Abraham

Week 2 (September 23): “Abraham”

Read: Genesis 12-13; 15-17; 21-22; 32-33; 35; Romans 4; Hebrews 11

View: "Abraham and the Three Visitors" by Marc Chagall

Additional reading:

The Parable of the Old Man and the Young, Wilfred Owen, 1917,

So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,

And took the fire with him, and a knife.

And as they sojourned both of them together,

Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,

Behold the preparations, fire and iron,

But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?

Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,

and builded parapets and trenches there,

And stretchèd forth the knife to slay his son.

When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,

Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,

Neither do anything to him. Behold,

A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;

Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.

But the old man would not so, but slew his son,

And half the seed of Europe, one by one.

Christian Theme:

Soren Kierkegaard on the "Binding of Isaac"

Journey Through the Old Testament