Abstract

Both Rashi and the Gloss read the near-sacrifice of Isaac polemically, in a way that uses the story of Abraham as evidence for the greatness of Abraham-representing their own faiths-over "other" figures-different nations or religions. The Gloss specifically names Jews and polemicizes against them. Although Rashi does not name Christians, his interpretation emphasizes the polemical function as the main purpose of the story. Both retell the story of the near-sacrifice of Isaac in a way that has Abraham both participate in and foresee a future sacrifice: that of Christ and the Eucharist that reenacts it in the case of the Gloss and the Temple sacrifice in the case of Rashi. In doing this, each glossator seesAbraham as a participant in his own faith's religious rituals as they continue to be practiced into the future. Their approaches to the interpretation of both the biblical text and their own religious tradition, and they are even similar in the ways in which they construct polemic against the other.

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