There are Jewish literary traditions of <I>Isaac's</I> prayer which are different from the Biblical narrative in Gen 22. In the story of Aqedah, it looks as if Isaac's obedience and willingness together with Abraham's have been accepted in God's sight as sacrifice and something which forgives people's sins and which redeems people from all distress. This was done even without Isaac literally being sacrificed according to the tradition. If Jesus was familiar with these traditions, it could be that Jesus thought that his death and sacrifice might be accepted even without the actual performance of it. The last words of <I>Socrates</I> and his acceptance of his death without any compliant had been influential in the Hellenistic culture. As the Greek literature had a great influence on whatever happened in the literary world of the first century, it is just possible that Jesus was familiar with the story of the heroic death of Socrates and his words. In addition, our observation has brought us to the conclusion that the gospel writers have been influenced to some extent by the Greek writings. In any case it is likely that Jesus knew that to be troubled in the face of death was not considered honourable in the sight of wish people. Our reference to <I>Eleazar</I> sheds some light on the life of Jewish martyrs. We have noticed that the certainty and the willingness of Eleazar were exemplary for the other martyrs. There is no question of escape from his torture in Eleazar's mind. It is also to be noted that the tradition of martyrs is not new to Jesus. Eleazar prayed that his death may be accepted in expiatory sacrifice. There is a possibility of influence between the prayer of Eleazar and either Jesus or the Gospel writers.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:649510 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Dhas, T. Arul |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/19680 |
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