The Miraculous Birth and Resurrection of Isaac

“‘Divine birth’ to mean a transformation whereby the individual is changed from being a product of natural (human) descent to one of divine descent. Although in many of the cases of ‘divine birth’ no actual birth takes place, the term birth is used because the texts often highlight the transformation with a denial of human or natural birth, they also often include elements associated with birth, that is, renaming and words meaning birth. These texts also often include rituals or events similar to rites of passage.”… “All of the ‘divine birth’ texts also include a denial of human fertility.” [Kunin notes 1 to page 63 and 64]

Isaac’s mother is a woman of 90 and barren. Her husband, Abraham at 99, is no youngster. Miraculously Sarah gives birth… Unlike similar stories of miraculous births in both the Old and New Testaments, in the case of the conception of Isaac, both natural father and mother are barren. They are divinely re-born and given new names Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah. In addition, Abraham enters into a covenant ‘between the pieces’ where “Abraham is asked to make a bloody pathway consisting of progressively smaller animals… the passage through the bloody path can be interpreted as a symbolic birth or new beginning” [Kunin page 73] … a birth canal.

Even when Isaac is born, Abraham (his natural father) is asked to distance, disconnect himself from his natural son by sacrificing him where (according to at least one Midrashic account) he is actually slaughtered and then re-born (resurrected) by God.

The Logic of Incest: A Structuralist Analysis of Hebrew Mythology 1995 by Seth Daniel Kunin,

“‘Divine birth’ to mean a transformation whereby the individual is changed from being a product of natural (human) descent to one of divine descent. Although in many of the cases of ‘divine birth’ no actual birth takes place, the term birth is used because the texts often highlight the transformation with a denial of human or natural birth, they also often include elements associated with birth, that is, renaming and words meaning birth. These texts also often include rituals or events similar to rites of passage.”… “All of the ‘divine birth’ texts also include a denial of human fertility.” [Kunin notes 1 to page 63 and 64]

Isaac’s mother is a woman of 90 and barren. Her husband, Abraham at 99, is no youngster. Miraculously Sarah gives birth… Unlike similar stories of miraculous births in both the Old and New Testaments, in the case of the conception of Isaac, both natural father and mother are barren. They are divinely re-born and given new names Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah. In addition, Abraham enters into a covenant ‘between the pieces’ where “Abraham is asked to make a bloody pathway consisting of progressively smaller animals… the passage through the bloody path can be interpreted as a symbolic birth or new beginning” [Kunin page 73] … a birth canal.

Even when Isaac is born, Abraham (his natural father) is asked to distance, disconnect himself from his natural son by sacrificing him where (according to at least one Midrashic account) he is actually slaughtered and then re-born (resurrected) by God.

The Logic of Incest: A Structuralist Analysis of Hebrew Mythology 1995 by Seth Daniel Kunin,

Israel is descended from people chosen by God rather than entitled by nature. This element is found throughout the text: Seth is Adam’s third son, Shem is Noah’s third son, Isaac is Abraham’s second son, and Moses is also a second son. This aspect of chosen descent is part of the logic by which Israel is distinguished from the nations…. [Kunin p 106]

In using divine as the opposite of ‘nature’ or, as discussed above, ‘natural birth’, there is also an association of divine with culture. The opposition suggested here is that the myth creates a dichotomy in which the other nations and their cultures are associated with nature and natural birth, while Israel and its culture is associated with culture and divine. Israelite myth, as a handmaiden of Israelite culture, validates Israelite culture as divine. [Kunin p. 117]

“The final denial of Sarah’s role in Isaac’s birth comes after the sacrifice of Isaac. Prior to Isaac’s symbolic ‘divine birth’ [at the Akedah] Sarah dies, emphasizing that she had no part in the transformation which can be seen as a symbolic ‘divine birth’ (as Isaac is symbolically sacrificed).” [Kunin p 97]

While Isaac provides the clearest example of a miraculous/divine birth to a barren mother and impotent father, and re-birth/resurrection at the hand of God (the akedah/sacrifice of Isaac), Isaac is not an isolated case. Once we recognize the structural elements of divine birth, it is easy to see how important it was for Isaac’s son; Jacob to be separated (exiled) from his parents and to die and be re-born (see story of angels going up to heaven = death, and coming down = re-birth Kunin p 119-20) and struggle and die and be reborn and re-named again (see story of death struggle with angel and new name ‘Israel” Kunin p 129). Once one recognizes the pattern one comes to expect that biblical leaders are never the first born, are born to barren mothers, rejected and abused by their community, struggle and consigned to symbolic death and reborn.

Many of the sources in this section come from: Jon D. Levenson in The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son - The transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity

Binding Of Isaac or Sacrifice of Isaac

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, ¹⁸ even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”^{[a] 19} Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

Hebrews (New Testament)

In the field of biblical studies, renowned for its deficit of basic agreement and the depth of its controversies, one cannot but be impressed by the longevity and breadth of the consensus about the early Israelite notion of life after death. The consensus, to be brief, is that there was none, that “everyone who dies goes to Sheol - Johannes Pedersen

Postscript - From Fear and Trembling and Sickness unto Death by Soren Kierkegaard

From Intro:

[Abraham's] special greatness was that , in doing what he did , he did not doubt that he would get Isaac back. Abraham believed he would , if not keep Isaac , at least have him restored , whatever he did , even to the point of killing him . ... he confidently expected ( the impossible ) ,

What the test requires of Abraham is not that he believe that God exists , but that he believe that God both wants and will be able to give him back his opportunity to exercise paternal love . Faith in God’s existence is something Abraham already has ; the faith he is to prove is his believing that he will not in the end be deprived of Isaac even if he carries out God’s command to kill him . he believes in the possibility of getting Isaac back on the strength of the absurd . Abraham’s trial is to show that he believes that he and Isaac will be living together again even after he has sacrificed Isaac .we should see Abraham primarily as in a most definitive way accepting that the good things in life , represented for him in Isaac , derive their value not from the mere fact that they exist and can be valued , enjoyed , delighted in , but from the source of existence itself . Abraham is , as it were , handing Isaac back so as to receive him again on the proper basis . Abraham wanted to show his faith , and , as we have seen , that faith consists in the belief that he will keep Isaac , or that Isaac will be restored . Normally a sacrificer does not entertain the prospect of receiving again what he parts with . But that is because in the normal case a sacrifice is an act of resignation , not of ( Abraham’s kind of ) faith . The faith that Kierkegaard is concerned with here is not plain belief in the existence of God ; it is belief that the projects on which one sets one’s heart are possible even when they prove humanly impossible to carry through . Abraham wants to show that the goals can be re - established on the principle that the particular individual is ‘ higher ’ than the universal .

From The work itself:

when Isaac saw his [Abraham's] face a second time it was changed , his gaze was wild , his mien one of horror . He caught Isaac by the chest , threw him to the ground and said : ‘ Foolish boy , do you believe I am your father ? I am an idolater . Do you believe this is God’s command ? No , it is my own desire . ’ Then Isaac trembled and in his anguish cried : ‘ God in heaven have mercy on me , God of Abraham have mercy on me ; if I have no father on earth , then be Thou my father ! ’

When the child is to be weaned the mother blackens her breast , for it would be a shame were the breast to look pleasing when the child is not to have it . So the child believes that the breast has changed but the mother is the same , her look loving and tender as ever . Lucky the one that needed no more terrible means to wean the child !

There were countless generations that knew the story of Abraham by heart , word for word . How many did it make sleepless ? the world never practices what the priest preaches . *

Is it because Abraham has acquired proprietary rights to the title of great man , so that whatever he does is great , and if anyone else does the same it is a sin , a crying sin ?

If one hasn’t the courage to think this thought through , to say that Abraham was a murderer , then surely it is better to acquire that courage than to waste time on undeserved speeches in his praise .

The ethical expression for what Abraham did is that he was willing to murder Isaac ; the religious expression is that he was willing to sacrifice Isaac ; but in this contradiction lies the very anguish that can indeed make one sleepless ; and yet without that anguish Abraham is not the one he is .

It should be all right , then , to speak about Abraham . The great can never do harm when grasped in their greatness . It is like a two - edged sword , bringing death and salvation .

when I have to think about Abraham I am virtually annihilated . I am all the time aware of that monstrous paradox that is the content of Abraham’s life , I am constantly repulsed , and my thought , for all its passion , is unable to enter into it , cannot come one hairbreadth further . I strain every muscle to catch sight of it , but the same instant I become paralysed .

I am convinced that God is love ; this thought has for me a pristine lyrical validity . When it is present to me I am unspeakably happy , when it is absent I yearn for it

more intensely than the lover for the beloved ; but I do not have faith ; this courage I lack . God’s love is for me , both in a direct and inverse sense , incommensurable with the whole of reality .

Furthermore my behaviour would have vitiated the whole story , for I would have been at a loss had I got Isaac back again .

What Abraham found the easiest of all would for me be hard , to find joy again in Isaac ! For he who with all the infinity of his soul , proprio motu et propriis auspiciis [ on his own accord and on his own responsibility ] , has made the infinite movement and can do no more , that person only keeps Isaac with pain .

Certainly he was surprised by the outcome , but by means of a double movement he had come back to his original position and therefore received Isaac more joyfully than the first time . Let us go further . We let Isaac actually be sacrificed . Abraham had faith . His faith was not that he should be happy sometime in the hereafter , but that he should find blessed happiness here in this world . God could give him a new Isaac , bring the sacrificial offer back to life . He believed on the strength of the absurd , for all human calculation had long since been suspended .

he received Isaac back with joy , really heartfelt joy , that he needed no preparation ,

no time to adjust himself to finitude and its joy . Had it not been thus with Abraham he may well have loved God , but he would not have had faith ; for he who loves God without faith reflects on himself , while the person who loves God in faith reflects on God .

Abraham I cannot understand ; in a way all I can learn from him is to be amazed . If one imagines one can be moved to faith by considering the outcome of this story , one deceives oneself , and is out to cheat God of faith’s first movement , one is out to suck the life - wisdom out of the paradox . One or another may succeed , for our age does not stop with faith , with its miracle of turning water into wine ; 42 it goes further , it turns wine into water .

for my part can indeed describe the movements of faith , but I cannot perform them . When learning how to make swimming movements , one can hang in a belt from the ceiling ; one may be said to describe the movements all right but one isn’t swimming ; likewise I can

describe the movements of faith but when I am thrown into the water , although I may be said to be swimming ( for I’m not among the waders ) , I make other movements , I make the movements of infinity , while faith does the opposite , having performed the movements of infinity it makes those of finitude .he purchases every moment that he lives ,‘ redeeming the seasonable time ’ at the dearest price ; 44 not the least thing does he do except on the strength of the absurd .

the whole earthly form he presents is a new creation on the strength of the absurd .

He resigned everything infinitely , and then took everything back on the strength of the absurd .

He is continually making the movement of infinity , but he makes it with such accuracy and poise that he is continually getting finitude out of it , and not for a second would one suspect anything else .

to transform the leap in life to a gait , to express the sublime in the pedestrian absolutely – that is something only the knight of faith can do – and it is the one and only marvel .

He has no inclination to become another , seeing nothing at all great in that prospect . Only lower natures forget themselves and become something new . Thus the butterfly has altogether forgotten that it was a caterpillar , perhaps it can so completely forget in turn that it was a butterfly that it can become a fish . Deeper natures never forget themselves and never become something other than they were .

the knight will remember everything ; but the memory is precisely the pain ,

Fools and young people talk about everything being possible for a human being . But that is a great mistake . Everything is possible spiritually speaking , but in the finite world there is much that is not possible . This impossibility the knight nevertheless makes possible by his expressing it spiritually , but he expresses it spiritually by renouncing it .

The secret in life is that everyone must sew it for himself ;

What then is education ? I had thought it was the curriculum

the individual ran through in order to catch up with himself ; and anyone who does not want to go through this curriculum will be little helped by being born into the most enlightened age .

he makes one more movement , more wonderful than anything else , for he says : ‘ I nevertheless believe that I shall get her , namely on the strength of the absurd , on the strength of the fact that for God all things are possible . ’

all that can save him is the absurd ; and this he grasps by faith . for were he to suppose that he had faith without recognizing the impossibility with all the passion of his soul and with all his heart , he would be deceiving himself , and his testimony would carry weight nowhere , since he would not

even have come as far as infinite resignation .

faith that is unshakeable even when it sees the impossibility . test God ?

takes a purely human courage to renounce the whole of temporality in order to win eternity , but I do indeed win it and cannot in all eternity renounce that , for that would be a self - contradiction ; but it takes a paradoxical and humble courage then to grasp the whole of temporality on the strength of the absurd , and that courage is the courage of faith .

Through faith Abraham did not renounce his claim on Isaac , through his faith he received Isaac .

Kierkegaard, Soren. Fear and Trembling (Classics) . Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.FEAR AND TREMBLING Dialectical Lyric by Johannes de silentio Translated with an introduction by
Alastair Hannay