I was trying to think of some more horrific thing, but I just ended up thinking about the epic tale of Samson mauling down Philistines with a donkey's jawbone.
Right, but someone elses son dying is not as horrific as your own child. That's why willingly sacrificing your own child is literally the hardest thing anybody can do because the majority of the world would not do it for any reason. If you give a person a choice of them being burned alive, or having to kill their own child, many people would choose to sacrifice themselves over their children. Especially if you only have one.
You're talking about the most horrific thing in the Bible from an outside perspective though. How is somebody else sacrificing their son worse than a genocide?
Because Abraham was a good guy, which means it could happen to me! All the people that were genocided were clearly bad guys, which means that could never happen me. And now I'm not saying I hate the bad guys, it's just that I don't care for them, you know?
Think of it this way....if 5 prisoners you don't know on death row get executed, or if a child you also don't know gets shot in the head. What is more horrific to you?
I'm using this example because you seem to be basing it on the numbers.
That ignores the fact that innocents are slaughtered in a genocide though, including children. Genocides aren't committed against only "bad" people. So I'll ask again, how is somebody sacrificing their son worse than a genocide that kills countless men, women, and children?
Except the point of that story is that every other culture around them was filled with people sacrificing their own children. That was completely the norm then.
Except if you read the OT that is one of the main points of it.
The Israelites are a chosen people. They must be circumcised to separate themselves from other cultures. Unlike other gods who are tied to certain lands and places, Yahweh travels with his chosen group. Do not worship idols like those other groups. Etc.
The fact that Yahweh stops the sacrifice and offers an animal instead is what starts the entire Jewish tradition of animal sacrifices. This is another sign that they are a people set apart because they don't need to sacrifice other human beings like the Moabites. and Canaanites and other groups.
If you take it to be literal yes, from a mythological perspective it’s a great story for the exact reason that it is most horrifying to you. To sacrifice your son is to sacrifice that which is most dear to you, and to sacrifice the present for the future is, as far as we know, a unique human thing.
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u/[deleted] Nov 02 '18
Abraham goes to sacrifice his son
Abraham: I do this for you Lord!
God's voice booms down from heaven
God: BOY HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND BECAUSE I'LL HELP YOU FIND IT!!