If We Left Space for Wild Animals

An alternate reflection on the Binding of Isaac

I drew this. The Hebrew words are Abraham, Isaac, angel, and God, placed near the stars in the Aries constellation. There’s also the word for Aries the ram. I published this image in my memoir, Bad Fire.

The story in Chapter 22 of Genesis is often referred to as the Binding of Isaac. The “Sacrifice of Isaac” is a common misnomer.

(“And if you don’t know why it’s a misnomer, you get an ‘F’,” I can still hear my secular schoolteacher’s voice saying while we wrote in blue booklets during a class quiz.)

God tells Abraham to go up on the mountain and burn his young son Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham and Isaac walk for three days up the mountain with the sacrificial tools, and at least for a while, Abraham doesn’t tell Isaac what is about to happen, because Isaac asks where the sheep is. Next thing we know, Abraham ties up his son, lays him on the wooden altar, and holds out the knife. At that moment, an angel appears, commanding him not to hurt the boy after all. The angel praises Abraham’s piety for not having tried to withhold the boy. Just then, Abraham notices a ram, and he sacrifices it. The angel goes on: God will grant Abraham many descendants.

Thus it is a binding (“akedah” in Hebrew) and not ultimately a sacrifice.

Moreover, it is explicitly a loyalty test.

Taking this story on its own terms: If anything during these three days had gone differently, all of human history would…