Subject: Chris Leighton
Response Posted by: Chris Leighton
Institution: Institute for Christian and Jewish Studies
Date Posted: Wed Dec 11 15:22:37 1996
Message: The practice of reading Genesis 22, the Binding of Isaac, as a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Jesus is deeply embedded within the Christian tradition. Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Melito of Sardis, Origen, and Augustine offer typological readings which layer the Christian story on top of the Genesis account. There are a number of problems with this tradition that deserve careful consideration. (1) Allegorical readings often destabilize the original text. If readers can pour new meanings into old texts, then readers can discover almost anything they want. How then do we adjudicate between conflicting allegorical interpretations? Who has the authority to decide what typological rendering is true? (2) Typological readings often flatten the original narrative. When filtered through a christological lens, everything is absorbed within the Christian "master story." This pattern of interpretation disposes Christians to see the "new covenant" displacing "the old," the church superseding the synagogue. The problem is that this practice generates a triumphalism which negates the integrity of the Jewish people. No wonder the Church Fathers claim that Jews do not understand their own scriptures. A significant challenge is to cultivate habits of reading that enable Christians to make connections between Isaac and Jesus without simultaneously ruling out alternative understandings. And at the same time that Christians make room for variant interpretations, can Christians maintain a sense of the authority and cohesion of their scriptures? (3) Stories of sacrifice whether of Isaac or Jesus pose confounding questions about the nature of God and the dynamics of forgiveness. Both of these stories present modern readers with an enormously vexing challenge: How are we to understand the atoning power of sacrifice? What are we make of a God who commands Abraham to kill his beloved son, indeed a God who is often describing as requiring the blood of Jesus to pay the penalty of human sin?
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