Hebrews 11:17–19

Context

Hebrews is a New Testament book whose author is not identified. It was written to Christians who were in danger of abandoning their faith amid suffering and discouragement, and its first readers are commonly thought to have been Jewish believers. Chapter 11 opens with "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for" (Hebrews 11:1) and then surveys, one after another, the faith of Old Testament figures. Verses 17–19 conclude the section devoted to Abraham (vv. 8–19).

The passage refers to the event recorded in Genesis 22, in which God tests Abraham by commanding him to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering. Verse 18 quotes the promise of Genesis 21:12 to highlight the tension: the son Abraham was to offer was the very son through whom the promise was to be fulfilled.

Interpretation

• Resurrection faith: Many interpreters understand verse 19 to mean that, faced with an apparent conflict between the promise and the command, Abraham concluded that God would raise Isaac even from the dead. On this reading, Abraham is portrayed as one who believed in the resurrection. Abraham's words to his servants in Genesis 22:5, "I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you," are also cited in support of this view.
• Figurative expression: This view takes "in a figure" in verse 19 (Greek parabolē) as a literary expression. Isaac did not actually die, but Abraham received him back from a situation tantamount to death.
• Typological reading: Another view takes the same word to mean a "type," that is, a picture that prefigures something to come. Since the early church, many interpreters have linked this scene, in which a father gives up his son, with Romans 8:32 and have read it as a picture of the cross and resurrection of Christ.

Debates and Issues

• "Only begotten son": Because Abraham also had Ishmael, this expression has been raised as a difficulty. The Greek word used here, monogenēs, means "only" or "unique," and it is therefore generally understood to indicate that Isaac was unique as the son of promise. It is the same word used of Jesus in John 3:16.
• Faith and works: James 2:21–24 cites the same event as an example of being "justified by works." Many Protestant interpreters hold that the two texts do not conflict: because the faith described in Hebrews found expression in actual obedience, the two passages present the same event with different emphases.
• The ethical question: How a command to offer one's son can be understood morally has long been debated. The issue is especially well known from the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard's treatment of it in Fear and Trembling (1843). Biblical interpreters point out that the text identifies the event from the outset as a test (Genesis 22:1), and they also emphasize its outcome, in which God provided a ram in Isaac's place.

In Korean Churches

The passage is frequently read alongside Genesis 22 in sermons on Abraham's faith. Linked with "Jehovah-jireh" (Genesis 22:14, "the LORD will provide"), it is often applied as a confession that God supplies his people's needs.

Related Passages

• Genesis 22:12–14
• Hebrews 11:8–12
• James 2:21–24
• Romans 8:32
• 2 Chronicles 3:1