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There is a development of faith and morals in the Bible: From the Commandment of Child Sacrifice to the Prohibition of Child Sacrifice How the story "God tests Abraham", Gen 22, is to be understood
In ancient religions, people believed that they had to sacrifice their most precious possessions (their own children) to the gods in order to receive their blessing, so that their own lives would be preserved and they would be happy.		Ex 13,2: The LORD spoke to Moses and said, "Consecrate to me every first-born that opens the womb among the Israelites, both of man and beast, for it belongs to me.”
They also believed that every people and country had its own gods, and the more sacrifices a people made to their god, the more he would engage in a war for his people. Those who sacrifice more have a better chance of victory, success, prosperity and salvation in times of need. Those who are not willing to sacrifice their child seemed to have too little faith, seemed to want to withhold something from God.		2 Kön 3: The sacrifice of the king's son was successful: When he saw that he was losing the battle, the king of Moab … took his first-born, his heir apparent, and offered him as a holocaust upon the wall. The wrath against Israel was so great that they gave up the siege and returned to their own land.
The priests in Israel felt in their faith that God does not want children to be sacrificed. They therefore invented the story of the "test of Abraham" to say: "We are just as faithful as the nations who even sacrifice their children! Because our progenitor Abraham would have been willing to do so too."		Gen 22: God said to Abraham: "Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust on a height that I will point out to you." Early the next morning Abraham saddled his donkey, took with him his son Isaac …
The permission to sacrifice an animal instead of a child later becomes a prohibition to sacrifice a child. It is then seen as a crime and a sign of apostasy from faith in the true God.		Psalm 106, 36-39: Criticism of Israelites who sacrificed children: They serve their idols, and they are for a snare to them. And they sacrifice their sons and their daughters to the demons, and they shed innocent blood - Blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they have sacrificed to idols of Canaan, and the land is profaned with blood. And they are defiled with their works, and commit whoredom in their habitual doings.
The story of the "test of Abraham" has certainly saved the lives of thousands of children. This narrativ is therefore a valuable "story of redemption" that freed people from a psychological compulsion, as they believed they had to sacrifice children based on an old tradition. Those who didn't felt guilty. This story frees people from such feelings of guilt.
	But this "story of redemption" is like a strong spiritual "medicine" that also has strong "side effects": 1. People still believed that they had to sacrifice something valuable from nature to God: if not a child, then an animal: kill a living being for God! 2) God is presented as a human-tester and man appears as a test subject. Later, many Christians believe that the whole of life is a time of testing. >>> This prevents people from perceiving their spiritual laws of maturation and healing, from recognizing their own originality and calling and from leading a truly meaningful life.		Gen 22: Abraham spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. So he went and took the ram and offered it up as a holocaust in place of his son. Lk 2,22f When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, they took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, "Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord," and to offer the sacrifice of "a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons," in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.
	For thousands of years, people believed that children were the property of their parents. And what you possess, you can also give away, use at will or even sacrifice to God. These sociological ideas about the family were later transferred to God and Jesus: Jesus appears in the Bible to be the property of the heavenly Father.		Joh 3,16: Jesus is considered as "possession" of God: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. Abraham-Isaak-Geschichte
	Manfred Hanglberger (www.hanglbergermanfred.de) LINK to share: https://hanglberger-manfred.de/en-abraham-isaak.htm In the Bible there is a development of faith (Sacrifice of children?) >>> How the narrativ of Gen 22 might have come about (A story) >>> Further texts in English >>> Bible-Index (German language) >>> A Contemporary Understanding of the Bible >>> HOME