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Isaac ( ; ; ; ; ; ) is one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baháʼí Faith. Isaac first appears in the Torah, in which he is the son of Abraham and Sarah, the father of Jacob and Esau, and the grandfather of the twelve tribes of Israel.
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., He is the only patriarch whose name was not changed, and the only one who did not move out of Canaan. According to the narrative, he died aged 180, the longest-lived of the three patriarchs.
Recent scholarship has discussed the possibility that Isaac could have originally been an ancestor from the Beersheba region who was venerated at a sanctuary.
Time passes as Isaac is born. 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 offered Hagar to Abram to be his concubine.
On the eighth day from his birth, Isaac was circumcised, as was necessary for all males of Abraham's household, in order to be in compliance with the Jewish covenant.
After Isaac had been weaned, Sarah saw Ishmael playing with or mocking him (the Hebrew term is ambiguous), 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.
The narratives about Isaac do not mention his having concubines. Encyclopaedia Judaica, Volume 10, p. 34.
According to the Jewish tradition, Isaac instituted the afternoon prayer. This tradition is based on Genesis chapter 24, verse 63 ("Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide").
Isaac was the only patriarch who stayed in Canaan during his whole life and though once he tried to leave, God told him not to do so. Rabbinic tradition gave the explanation that Isaac was almost sacrificed and anything dedicated as a sacrifice may not leave the Land of Israel. Isaac was the oldest of the biblical patriarchs at the time of his death, and the only patriarch whose name was not changed.Easton, M. G., Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 3rd ed., Isaac.
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.
The Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church consider Isaac as a saint along with other biblical patriarchs."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 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 title the Sunday of the Forefathers. Liturgy > Liturgical year >The Christmas Fast – Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh
Isaac is commemorated in the Catholic Church on 25 March or on 17 December.
In the Epistle 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. In verse 19, the author views the release of Isaac from sacrifice as analogous to the resurrection of Jesus, the idea of the sacrifice of Isaac being a prefigurement of the sacrifice of Jesus on the Christian cross.F.F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews Marshall. Morgan and Scott, 1964 pp. 308–313
Isaac, along with Ishmael, is highly important for Muslims for continuing to preach the message of monotheism after his father Abraham. Among Isaac's children was the follow-up Israelite patriarch Jacob, who is also venerated as an Islamic prophet.
Isaac is mentioned seventeen times by name in the Quran, often with his father and his son, Jacob. The Quran states that Abraham received "good tidings of Isaac, a prophet, of the righteous", and that God blessed them both (). In a fuller description, when came to Abraham to tell him of the future punishment to be imposed on Sodom and Gomorrah, his wife, Sarah, "laughed, and We gave her good tidings of Isaac, and after Isaac of (a grandson) Jacob" (); 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 that God 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-grandson Joseph. In the Quran, it later narrates that Abraham also praised God for giving him Ishmael and Isaac in his old age (). Elsewhere in the Quran, Isaac is mentioned in lists: Joseph follows the religion of his forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob () and speaks of God's favor to them (); Jacob's sons all testify their faith and promise to worship the God that their forefathers, "Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac", worshiped (); and the Quran commands to believe in the revelations that were given to "Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the Patriarchs" (; ). In the Quran's narrative of Abraham's near-sacrifice of his son (), 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.
According to Martin Noth, a scholar of the Hebrew Bible, the narratives of Isaac date back to an older cultural stage than that of the West-Jordanian Jacob. At that era, the Israelite tribes were not yet sedentary. In the course of looking for grazing areas, they had come in contact in southern Philistia with the inhabitants of the settled countryside. It has also been argued that the form of Isaac's name as found in the Hebrew Bible is most frequently attested in the early 2nd millennium BCE rather than in later periods. In the Amorite language, a cognate form of his name is attested as ia-aṣ-ḫa-qí?-im. The biblical historian A. Jopsen believes in the connection between the Isaac traditions and the north, and in support of this theory adduces Amos 7:9 ("the high places of Isaac").
Albrecht Alt and Martin Noth hold that, "The figure of Isaac was enhanced when the theme of promise, previously bound to the cults of the 'God the Fathers' was incorporated into the Israelite creed during the southern-Palestinian stage of the growth of the Torah tradition." According to Martin Noth, at the Southern Palestinian stage of the growth of the Pentateuch tradition, Isaac became established as one of the biblical patriarchs, but his traditions were receded in the favor of Abraham.
Israel Finkelstein and Thomas Römer have proposed that Isaac might be the ancestor worshipped in Beersheba 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 by Sennacherib because of several reasons: it was time when Gerar (Tel Haror) had the special importance and fortified Assyrian administration center; there was king of Ashdod, 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 under Manasseh. 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.
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