1: Did The Binding Of Isaac Happen On The Temple Mount?

Welcome back. This is Eddie from ReadyForEternity .com.

I thought I would start off this podcast experiment of mine by starting with the most popular article on my website.

At the time I'm recording this in July of 2024, the most popular blog post on my website is,

Was Jesus Sacrificed on Mount Moriah? I really am at a loss as to understand why this particular blog post is so popular.

I almost didn't write it because I didn't think it was really worth writing about, but evidently a lot of people are interested in it.

However, I'm not going to start with that one because there's some background information that you need to know first.

The background information is in an article that was published just before the

Mount Moriah article, and it's not nearly as popular. As a matter of fact, it's the 26th most read article on my website.

So that's where we're actually going to start. So let's kick off the very first episode of my new podcast with the article,

Did the Binding of Isaac Happen on the Temple Mount? The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is a very special place to both

Jews and Christians. It was the location of Solomon's temple and the site where the temple was rebuilt after the

Jews returned from exile in Babylon. According to Jewish tradition, this is also the place where Abraham bound

Isaac. Isaac, the son Abraham and Sarah had waited on for 25 years, had finally been born.

Isaac was Abraham's son of promise. Ishmael had been sent away, and Isaac was the only son

Abraham had left, so to speak. In the narrative, no sooner was Isaac born than God told

Abraham to do the unthinkable. Genesis 22 says, He said,

Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which

I shall tell you. The testing of Abraham would take place on a mountain in the land of Moriah.

Where was the land of Moriah? Second Chronicles 3 .1 tells us that Solomon built the temple on Mount Moriah.

Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the

Lord had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed on the threshing floor of Ornan the

Jebusite. Second Chronicles 3 .1. Is this the same mountain where Abraham bound

Isaac? With due respect to tradition, this is most likely not the same location.

Note carefully that Genesis 22 never tells us the name of only that it was a mountain in the land of Moriah.

In the October 1990 edition of the Harvard Theological Review, Isaac Kalimi said,

A close reading reveals that the term Mount Moriah does not appear at all in the story of the binding of Isaac.

The story opens with the divine command to Abraham to go to the land of Moriah, there to sacrifice his son

Isaac on one of the heights, which would be pointed out to him. Later, the story tells how

Abraham went to the place of which God had told him, and how on the third day he saw the place from afar.

However, at no point does the story give details concerning the name of the place or of the mountain on which

Isaac was bound. Now we know that Solomon built his temple on a mountain called

Moriah. Was this just a coincidence? Perhaps, perhaps not.

We simply don't know. Maybe the inhabitants named the temple's location

Mount Moriah to connect it to the land of Moriah. After all, Abraham's test of faith in the land of Moriah was a significant event.

Perhaps calling the site of the temple Moriah was meant to honor and commemorate the binding of Isaac.

It is interesting to note that the account in Chronicles mentions events in David's life related to Mount Moriah, but not

Abraham's. If the chronicler thought Solomon built the temple at the same place

Abraham bound Isaac, wouldn't that have been a very important event to connect to this place?

The truth of the matter is, is that Genesis does not tell us where the land of Moriah was.

The location remains shrouded in mystery. How well does the vicinity of Jerusalem fit the clues

Genesis 22 gives us? Then Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey.

I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you. Genesis 22 5.

The city of Jerusalem had been a permanent settlement since 3000 BC, and Jerusalem would have occupied

Mount Moriah's southern slope during Abraham's time. Granted, the top of Mount Moriah was not within the city proper at this time.

Still, there would have been people nearby if this was the place where the offering happened. Abraham made his two servants way too far off while he and Isaac went on to worship.

It seemed like they desired privacy, and going to a location where there was a city within a few hundred feet causes me to question whether this is the same mountain where the temple was later built.

Along with this, if God wanted Abraham to go to the mountain on the north of Jerusalem, why not just tell him to go to the mountain near Salem?

Salem is the ancient name of Jerusalem and the name that Abraham knew it by.

Another reason to doubt that the land of Moriah was near Jerusalem is the need to carry firewood with them.

So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son

Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which

God had told him. Genesis 22 .3 Clearly, Abraham did not expect to have any wood for the sacrifice in the place he was headed to.

If he were heading into the Judean hills in the vicinity of Jerusalem, firewood would have been abundant.

In his Harvard Theological Review article, Isaac Kaleemi further opines that it would not have been necessary for Abraham to drag a supply of kindling with him for the altar fire had his mission been to the wooded hills of Judea.

Furthermore, John Walton adds in the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds commentary,

Abraham appears to be familiar with the place, and since he takes firewood with him, presumably he knows that wood is not available in the region.

In contrast, the wooded hills around Jerusalem would have provided ample firewood for the sacrifice.

So, this suggests that the land of Moriah was not near Jerusalem.

One other clue in the text reveals that the land of Moriah was a three -day journey from Beersheba.

As the crow flies, it's 43 miles from Beersheba to Jerusalem.

Of course, Abraham and Isaac did not walk in a straight line, so the mileage they traveled would have been greater.

But given that a day's journey in ancient times could cover up to 25 miles, one would expect that the trip between Beersheba and Jerusalem to be a two -day journey at most.

Since Abraham and Isaac would have been traveling from Beersheba, this would appear to rule out

Jerusalem as the site of the binding of Isaac. The land of Moriah would seem to have been another 20 to 25 miles further than Jerusalem.

All things considered, there is no biblical reason to conclude that the future location of Solomon's Temple was the spot where Abraham bound

Isaac. Perhaps the chronicler is making a theological statement, not necessarily a geographical one.

Maybe Mount Moriah is named as it is to link it theologically with the important event that took place on a mountain in the land of Moriah where Abraham proved his faith to Almighty God.

Thanks for listening to the podcast. I hope this episode has deepened your understanding of Scripture.

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That's all for now. Keep studying your Bible, growing closer to God, and getting ready for eternity.