Isaac in the Old Testament : a new interpretation from Genesis 22, based on hermeneutical-methodological and exegetical investigations

Abstract

Isaac, the least of the patriarchs in the texts of the Old Testament and in the eyes of its readers, offers a surprising number of possibilities for new avenues of interpretation of the Pentateuch and related texts. These are arrived at in this study by first tracing a number of historical-developmental trajectories relevant to the author, namely from philosophy of science, through the main points from the history of Pentateuch studies in South Africa, via an argued choice for historical exegesis over against a-historical methods, and by means of a brief overview of the major insights that had shaped the scholarly study of the Old Testament patriarchs. The central part of the study is exegetical, with the main focus on Genesis 22, which has proven to be a key text. An overview of the historical issues related to this text is offered. Illustrating the limitations of a-historical exegesis, a narrative reading of Genesis 22 is undertaken, followed by a new historical interpretation of the same text, which draws on all of the foregoing. In the light of this new Genesis 22 interpretation, the other Isaac texts in the Old Testament are reviewed, as they would have been understood in post-exilic inner-Judean identity politics, namely between the tradents of the patriarchal traditions. Drawing throughout on an anecdotal view of Old Testament historiography, a theory proposed on the multiplex or composite nature of the personages of the patriarchs, though of Isaac in particular, and on the idea of the post-exilic inner-Judean identity politics, a creative, critical, historical retelling in almost narrative mode is offered of the history of Isaac in the Old Testament as a conclusion to the study.