Abstract

Sacrificial religion, especially the sacrifice of the first born, is crucial for understanding the continuities and discontinuities between Judaism and Christianity. Human sacrifice was prevalent in the ancient Middle East, even among the Hebrews as late as 500 B.C.E. In the Aqedah (Gen. 22: 1-19), God's command that Abraham sacrifice Isaac is only averted when Abraham demonstrates unquestioning obedience. Because of that obedience, God accepts an animal surrogate and bestows His election on Abraham and his progeny.

The sequence is reversed in Christianity. Jesus is first identified with the surrogate, the Passover lamb that redeems Israel's first born, and later becomes himself the sacrifice. By his unquestioning obedience on the cross, Jesus becomes the perfect Isaac. Early Christianity regarded Jesus as the only perfectly obedient human being and also the perfect human sacrifice. As such, Christ brings to manifest expression much that remained latent in Judaism. The author believes that this spells out the difference between the two traditions.

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