Isaac's name means "he will laugh", reflecting the laughter, in disbelief, of Abraham and Sarah, when told by God that they would have a child.[1][2] He is the only patriarch whose name was not changed, and the only one who did not move out ofCanaan.[2] According to the narrative, he died aged 180, the longest-lived of the three patriarchs.[2]
Recent scholarship has discussed the possibility that Isaac could have originally been an ancestor from theBeersheba region who was venerated at asanctuary.[3][4]
Theanglicized name "Isaac" is a transliteration of theBiblical Hebrew:יִצְחָק,romanized: Yiṣḥāq, which literally means "He laughs/will laugh".Ugaritic texts dating from the 13th century BCE refer to the benevolent smile of theCanaanite deityEl.[5]Genesis ascribes the laughter to Isaac's parents,Abraham andSarah, instead. According to the biblical narrative, Abraham fell on his face and laughed when God (Hebrew,Elohim) imparted the news of their son's eventual birth. He laughed because Sarah was past the age of childbearing; both she and Abraham were advanced in age. Later, when Sarah overheard three messengers of the Lord renew the promise, she laughed inwardly for the same reason. Sarah denied laughing when God questioned Abraham about it.[1][6][7]
After God changes Abram and Sarai's names toAbraham andSarah, he tellsAbraham that he will bear a second son bySarah named Isaac, with whom a new covenant would be established. In response, Abraham began to laugh, as both he and Sarah were well beyond natural child-bearing age.[8] Some time later, three men who Abraham identifies as messengers of God visit him and Sarah, and Abraham treats them to food and niceties. They repeat the prophecy that Sarah would bear a child, promising Isaac's birth within a year's time, at which point Sarah laughs in disbelief.[9] God questions why the pair laughed in disbelief at his words, and if it is because they believe such things were not within his power. Now afraid, they futilely deny ever having laughed at God's words.[10]
Time passes as Isaac is born.[11] Isaac was Abraham's second son and firstborn of Sarah who was then Sarai. Sarai had been barren for a long time and sought a way to fulfill God's promise that Abram would be father of many nations, especially since they had grown old, so she offeredHagar to Abram to be his concubine.[12]
On the eighth day from his birth, Isaac wascircumcised, as was necessary for all males of Abraham's household, in order to be in compliance with theJewish covenant.[13]
After Isaac had been weaned, Sarah sawIshmael playing with or mocking him (the Hebrew term is ambiguous),[14] and urged her husband to cast out Hagar the bondservant and her son, so that Isaac would be Abraham's sole heir. Abraham was hesitant, but at God's order he listened to his wife's request.[15]
At some point in Isaac's youth, his father Abraham took him to MountMoriah. At God's command as the last of ten trials to test his faith, Abraham was to build a sacrificial altar and sacrifice his son Isaac upon it. After he had bound his son to the altar and drawn his knife to kill him, at the last moment anangel of God prevented Abraham from proceeding. Instead, he was directed to sacrifice a nearby ram that was stuck in thickets.[16]
The birth of Esau and Jacob, as painted byBenjamin West
Before Isaac was 40 (Genesis 25:20),[17] Abraham sentEliezer, his steward, intoMesopotamia to find a wife for Isaac, from his nephewBethuel's family. Eliezer chose theArameanRebekah for Isaac. After many years of marriage to Isaac, Rebekah had still not given birth to a child and was believed to be barren. Isaac prayed for her and she conceived. Rebekah gave birth to twin boys,Esau andJacob. Isaac was 60 years old when his two sons were born.[18] Isaac favored Esau, and Rebekah favored Jacob.[19]
The narratives about Isaac do not mention his having concubines.[20]
Isaac moved toBeer-lahai-roi after his father died.[21] When the land experienced famine, he moved to thePhilistine land ofGerar where his father once lived. This land was still under the control ofKing Abimelech as it was in the days of Abraham. Like his father, Isaac also pretended that Rebekah was his sister due to fear that Abimelech would kill him in order to take her. He had gone back to all of the wells that his father dug and saw that they were all stopped up with earth. The Philistines did this after Abraham died. So, Isaac unearthed them and began to dig for more wells all the way toBeersheba, where he made a pact with Abimelech, just like in the day of his father.[22]
Isaac grew old and became blind. He called his son Esau and directed him to procure some venison for him, in order to receive Isaac's blessing. While Esau was hunting, Jacob, after listening to his mother's advice, deceived his blind father by misrepresenting himself as Esau and thereby obtained his father's blessing, such that Jacob became Isaac's primary heir and Esau was left in an inferior position. According to Genesis 25:29–34,[23] Esau had previously sold his birthright to Jacob for "bread and stew of lentils". Thereafter, Isaac sent Jacob into Mesopotamia to take a wife of his mother's brother's house. After 20 years working for his uncleLaban, Jacob returned home. He reconciled with his twin brother Esau, then he and Esau buried their father, Isaac, in Hebron after he died at the age of 180.[24][25]
According to local tradition, the graves of Isaac andRebekah, along with the graves of Abraham and Sarah and Jacob andLeah, are in theCave of the Patriarchs.[26]
While theBook of Genesis does not tell the age of Isaac at the time of binding,[27] some Talmudic sages take it to be thirty seven,[28] likely based on the next biblical story, which is ofSarah's death at 127 years, being 90 when Isaac was born,[29][30] attributing this to her hearing the news of his intended sacrifice.[31][32] The sacrifice of Isaac is cited in appeals for themercy of God in laterJewish traditions.[33] The post-biblical Jewish interpretations often elaborate the role of Isaac beyond the biblical description and primarily focus on Abraham's intended sacrifice of Isaac, called theaqedah ("binding").[5] According to a version of these interpretations, Isaac died in the sacrifice and was revived.[5] According to many accounts ofAggadah, unlike the Bible, it isSatan who is testing Isaac as an agent ofGod.[34] Isaac's willingness to follow God's command at the cost of his death has been a model for many Jews who preferredmartyrdom to violation of theJewish law.[32]
According to the Jewish tradition, Isaac instituted the afternoon prayer. This tradition is based on Genesis chapter 24, verse 63[35] ("Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide").[32]
Isaac was the onlypatriarch who stayed in Canaan during his whole life and though once he tried to leave, God told him not to do so.[36] Rabbinic tradition gave the explanation that Isaac was almost sacrificed and anything dedicated as a sacrifice may not leave theLand of Israel.[32] Isaac was the oldest of the biblical patriarchs at the time of his death, and the only patriarch whose name was not changed.[5][37]
Rabbinic literature also linked Isaac's blindness in old age, as stated in the Bible, to the sacrificial binding: Isaac's eyes went blind because the tears of angels present at the time of his sacrifice fell on Isaac's eyes.[34]
Early 1900s Bible illustration depicts Isaac embracing his father Abraham after theBinding of Isaac
Theearly Christian church continued and developed the New Testament theme of Isaac as a type of Christ and the Church being both "the son of the promise" and the "father of the faithful".Tertullian draws a parallel between Isaac's bearing the wood for the sacrificial fire with Christ's carrying his cross.[38] and there was a general agreement that, while all the sacrifices of the Old Law were anticipations of that on Calvary, the sacrifice of Isaac was so "in a pre-eminent way".[39]
TheEastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church consider Isaac as asaint along with otherbiblical patriarchs.[40] Along with those of other patriarchs and the Old Testament Righteous, his feast day is celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Byzantine rite of the Catholic Church on the Second Sunday before Christmas (December 11–17), under the titlethe Sunday of the Forefathers.[41]
TheNew Testament states Isaac was "offered up" by his father Abraham, and that Isaac blessed his sons.[37] Paul contrasted Isaac, symbolizingChristian liberty, with the rejected older son Ishmael, symbolizing slavery;[5][44] Hagar is associated with theSinai covenant, while Sarah is associated with the covenant of grace, into which her son Isaac enters. TheEpistle of James chapter 2, verses 21–24,[45] states that the sacrifice of Isaac shows that justification (in theJohannine sense) requires both faith and works.[46]
In theEpistle to the Hebrews, Abraham's willingness to follow God's command to sacrifice Isaac is used as an example of faith as is Isaac's action in blessing Jacob and Esau with reference to the future promised by God to Abraham.[47] In verse 19, the author views the release of Isaac from sacrifice as analogous to theresurrection of Jesus, the idea of the sacrifice of Isaac being a prefigurement of the sacrifice of Jesus on thecross.[48]
Isaac, along withIshmael, is highly important for Muslims for continuing to preach the message ofmonotheism after his fatherAbraham. Among Isaac's children was the follow-up Israelite patriarchJacob, who is also venerated as an Islamic prophet.[50]
Isaac is mentioned seventeen times by name in theQuran, often with his father and his son, Jacob.[51] The Quran states that Abraham received "good tidings of Isaac, a prophet, of the righteous", and that God blessed them both (37:112). In a fuller description, whenangels came to Abraham to tell him of the future punishment to be imposed onSodom and Gomorrah, his wife,Sarah, "laughed, and We gave her good tidings of Isaac, and after Isaac of (a grandson) Jacob" (11:71–74); and it is further explained that this event will take place despite Abraham and Sarah's old age. Several verses speak of Isaac as a "gift" to Abraham (6:84; 14:49–50), and 24:26–27 adds thatGod made "prophethood and the Book to be among his offspring", which has been interpreted to refer to Abraham's two prophetic sons, his prophetic grandson Jacob, and his prophetic great-grandsonJoseph. In theQuran, it later narrates that Abraham also praised God for giving him Ishmael and Isaac in his old age (14:39–41).
Ottoman depiction of Ishaq praying.
Elsewhere in the Quran, Isaac is mentioned in lists: Joseph follows the religion of his forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (12:38) and speaks of God's favor to them (12:6); Jacob's sons all testify their faith and promise to worship the God that their forefathers, "Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac", worshiped (2:127); and the Quran commandsMuslims to believe in the revelations that were given to "Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the Patriarchs" (2:136;3:84). In the Quran's narrative of Abraham's near-sacrifice of his son (37:102), the name of the son is not mentioned and debate has continued over the son's identity, though many feel that the identity is the least important element in a story which is given to show the courage that one develops through faith.[52]
The Quran mentions Isaac as a prophet and a righteous man ofGod. Isaac and Jacob are mentioned as being bestowed upon Abraham as gifts of God, who then worshipped God only and were righteous leaders in the way of God:
And We bestowed on him Isaac and, as an additional gift, (a grandson), Jacob, and We made righteous men of every one (of them).And We made them leaders, guiding (men) by Our Command, and We sent them inspiration to do good deeds, to establish regular prayers, and to practise regular charity; and they constantly served Us (and Us only).
Some scholars have described Isaac as "alegendary figure" or "as a figure representingtribal history,” or "as aseminomadic leader".[53]
The biblical historian A. Jopsen believes in the connection between the Isaac traditions and the north, and in support of this theory adducesAmos 7:9 ("the high places of Isaac").[53]
Israel Finkelstein andThomas Römer have proposed that Isaac might be the ancestor worshipped inBeersheba and the oldest tradition about him might be an ancestor myth dating back to at least 8th century BCE as shown in Amos 7:9, while proposing that the story about him conflicting with Abimelech, king of Gerar, and Philistines, which is the story that has possibility that Abraham cycle could have vampirized or vice versa, could have been originated and have background in 7th century BCE, and could be made to aim at justifying and legitimizing the claim of Judah over the Judahite territories that are transferred to the Philistine cities bySennacherib because of several reasons: it was time when Gerar (Tel Haror) had the special importance and fortified Assyrian administration center; there was king ofAshdod, Ahimilki, whose name is similar to that of Abimelech; the Kingdom of Judah could have gotten back parts of Judahite territories while Judah was a compliant vassal of Assyria underManasseh.[4] In addition, Finkelstein and Römer proposed that Abraham might be the ancestor worshipped in Hebron, and Jacob might be the ancestor worshipped in Israel, but the earliest tradition of Jacob, the tradition about him and his uncle Laban the Aramean establishing the border between them, might be originated in Gilead.[4]
The earliest Christian portrayal of Isaac is found in theRoman catacombfrescoes.[54] Excluding the fragments, Alison Moore Smith classifies these artistic works in three categories:
^Römer, Thomas (2016)."Isaac (Patriarch) I. Hebrew Bible/Old Testament".Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Vol. 13. pp. 260–266. RetrievedJanuary 4, 2025.Isaac was therefore an ancestor from the area around Beer-sheba. There was probably a sanctuary in which this ancestor was commemorated (as also hinted to by Gen 46:1).
^Levenson, Jon D. (2004). "Genesis: introduction and annotations". In Berlin, Adele; Brettler, Marc Zvi (eds.).The Jewish Study Bible. Oxford University Press.ISBN9780195297515.The Jewish study Bible.
^abEaston, M. G.,Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 3rd ed.,Isaac.
^Cross and Livingstone,Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 1974, artIsaac
^Kelly, J.N.D.Early Christian Doctrines, A & C Black, 1965. p. 72
^"The patriarchs, prophets and certain other Old Testament figures have been and always will be honored as saints in all the Church's liturgical traditions." – Catechism of the Catholic Church 61
^abFahlbusch, Erwin; Lochman, Jan Milic; Bromiley, Geoffrey William; Barrett, David B.; Mbiti, John (2005)."Isaac".Encyclopedia of Christianity.Eerdmans. p. 744.ISBN9780802824165.
^abSmith, Alison Moore (1922). "The Iconography of the Sacrifice of Isaac in Early Christian Art".American Journal of Archaeology.26 (2):159–73.doi:10.2307/497708.JSTOR497708.S2CID191366399.
Paul Lagasse; Lora Goldman; Archie Hobson; Susan R. Norton, eds. (2000).The Columbia Encyclopedia (6th ed.). Gale Group.ISBN978-1-59339-236-9.
P.J. Bearman; Th. Bianquis; C.E. Bosworth; E. van Donzel; W.P. Heinrichs (eds.).Encyclopaedia of Islam Online. Brill Academic Publishers.ISSN1573-3912.
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