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Binding of Isaac

Story from the Hebrew Bible / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The Binding of Isaac (Hebrew: עֲקֵידַת יִצְחַק‎, ʿAqēḏaṯ Yīṣḥaq), or simply "The Binding" (הָעֲקֵידָה‎, hāʿAqēḏā),[1] is a story from Genesis 22 of the Hebrew Bible. In the biblical narrative, God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Moriah. As Abraham begins to comply, having bound Isaac to an altar, he is stopped by the Angel of the Lord; a ram appears and is slaughtered in Isaac's stead, as God commends Abraham's pious obedience.

Mosaic "Sacrifice of Isaac" – Basilica of San Vitale (A.D. 547)
The Sacrifice of Isaac by Caravaggio (1603), in the Baroque tenebrist manner

In addition to being addressed by modern scholarship, this biblical episode has been the focus of a great deal of commentary in traditional sources of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.