Q: Attending Catholic school as a child, I remember being bothered by the story of Abraham being tested by God. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, up to Him. Once God saw that Abraham ...

The story in Genesis of Abraham’s willingness to kill his son Isaac at God’s command still gets a lot of attention. But it doesn’t get a lot of love. In every broadside against religion, God’s ...

The obvious question in relation to the story of the binding of Isaac arises in comparison with the previous story of Sodom and Gomorrah. In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, when God decrees to ...

One of the Ten Commandments is “Thou shalt not murder.” Are there any exceptions? Can God overrule it? This is what happens in Genesis 22. God tells Abraham: “Take now your son, your only son, whom ...

‘And they said, we saw indeed that the Lord was with you and we said: let there now be an oath between us, between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you” [Genesis 26:28]. On what basis, and ...

This week’s Parsha, Parshat Vayeira, features one of the most well-know stories in the Torah, the Binding of Isaac. This tale often leads readers to ask themselves: “What would I do if I were in ...

With “trust” in the subtitle, remember that Abraham totally trusts God after a recent covenant between them when God declared: “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and ...

Isaac Blessing Jacob’, circa 1638, (1914). Biblical scene: Painting in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands. From “Bibby’s Annual 1914”, edited by Joseph Bibby. [J. Bibby & Sons, London, 1914].

Genesis is itself the work of profound theologians, and it has been used as the source text for many more. But as well as providing inspiration and insight, it does also raise some knotty questions ...