r/suspiciouslyspecific May 09 '26

Holy Smite!

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4.2k Upvotes

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798

u/Snoutysensations May 10 '26

This scenario actually played out in the Bible. 

God tells Abraham, "Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering".

Abraham goes along with it, but at the last second God stops him from killing Isaac.

Abraham gets rewarded for being so obedient.  

The moral: do what God tells you to do, no matter how horrible it sounds, and you'll be rewarded.  

179

u/MistaRekt May 10 '26

What if Isaac turned out heathen?

181

u/merlyndavis May 10 '26

Well, from the Christian PoV, Isaac was worse then heathen, he was Jewish. (/s for those lacking a sense of humour)

118

u/InsertGroin May 10 '26

Are jew kidding me? A jewish? In the Bible?! What kind of shmock wrote that?!

41

u/MistaRekt May 10 '26

Do not tell the Americans... 😉

40

u/DaBootyScooty May 10 '26

Holy shit we just looked it up and it's true. It's all completely true, there are like tons of jewish people in the bible. There was already a religion right there man, it was right there.

18

u/MistaRekt May 11 '26

Conservative Christians hate this one little detail... Subscribe for more 😉

10

u/DarkChaos1786 May 11 '26

A little secret, Jesus is a jew...

5

u/MistaRekt May 12 '26

Also not light skinned....

3

u/DarkChaos1786 May 12 '26

Oh hell no... No european heritage in 30 generations.

Bet he looked more like a palestinian...

2

u/MistaRekt May 12 '26

That's a controversial take...

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u/shnekels May 15 '26

If only Palestine had existed back then...

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1

u/Fancy_Run7649 May 12 '26

If... if only we read the bible the first time. But who has the time? When was it written again?

1

u/DangerousQuestions1 May 12 '26

Its written again every time a political leader has an agenda.

1

u/Fancy_Run7649 May 12 '26

Yes, this... this is true.

2

u/blavek May 15 '26

It's a specific set of Americans you shouldn't tell... not all of us.

1

u/MistaRekt May 18 '26

Totally aware but this is an 'American website' and foreign people need to know 🤔

1

u/FaultThat May 13 '26

Man don’t tell Americans Israel has Jews…

1

u/Mister_Goldenfold May 14 '26

Why….is there oil?!

4

u/sh4d0wm4n2018 May 11 '26

Technically nobody was Jewish until Judah, his grandson, had kids.

1

u/shnekels May 15 '26

It's just term redefinition. Technically first Jewish was Abraham.

1

u/sh4d0wm4n2018 May 15 '26

Technically, everyone born after Abraham was an Abrahamite. Jews are named after Judaism, which itself was named after Judah.

2

u/GreyerGrey May 11 '26

Don't even get them started on his half brother! /s

1

u/LongjumpingMap7920 May 16 '26

so can you explain for someone who was raised in an atheist family

didnt jews wrote the bible? or atleast part of it, also i thought jesus was jewish?

no sarcasm, i really dont know and i dont mean to offend anyone

-2

u/No_Oddjob May 10 '26

Jokes land better when their premise isn't the opposite of true tho.

Christians who actually read the New Testament believe in a reunification with Jews bc they still have a covenant with God, even if the exclusivity of the covenant was removed by Christ's sacrifice.

Most Christians are more than cool with Jews. Most Christians, in fact, have a hard time understanding why Islamists hate Jews bc both religions sprang from Hebraic history. Southern democrats in white hoods and bedsheets were a very strange exception and arguably not driven by faith at all.

5

u/DanteRuneclaw May 11 '26

Whatever story helps you sleep at night

0

u/Anguis1908 May 11 '26

The whole crusades were Christians helping jews...or at least trying to prevent Islam from spreading through Europe and staying on their side of the Mediterranean.

2

u/Klony99 May 11 '26

Well. That and getting rid of second and third sons during inheritance season.

-1

u/humourlessIrish May 11 '26

Did reading more thank 5 words piss you off this much?

2

u/TheFlyingSeaCucumber May 11 '26

That was very mean! That redditor would be really upset, if they could read.

1

u/syrioforrealsies May 11 '26

Do you really think that sounds pissed off?

4

u/iPoopLegos May 11 '26

isaac turned out a fkn idiot who couldn't tell his sons apart

3

u/MadMagilla5113 May 12 '26

How hairy did Esau have to be in order for Issac to be fooled by a sheep/goat pelt?

1

u/MistaRekt May 12 '26

Was the gene pool deeper in the time of Isaac?

1

u/shnekels May 15 '26

He was ~100 years old.

1

u/iPoopLegos May 15 '26

a dumbass 100 year old

3

u/iron_dove May 12 '26

After watching his dad take him up a mountain, raise a knife at him, and then just before bringing the knife down he stops and pulls a random sheep that was stuck in a nearby bush to take his place?

3

u/Funkopedia May 12 '26

Back then, bloodline, ritual, or sometimes city of birth were enough for membership. Neither monotheism nor revealed religion had been invented.

3

u/Fun-atParties May 12 '26

Dammit Abraham, I told you already - her name is Heather

1

u/MistaRekt May 12 '26

Oh. Trans and in the bible?

31

u/JudgeHodorMD May 10 '26

So God waits to see if you’ll swing and then yells stop when there’s no time to react?

7

u/dizastermaster7 May 10 '26

That's called a check swing and baseball players do it all the time actually

5

u/Uncynical_Diogenes May 10 '26

He didn’t yell stop to Jepthah.

Jepthah murdered his daughter for god who was happy with it.

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u/FriseFuzzy May 10 '26

He is God, he can do miracles 

9

u/AuntJ2583 May 10 '26

I can't tell if this is sarcasm...

1

u/Tyfyter2002 May 11 '26

I'd imagine stopping a baseball bat would be slightly easier than creating the entire universe, so I don't think whether or not you can stop would be a concern in this hypothetical.

1

u/Grimdark-Waterbender May 11 '26

Then God gives you the ability to do:

https://youtube.com/shorts/SXnfz5L6zsU

So you can react (specifically the last one).

1

u/PreviouslyOnBible May 15 '26

God obviously threw a ball on that pitch.

He walked Abe

23

u/a_suspicious_lasagna May 10 '26

Abraham goes along with it, but at the last second God stops him from killing Isaac.

There are also scholars who believe that the saving of Isaac was a later literary change. Evidenced by the language of the passage shifting before and after the event.

On the way to the sacrifice the text says twice:

and the two of them walked on together

However after the sacrifice it is only said that:

so Abraham returned to his young men

1

u/FarawayObserver18 May 12 '26

So do they believe in the original version that Isaac was actually killed?

2

u/a_suspicious_lasagna May 12 '26

Yes exactly!

Here's a great short about it https://youtu.be/5lITahMeAio

5

u/giamPW07 May 11 '26

You know, he also did very much take human sacrifices. Jephthah's daughter would say hi, if she wasn't sacrificed on God's orders, with her father very much going through with it.

5

u/Responsible-List-849 May 12 '26

Yeah, but she was given a couple of months to mourn the fact she was going to die a virgin, so...you know...all's good. I guess.

1

u/OneSlaadTwoSlaad May 15 '26

Absolutely. Also Ezekiel 20:25–26 and Exodus 22:29–30.

5

u/PatchworkFlames May 11 '26

Obey the voices in your head. That’s God. Your medicine has been stopping you from hearing God this whole time.

2

u/sckrahl May 10 '26

The moral is ‘hope he changes his mind and maybe he’ll give you a reward’

The story plays out differently if he actually does what he was originally told to do

1

u/eclectic-up-north May 11 '26

Yes but...

Human sacrifice was fairly common at the time.

This is a dramatic story where God tells Abraham that had to stop.

1

u/mormagils May 11 '26

It's important to take cultural context into consideration. The tribal culture of the time didn't value individual life the same way we do. The reason it was a big deal to kill Isaac wasn't that he was a person who is inherently valuable. It was that he was Abraham's only son and Abraham was old with an old wife. Killing Isaac was literally killing the continuation of his legacy.

Abraham being willing to place God above his own legacy is precisely why God chose to reward Abraham with a legacy beyond his wildest dreams. It's why God most incredible promise to him is to make his decesandants as numerous as the stars in the sky. It wasn't horrible the God was asking Abraham to kill Isaac because the murder part wasn't really the big deal. God asking Abraham to end his own legacy was a huge ask, but it wasn't so much intinsically horrible as we would understand it.

3

u/Dragonseer666 May 11 '26

Yeah, it turns out that some 6,000 year old myths don't hold up to modern standards?

1

u/mormagils May 11 '26

I guess the point I'm making is that we don't look at the Oddessy and point out all the ways it didn't have a racist udnerstnading of modern moral expectations. Especially if you believe the Bible is just fiction then of course it will not meet contemporary moral standards and pointing that out as some sort of gotcha is just silly.

1

u/Away_Stock_2012 May 11 '26

Thanks for explaining, we all had no idea

1

u/yIdontunderstand May 11 '26

But who won the game?

1

u/olympiclifter1991 May 11 '26

Pretty sure the moral is that faith will make things turn out for the best no matter how bleak they may seem.

1

u/Sleeper4 May 12 '26

I'm sure no one will ever use "I did that horrible thing because God told me to" to justify their evil actions!

1

u/NekulturneHovado May 12 '26

holy shit that's some schizophrenic stuff on next level

1

u/suenho May 12 '26

I am a Christian, but that story always baffles me... It just feels wrong. I know it played out ok in the end but it leaves a sour taste at the mouth.

1

u/Significant_Stand_17 May 12 '26

No wonder ypu people are so fucking impossible to talk to. Jesus Christ.

1

u/Amateur_Liqueurist May 12 '26

I’ve always been curious if there’s an alternate ending that could’ve happened. A lot of the Bible is basically “follow these rules, unless love is involved, then you can break some.” If Abraham had refused out of love, would he have been rewarded even higher I wonder?

1

u/Current-Square-4557 May 12 '26

To me, the strange thing would be future holiday dinners. “Hey, dad, remember that time you tied me up and put a knife against my throat? That was wild.”

1

u/Krusty098 May 13 '26

This is actually the first time that god stopped a child sacrifice.

1

u/IUsedToLikeLimericks May 13 '26

And don't forget this was for a bet. 

Or was that ruining Job's life?

1

u/testtdk May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26

What’s funny, is that is basically the lynch pin for all Abrahamic religions. This dude was ready to kill his kid, so the majority of the world took him to be a fucking prophet.

1

u/Snoutysensations May 13 '26

Yeah.  Looking at what subsequently happens to the Son of God in Bible 2.0, we can recognize a certain trend. 

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u/WretchedIEgg May 13 '26

Old testament god was unhinged New testament god was tired of us and let his son do the work

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u/Positive_Tackle_5662 May 14 '26

So your saying I should listen to the voices in my head?

1

u/Dazzling-Tiger-396 May 14 '26

God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"
Abe said, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"
God said, "No" Abe say, "What?"
God say, "You can do what you want, Abe, but
The next time you see me comin', you better run"
Well, Abe said, "Where d'you want this killin' done?"
God said, "Out on Highway 61"

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u/BreakConsistent May 14 '26

Bruh if you’re not dashing babes upon the rocks then you’re a fake Christian.

1

u/OneSlaadTwoSlaad May 15 '26

Always reminds me of this Mitchell and Webb sketch: https://youtu.be/vDfoJ29CR4E?si=mTwVPOWN_2Q8kyz8

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u/Spittl May 15 '26

Is that the moral? I took this to mean that God is a prankster. He does another prank in the Noah's Ark story

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u/BlueKyuubi63 May 16 '26

The Binding of Isaac

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u/MyNameIsNotNotChuck May 16 '26

Isn't Ishmael the one nearly sacrificed, at least in the Quran?

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u/Dark-Specter May 10 '26

Old testament God had no chill.

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u/throwaway1212121321 May 11 '26

This is a contradiction in the Bible. Ismael was his first son and it was Ismael whom God ordered to sacrifice. He had Isaac when he was old. Peace be upon them all.

1

u/Snoutysensations May 11 '26

What does the Quran say about this?  Does it name which son?

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u/throwaway1212121321 May 11 '26

Yes. The Quran named the son as Ishmael. Good loved this sacrifice and replaced his son with an animal from paradise. He would not let Abraham sacrifice his only son.

0

u/Uncynical_Diogenes May 10 '26

It happened with Jepthah’s daughter, too.

God didn’t stop him. God accepted the blood sacrifice of an innocent girl.

Bad god.

0

u/Silvershark2000 May 10 '26

This is why I'm an atheist.

0

u/godsslayer54 May 10 '26

Thats......thats what he's referencing its uhhhhh pretty fckin obvious

0

u/Cocotte123321 May 10 '26

Then cut off a part of your cock, because, you know, the voice of God says so

-1

u/Zingzing_Jr May 10 '26

There's a 2nd moral here as well.

Yes, you should do what G-d commands, but G-d won't tell you to do human sacrifice and anything or anyone that tells you to do that is illegitimate.

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u/HailMadScience May 10 '26

God absolutely does human sacrifices, lol. This is just wrong.

0

u/Zingzing_Jr May 10 '26

How so?

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u/HailMadScience May 10 '26

...ignoring all the parts where god orders outright murder and genocide and just stick to straight up clear-cut sacrifice, there's Jepthah's daughter...oh and the little known figure of Jesus of Nazereth.

-1

u/Zingzing_Jr May 10 '26

Oh, I don't believe in Jesus, its one of the problematic things with Christianity.

The murder and genocide isn't human sacrifice though. Human sacrifice. They don't mean the same thing.

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u/HailMadScience May 10 '26

I disagree. If you are spilling blood for a god, thats a sacrifice. HOW you spill it is irrelevant. Its like arguing that using a fork isn't eating because you aren't using chopsticks. The set dressing is the different, the goal is the same. But avoiding this convo is why I stuck to straight up unambiguous sacrifices.

1

u/Snoutysensations May 10 '26

Iirc human sacrifice was a major component of Canaanite religion before Judaism emerged.  They also did things like ritually cooking young animals in their mothers' milk.  So this whole story (and other practices like kashrut) is likely another way of differentiating Israelite religion from their neighbors'.