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Transforming Our Conscience Like Abraham

Transforming Our Conscience Like Abraham

Last updated on: June 2, 2026 at 10:50 am by Henry Karlson

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Transforming Our Conscience Like Abraham 2026-06-02T10:50:53-05:00 Henry Karlson

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National Library of Wales: Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac/ Wikimedia Commons

Abraham, the “father” of three religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, was a man of great faith, but also a man of his times. God worked with him in accordance to his context, slowly teaching him to move beyond the cultural norms which he had been given, as St. Cyril of Alexandria noted:

Since Abraham was of the Chaldean race, and had only recently come out from the place, the Master of all instructed him by way of accommodation to perform these customs pertaining to the oath, at the same time finely weaving in the mystery of Christ through the animals that were sacrificed.[1]

Cyril suggests, though Abraham followed principles which came from his cultural background, sometimes principles which were riddled with errors, God was able to take those actions and hide within them truths which we can learn if we look for them. But if we are to discern them, it is important for us to move beyond a literal understanding of Scripture. How? Traditionally, the answer has been through the embrace of allegorical interpretation. We look for symbols, or potential symbols, and try to understand what they could mean. We look for ways the events in the story could point to something beyond themselves. We can even ask ourselves questions concerning the morality of the actions involved, or the actions which were attempted and denied, trying to understand why they might be acceptable in the story, at the time the events of the story took place, but might not be acceptable later in history.

That God worked with Abraham, blessed him, gave him grace, so that he became a man that inspired many religious traditions indicates his importance to world history. God worked with him to help us learn about God and God’s ways. However, we must keep in mind that Abraham had an agency of his own, that he managed to do many things through his own initiative, and God’s grace, like always, was able to take what was imperfect and make something better out of it. Abraham followed his conscience, followed what he understood was good and true, and that was what led him to be seen as a man of great faith. Nonetheless, he could often be led by it to think God wanted him to do something which God did not want him to do. When that was the case, and Abraham learned of where he went wrong, he was able to further inform his conscience and change. Some scholars believe we find this going on with the story concerning Isaac, and his willingness to sacrifice his son; that is, he believed (in error) that God wanted him to sacrifice his son, and it was not something which God explicitly told him to do. Shalom Spiegel explained that at least some of the Talmudic Sages suggested this was the case:

To be sure, the talmudic Sages never wearied of repeating once and again what occurs again and again in the Prophets: “Which I command not, nor spoke it, neither came into My mind” (Jer. 19:5) – I did not command Jephthah to sacrifice his daughter, I did not speak to the king of Moab (saying) that he should sacrifice his son, neither came it into My mind to tell Abraham to slay his son … [2]

Abraham’s faith, and willingness to follow his conscience, was righteous, but God stopped him before he went too far:

Then Abraham put forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me” (Gen. 22:10-12 RSV).

It does seem that one of the points of this story is for us to learn that God does not want human sacrifice. The story shows us a stage in human history when humanity began to have a new, better, more refined understanding of God and what God wants from us. Abraham is an important person who lived on during that religious transformation. Did God make this happen by first giving Abraham an explicit test, telling him to sacrifice his own, or did Abraham, following cultural norms, assume it was what God wanted? With the way God has been revealed in Christ, the latter seems to be the most likely. What God wanted was revealed by the angel sent to stop Abraham before he touched his son. Some Jewish traditions suggest Abraham actually slayed his son, and Isaac was brought back to life, and upon seeing that, Abraham was about to slay him again before he was stopped; others, often Christian, suggest Abraham was willing to slay his son because he believed God was going to have him resurrected. However we interpret the sequence of events, the most important element of it is the way we see a transition of religious understanding was going on in the world, and at the center of it was Abraham. He originally believed in the acceptability of human sacrifice, but he learned and handed down to his descendants the realization it is not what God wants from us. In this fashion, while Christians can see allegorical foreshadowing of Christ in the event, they should also see in it a story which demonstrates the way God’s ongoing revelation can and should transform humanity, purifying it from its mistaken ideologies.

God is able to use the faith of those who seek after what is good and just, that is, those who seek after God’s ways, and use it to engage those who hold such faith, even if what they believe, and so what their conscience tells them to do, is riddled with errors. God not only would have us follow our conscience, but also, to put it to a test, to question what it is we believe, and have our conscience become better informed. In that way, it can be transformed and made better. Throughout Christian history, we find this has often been the case. Christians have often been mistaken as to what God wants from them, and so act in accordance to their misunderstanding, but later learn, through the direction of the Holy Spirit, they were wrong, and so develop and purify their understanding (as, for example, happened with the way Christians viewed slavery).

Therefore, we must not believe the story of Abraham represents that God really wanted him to sacrifice Isaac, that God would ever want us to sacrifice anyone. If we think God would ever want such a sacrifice from us, that God would ever want us to become killers, we can be easily manipulated to do great evil, and sacrifice many people to God (for one reason or another). Sadly, this has happened many times throughout history. Some Christians have even thought that God wanted them to imitate Abraham, and complete what Abraham did not complete, that is to kill their children; when that happens, we can rest assured that it was a demonic suggestion, as John Cassian indicated in a situation he heard about from Abba Moses:

And what should I say about the man who, while welcoming a demon in the guise of angelic brightness over a long period of time, was often deceived by his innumerable revelations and believed that he was a messenger of righteousness? (I do not want to mention his name because he is still alive). When these revelations were being received, his light took the place of a lamp in the man’s cell every night. At last he was ordered by the demon to offer to God his own son, who was living with him in the monastery, so that by his sacrifice he might equal the dignity of the patriarch Abraham. So taken in was he by this idea that he would have committed the murder except that his son, seeing him sharpening his knife with unaccustomed care and looking for the bonds with which he was going to tie him up for the sacrifice when he made an oblation of him, fled away terrified, having a premonition of the coming crime. [3]

The story of Abraham’s would-be sacrifice of Isaac is not a story which says Abraham should have sacrificed Isaac, that it was an objectively good thing he thought about sacrificing his son; rather, it is about the revelation that God wanted nothing to do with such an enterprise, which is why God put a stop to it. Yes, as St. Cyril suggests, we can find other mysteries in the story, but it is important we discern this lesson from it, for then we will be able to see how God can work with us and give us similar lessons when we come upon other mistaken beliefs by people who were otherwise holy. We must be willing to change our ways, even when it means we have to reject the errors of our ancestors we otherwise thought were holy and wise. We must not allow ourselves to be trapped in their errors. Abraham, after all, did not let his background stop him from learning from God.

[1] St. Cyril of Alexandria, Glaphyra on the Pentateuch, Volume 1: Genesis. Trans. Nicholas P. Lunn (Washington, DC: CUA Press, 2018), 137.

[2] Shalom Spiegel, The Last Trial. On the Legends and Lore of the Command to Abraham to Offer Issac as a Sacrifice: The Akedah. Trans. Judah Goldin (New York: Schocken Books, 1969; repr. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2007), 79

[3] John Cassian, The Conferences. Trans. Boniface Ramsey, OP (New York: Newman Press, 1997), 89. [Second Conference; Abba Moses].

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