Abraham was about to kill his son (Isaak?) in obedience to God. Was human sacrifice practiced in those days?

Question

I am thinking that this most horrific and repusive of stories, which has done more to turn me off religion than anything else, must have had some basis in fact.

Does any one know the approx. year of Abraham's life and whether human sacrifice was practiced in that area of the world at that time?

All the religious people here stress that God was only testing Abraham's obedience.Yes, I know that! But what a vile, cruel, test and what terrible, cruel, sick, insecure, God some people believe in. No wonder so many young people now are abandoning religion.

Is it OK if a criminal hoaxer did that to you and your child, provided he stopped the last minute after he drew the blade over the childs's neck? And what about he child watching it ? And what about its wretched mother?

If God is a perfect being why not say that Abraham was a semi-deranged potential child murderer whom God stopped the last moment.

Answer 1

Actually human sacrifice is an ancient practice that may very well predate Abraham. I think you missed the point of the story though. God wanted to see how loyal Abraham was. He never wanted him to actually kill his son, that's why God stopped him before he could kill him. As for the age that's a mystery. Many Bible scholars believe that the Bible is based on the Hebrew calendar which may very well be shorter than our calendar.

Answer 2

You must remember that Abraham was born and raised a pagan, niether a Jew nor a Christian as neither existed. Abraham was, if you like, the first Jew--God had to start somewhere. YES, human sacrifice was common in other religions (right up to the Aztec times, remember), which is why God first asked for the sacrifice--to see if Abraham was prepared to go all the way no matter what--and Then stopped him and said "No." The ram taking Isaac's place is a type of the Lamb of God who was slain for all sinners, the perfect, sinless sacrifice.
It isn't horrific if you realise that God stopped him and offered an alternative. Focus on the purpose.

Answer 3

Your question is too general. There were many cultures all over the world back then, as there are today. Since they were often very different, asking a question like this is too simplistic. I will answer your question, but please try, in the future, to ask very specific questions, not ones which cannot be answered due to their not being specific enough. According to archaeologists and historians, Abraham came from the city of Ur in which is now Iraq. This was approximately 5000 years ago. Abraham was, according to the Old Testament, the first man to believe in only one G-d, a G-d who had no name and was unseen. Abraham's father was an idol maker, he made idols for the religionists of the day. Young Abraham could not understand how people could worship the idols which he knew his father had created. So, later, he formed the idea of one G-d, monotheism, which became the belief of the Jews first, then the Christians and then the Muslims. Anyway, the story goes that G-d instructed Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, whom he loved very much, but at the last second, G-d sent an angel to stop Abraham's hand. Abraham proved his faith to G-d and passed the test which G-d made for him. G-d then told Abraham to sacrifice, instead, a ram, which G-d placed in the shrubs close by. The moral of this story for the Jewish people is that human sacrifice is wrong, and that the Jewish people would never practice human sacrifice. Many other cultures of that time did practice human sacrifice for various purposes, but the Jews became the first in that part of the world to state that it was wrong. But many cultures all over the world practiced some form of human sacrifice for various reasons, such as the Maya and Aztec in Central America, among many others. You cannot look at past cultural practices with the mirror of today. Things were different then, people were different, people didnt think the same way as we do today. It is incorrect to say that something is "immoral" when you use your moral beliefs of the 21st Century when looking at something that went on thousands of years ago. The idea of human sacrifice seems horrible to us now, but it was a normal part of the cultures back then. Was it right? No, but one needs to understand the cultural context. Simplistic thinking and simple explanations do not lead to meaningful answers about anything. There is too much simplistic thinking going on today, and it does not help solve what are complicated questions.

Answer 4

Isaac was born to Abraham when he was 100 years old. Human sacrifice has been practiced most of history.
As far as I know, and I am not expert by any means, human sacrifice was not a part of the Judeo-Christian culture at any time. There was a man during the time of the Judges that vowed a human sacrifice, but God certainly did not require it.
However, God did ask Abraham to sacrifice his only begotten son, Isaac. Abraham was the representative head of many nations and his obedience, or attempted obedience, resulted in blessings to thousands of generations since. God provided a ram in the thicket on the mountain.

Answer 5

There are a lot of crazy things in the Old Testament. Just read Ruth. Anyways, the Jews usually sacrificed lambs. the whole point of that story was to show that no sacrifice is too great for God. Also, the story showed that Abraham was THE MOST devoted worshiper and the chosen man among men. Human sacrafice was not normally practiced in that region of the world. Abraham supposedly lived there about 3500 years ago.

Answer 6

God didn't allow Him to sacrifice his son, he provided the sacrifice. You are missing the entire point of the story. The story points towards Christ. Abraham sacrificing his son is a picture of what God would do for us in the future. While He would not allow Abraham to do so and provided Abraham the sacrifice, so has he done the same for us now. By Providing Christ as our sacrifice, the only blood that was pure enough to save all mankind

Answer 7

Yes, human... and especially child sacrifices were being offered up to the god Baal. Gods promise of a son and a great nation to Abraham was in conflict with Gods request that Abraham sacrifice Issac. Abraham was the father of the Isrealite nation because he has such faith in God. Abraham knew that God's promise of a great nation was true and that God is a God of love and that God would provide the sacrifice. (as he did with the goat.) This story was a pre-view into the sacrice that God made when He sent His son to die for us all.

Answer 8

Human sacrifice has been practised for centuries and still happens in this day and age. Usually the sacrifice is a stranger or someone who is not conforming so their loss would not be missed.
The choice of a beloved son as a sacrifice was to show that obedience to his God was the most important thing in his life. The fact that his God drew back at the last moment is to prove that He is a compassionate God
If you want to believe that, please do.
What about the children who were savaged to death by a bear for making fun of an old man's bald head - that was the one that did it for me!

Answer 9

Bible text has been written by ancient philosophers. They have wrote to "call attention" for people misconduct or behaviour in general.

Never the Good Lord would request such a thing....

Do not forget that each culture "sees" God according to his own culture, but God is the same everywhere...

No one has a "stronger" God than other people have...

And overall, some people confuses God with Religion and Religious people...

Human people with power, is a disaster... always... they loose their capabilities to think fairly....because of power and money, both running together.

We all are the God's cathedral... no need of business guardians of Good...

In the beginning of humanity time start counting , people believes that eating other people would benefit them with the qualities of the body when alive....

Religious practises to retrieve the domain over people...

Abraham's life could not be such they are telling us... it has been written to tell us that if we "was" good, we could have our lives extended up to 900 years...

Some parts of the Bible have been written with the sword over the writers heads...

Please verify the way they saw our Good Lord in the bigining of times: He was really a bad God... He killed all the humanity all over the world, and in two cities....

Bible should be re-wroted... to reflect the God we see nowadays. because the more we devellop, the better we can see how good our Good Lord is...

Answer 10

Yes,human sacrifise was practiced by non believers of God.

Actually if you read the story again, please note that when Abraham left his traveling companions and supplies and started up the mountain with Isaac, that he told the ones he left behind that "they" he and Isaac would be back soon.

This shows that Abraham had complete confidence and faith in God, that he would either bring Isaac back from the dead or that he would provide another sacrifise at the appropriate time.

As always, God already knew how deep Abrahams faith and trust had become, this was his way of showing Abraham just how deep his own faith had become.