Did Abraham F* Jews Through Human Sacrifice? (Why We Needed Two Covenants)

What if, by asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, God was testing him? While his response showed obedience, Abraham demonstrated a total lack of independent moral judgment, which signaled to God that the Israelites required a FAR more micromanagey covenant, including super specific rules against child sacrifice (you’d think this would go without saying, but… well, God checked and Abraham demonstrated otherwise).

In today’s deep exploration of the story of Abraham and Isaac, Malcolm demonstrates that the test was never about whether Abraham would receive the promise but about the nature of the relationship between God and his people.

The discussion contrasts surface readings with deeper interpretations, examines Jewish and New Testament perspectives, and explains why the Jewish covenant emphasizes strict rules while highlighting moral agency in other traditions. It also addresses real-world implications of misreading such stories and how the account distinguishes different approaches to faith and scripture.

Episode Transcript

Malcolm Collins:Hello, Simone. I’m excited to be here with you today. Today, We are gonna be exploring the Lindsey Clancy of the bible, in this... Today’s tract. And this... Of all of the tracks that I have ever put together in terms of, like, studying the bible, attempting to understand it, This one threw me for the biggest wrench at first. Yes. It also had one of the biggest realizations for me that completely transform how I see the entire biblical narrative. Not only that, but once you notice it, there is no other way that this story can be read Really? To be logically consistent.

Simone Collins:Woah. Okay. This is very... Okay. Yeah. I’ve... Sorry. I’m extremely intrigued because I really don’t like child sacrifice. I’m like, how could this guy

Malcolm Collins:Yeah. If a god asked one of his people to commit a child sacrifice.

Simone Collins:Yeah. Like, that’s the whole thing is, like, that’s why god constantly is, stop, like, Moloch, this whole thing. Stop, you know, the baby sacrifice.

Speaker 3:Yeah. But

Malcolm Collins:that is that is what defines a people often in the bible as so evil they deserve a complete eradication.

Simone Collins:It’s a named no no in Leviticus. You do not pass your seed through the fire to Moloch. Like, it’s it’s... We don’t do child sacrifice at

Speaker 3:the end.

Malcolm Collins:If this story is read on face value, it says that a number of really bad things. It says that the only reason we don’t do child sacrifice isn’t because it’s wrong, but it’s because god hasn’t asked us to yet. Oh. And that if god did ask us to do child sacrifice, we should do child sacrifice or at least go all the way to attempt to because presumably... And we’ll get into the various alternate aspects. I’m just going for the Sunday school explanation first. Right? We’re going for the easiest understanding, the surface at face value as it’s taught to me as a kid. It implied to me as it was taught to me as a kid that, yeah, if god tells you to kill your kids, if you’re a moral person, you will kill your kids.

Simone Collins:Well... And I think the big problem is that a lot of people have, I think, killed their kids thinking that God talked to Yeah.

Malcolm Collins:Specific instances. If you wanna be like, Abraham’s a good guy. First of all, Abraham was not a good guy. We’ll get into this. He had a habit of pulling this trick where he would have his wife marry other men that extorts things from them. What? He did this multiple times. he’s kind of a douche canoe. Why

Simone Collins:are people naming their kids Abraham then?

Malcolm Collins:Because that part is often forgotten that he liked burying his wife to other men and Well,

Simone Collins:but we all know the child sacrifice part, and I... That’s why I was so confused. Just like this isn’t one of those, you know, big name bible people, like the ones that we actually Right. People in

Malcolm Collins:the kids offer.

Speaker 4:So we have another episode that we will do where we will dig deeper into this specifically because it is just so utterly bizarre, but he does it twice. Isn’t it? Like, he he has an excuse every time for how he accidentally, whenever he comes to a neighborhood, tries to get his wife to have sex with whoever the most powerful man is in that neighborhood or marry them. And the second time, god even, like, comes in and he tells the guy, he’s like, no. That’s... This woman’s married. He... Somebody’s trying to get you to have sex with this married woman. And then his son does it too, by the way. it’s it’s utterly bizarre, and it is, I think not in line with what a lot of people remember from the story. So, yeah, he always has an excuse for why he did it, but, like, that had happened twice. I’m like, I don’t believe you. This was this was the beginning of your fortune. You made your fortune doing this. That’s weird.

Speaker 25:I’m telling you, you’re a pimp.

Speaker 26:No. Are you even listening to the story? Anyway, one day I wake up and I look in the mirror and I don’t like what I see. I mean, I I had gotten out of control and I I didn’t even realize that.

Speaker 25:You can’t have a conscience in the pimp game

Speaker 24:And in regards to the morality of this, think about this from the perspective of his wife who he is pimping out to, in the most charitable interpretation, protect himself. But in the, I think, actual, if you look at what happens, because every time he shakes these guys down for lots of money, to make money, why why does he always have to ask them for money? He doesn’t do that. There’s this interim period where a guy, he did war or something. He’s like, I’m not gonna ask you for money, no one can say I ask you for money. He knows what he’s doing here. He knows what he’s doing here.

Malcolm Collins:The the Abraham story... I mean, God does say that Abraham loves him or is beloved by him or his friend. It’s sometimes translated. And we know that by... The bible, God is okay and will make heroes of people of low moral character take David. Right? Like, sending out somebody who... To die in a war so that you can marry their wife, right, is... That person died out of loyalty to David. That is to me one of the lowest things of... Like, I almost cannot imagine anything more immoral than using somebody’s trust in you to murder them to sleep with their wife. It’s...

Simone Collins:Yeah. Truly. So

Malcolm Collins:That is about as low as you get. And yet David is one of god’s... You know, and people... Some Jews are like, no. He’s okay because he repented afterwards. I’m like, he said he was sorry. He said he was sorry. What? I’m like, well, he was still being used by God before he repented. Right? He was still God’s champion before he repented. Yeah. He may he may repent eventually, but... And then you can look at Solomon, for example. You don’t get to be much a bigger douche canoe than Solomon. Solomon’s entire story, he’s just, like, not a good guy. And we’ll we’ll get into that story one day. So, I don’t think it’s it’s particularly big a thing. That is not what God looks for in his heroes and stories. That was not the problem for me. I don’t have a problem that you do not have to be a moral paragon to have a good relationship with god. What I have a problem with is two things. One, god establishing a precedent that he might ask you... You might hear a voice in your head. Like, is it a good thing in a reli