Isaac
   favoured Esau, and Rebekah Jacob.

   Some years afterward, a famine obliged Isaac to move to Gerar, where
   Abimelech was king; and, as his father had done under similar
   circumstances, he referred to Rebekah as his sister. Abimelech, having
   discovered that she was his wife, reproved him for the deception.

   As Isaac grew very rich and his flocks multiplied, the Philistines of
   Gerar became so envious that they filled up all the wells which Isaac's
   servants had dug. At the desire of Abimelech he departed and pitched
   his tent in the valley of Gerar where he dug new wells, but was again
   put to some difficulties. At length, he returned to Beersheba where he
   fixed his habitation. Here the Lord appeared to him, and renewed the
   promise of blessing him. Also Abimelech visited him to form an
   alliance.

   Isaac grew very old (137 years) and became completely blind. He called
   Esau, his eldest son, and directed him to procure some venison for him.
   But while Esau was hunting, Jacob sneakily misrepresented himself as
   Esau to his blind father as obtained his father's blessing, making
   Isaac Abraham's primary heir, and leaving Esau in an inferior position.
   Isaac lived some time after this, and sent Jacob into Mesopotamia to
   take a wife of his own family.

Jewish traditions

   In Rabannical traditions the age of Isaac at the time of binding is
   taken to be 37 which contrasts with common portrayals of Isaac as a
   child. The Rabbis also taught that the reason for the death of Sarah
   was the news of intended sacrifice of Isaac. The sacrifice of Isaac was
   cited in appeals for the mercy of God in the later Jewish traditions.
   The post-biblical Jewish interpretations often elaborate the role of
   Isaac beyond the biblical description and largely focus on Abraham's
   intended sacrifice of Isaac, called the aqedah("binding"). According to
   a version of these interpretations, Isaac died in the sacrifice and was
   revived. According to Many accounts of Haggadah, unlike the Bible, it
   is Satan who is testing Isaac and not God. Isaac's willingness to
   follow God's command at the cost of his death has been a model for many
   Jews who preferred matrydom to violation of the Jewish law.

   According to the Jewish tradition Isaac instituted the afternoon
   prayer. This tradition is based on Genesis 24:63 ("Isaac went out to
   mediate in the field at the eventide")

   Isaac was the only patriarch who stayed in Canaan during his whole life
   and though once he tried to leave, God told he not to do so( Genesis
   26:2). Rabannic tradition gave the explanation that Isaac was almost
   sacrificed and anything dedicated as a sacrifice may not leave the Land
   of Israel. Isaac is the longest-lived of the patriarchs, and the only
   biblical patriarch whose name was not changed.

   Rabbinical literature also linked Isaac's blindness in old age as
   stated in the Bible to the sacrificial binding: Isaac's eyes went blind
   because the tears of angels present at the time of his sacrifice fell
   on Isaac's eyes.

New Testament

   The New Testament contains few references to Isaac. There are
   references to Isaac having been "offered up" by his father, and to his
   blessing his sons. Paul contrasted Isaac (symbolizing Christianity)
   with the rejected older son Ishmael (symbolizing Judaism); (see
   Galatians 4:21-30).In Galatians 4:28-31, Hagar is associated with the
   Sinai covenant, while Sarah is associated with the covenant of grace
   (into which her son Isaac enters). James 2:21-24 argues that the
   sacrifice of Isaac shows that justification requires both faith and
   works.

   In the early Christian church, Abraham's willingness to follow God's
   command to sacrifice Isaac was used as an example of faith (Hebrews
   11:17) and of obedience (James 2:21). While the epistle to the Hebrews
   views the release of Isaac from sacrifice as analogous to the
   resurrection of Jesus, the idea of the sacrifice of Isaac being a
   prefigure of sacrifice of Jesus on the cross dates back to the end of
   first Christian century. It first appeared in the apocryphal epistle of
   Barnabas and later became an important theme for many renowned artists.

Qur'an

   Isaac is a prophet in Islam mentioned in the Qur'an. His name appears
   in 15 passages of the Qur'an. Like many other ancient prophets, the
   Qur'anic references to Isaac assume the audience is already familiar
   with him and his stories. There is little narrative of Isaac in the
   Qur'an. The Qur'an states that Isaac was given to Sarah, when she and
   her husband Abraham were both old (see 11:70-74). In verse 37:112, God
   gives Abraham the good news of the birth of Isaac "a prophet, one of
   the Righteous." Verses 11:71-74 provide a fuller version of the story:
   The messengers of God who were sent against the people of Lut came to
   Abraham. Abraham's wife (Sarah) "laughed: But we gave her glad tidings
   of Isaac, and after him, of Jacob." Watt states that there are several
   verses of the Qur'an talking about Isaac and Jacob being given to
   Abraham (Qur'an 6:84; 49 19: 49-50; 21:72), and 29:27-26 adds that God
   “made prophethood and the Book to be among his offspring” (see also
   38:45). The formula "We gave Abraham Isaac and Jacob" has been "thought
   by some scholars to demonstrate that in the early revelations Jacob was
   considered to be a son of Abraham and not his grandson." In verse,
   14:39-41, Isaac and Ishmael are joined together and "Abraham praises
   God for giving him the two although he was old." In other instances
   Isaac's names occurs in the lists (see 12:38, 2:127-133, 4:161-163)

   The Qur'an states that Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his son. The
   son is not however named in the Qur'an(see 37:99-113) and in early
   Islam, there was a fierce controversy over the identity of the son.
   However the belief that it was Ishmael prevailed later and it was fully
   endorsed by the Muslim scholars. The argument of those early scholars
   who believed in the Isaac theory (notably Ibn Ḳutayba, and al-Ṭabarī)
   was that "God's perfecting his mercy on Abraham and Isaac (in 12:6)
   referred to his making Abraham his friend and saving him from the
   burning bush and to his rescuing Isaac. The other party held that the
   promise to Sarah of Isaac followed by Jacob ( 11:71-74) excluded the
   possibility of a sacrifice of Isaac." The early controversy was more
   concerned with Persian than Jewish rivalry from the Arabs, since the
   Persians claimed to be of descendents of Isaac. Al-Masudi for example
   reports a Persian poet (902 CE) who boasted to be superior to the Arabs
   because of descent from Isaac.

Academic view

   Some scholars have described Isaac as "a legendary figure" while others
   view him "as a figure representing tribal history, though as a
   historical individual" or "as a seminomadic leader, or as the founder
   of a cult."

   The stories of Isaac, like other patriarchal stories of Genesis, are
   generally believed in western scholarship to have "their origin in folk
   memories and oral traditions of the early Hebrew pastoralist
   experience." According to Martin Noth, a renowned scholar of the Hebrew
   Bible, the narratives of Isaac date back to an older cultural stage
   than that of the West-Jordanian Jacob. At that era, the Israelite
   tribes were not yet sedentary. In the course of looking for grazing
   areas, they had come in contact in southern Palestine with the
   inhabitants of the settled countryside. The biblical historian A.
   Jopsen believes in the connection between the Isaac traditions and the
   North and in support of this theory adduces Amos 7:9 ("the high places
   of Isaac").

   Distinguished biblical historians Albrecht Alt and Martin Noth hold
   that "The figure of Isaac was enhanced when the theme of promise,
   previously bound to the cults of the 'God the Fathers' was incorporated
   into the Israelite creed during the southern-Palestinian stage of the
   growth of the Pentateuch tradition." According to Martin Noth, at the
   southern-Palestinian stage of the growth of the Pentateuch tradition,
   Isaac became established as one of the biblical patriarchs, however his
   traditions were receded in the favour of Abraham.

Testament

   The Testament of Isaac is a pseudonymous text which was most likely
   composed in Greek in Egypt after 100 C.E. It is also dependent on the
   Testament of Abraham. In this testament, God sends the angel Michael to
   Isaac in order to inform him of his impending death. Isaac accepts
   God's decree but Jacob resists. Isaac in his bed-chamber tells Jacob of
   the inevitability of death. Isaac has a tour to heaven and hell shortly
   before his death in which God's compassion to repentant sinners is
   emphasized. In this testament, Isaac also talks with the crowds on the
   subjects of priesthood, asceticism, and the moral life.

Isaac in Art

   The earliest Christian portrayal of Isaac is found in the Roman
   catacomb frescoes. Excluding the fragments, Alison Moore Smith
   classifies these artistic works in three categories:

     "paintings showing the approach to the Sacrifice in which Abraham
     leads Isaac, bearing faggots, towards the altar; or Isaac approaches
     with the bundle of sticks, Abraham having preceded him to the place
     of offering...[paintings in which] Abraham is upon a pedestal and
     Isaac stands near at hand, both figures in orant
     attitude...[paintings in which] Abraham is shown about to sacrifice
     Isaac while the latter stands or kneels on the ground beside the
     altar. Sometimes Abraham grasps Isaac by the hair. Occasionally the
     ram is added to the scene and in the later paintings the Hand of God
     emerges from above"

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