Bible Synapse
How could Isaac be Abraham’s “only son”, when Abraham had other sons?
Hard question · Creation, the flood and the patriarchs · raised by 3 of the lists sceptics circulate
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Hagar bears Abram a son, Ishmael, fourteen years before Isaac is born.
And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son’s name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael.
God tells Abraham, “in Isaac shall thy seed be called”, and Ishmael is sent away with Hagar.
And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beer–sheba.
God says, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest”.
And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
Abraham takes another wife, Keturah, who bears him six sons.
Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.
Abraham gives all he has to Isaac and sends his other sons away.
And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country.
By faith Abraham “offered up his only begotten son”.
By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
“Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman”.
For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
The objection
Hebrews says that Abraham “offered up his only begotten son” (Hebrews 11:17), echoing God’s words in Genesis 22:2, “thine only son Isaac”. But Galatians says that “Abraham had two sons” (Galatians 4:22): Ishmael, born to Hagar (Genesis 16:15), as well as Isaac. Later he had six more sons by Keturah (Genesis 25:1–2). How can Isaac be his only son?
The answer
The book that calls Isaac Abraham’s “only son” records Ishmael’s birth six chapters earlier, and in the chapter just before tells how God saved Ishmael’s life and promised to make him a nation (Genesis 21:13–21). The writer was not counting Abraham’s children; he was saying that Isaac was unique. The Hebrew yāḥîd means ‘only’ or ‘one and only’. The Greek Old Testament translated it here by agapētos, ‘beloved’, and Hebrews uses monogenēs, ‘only begotten’ or ‘one of a kind’.
Isaac was unique in several ways. He was Sarah’s only son and the son God had promised, for God had said, “in Isaac shall thy seed be called” (Genesis 21:12), the very words Hebrews quotes in the next verse (11:18). By the time of the test Ishmael had been sent away (21:14), so Isaac was the only son left in Abraham’s house. Keturah’s sons appear in the story only after Sarah’s death, and Abraham later sent them away too, giving “all that he had unto Isaac” (25:5–6). Paul makes the same distinction in Galatians 4: of Abraham’s two sons, one was born “after the flesh”, the other “by promise” (4:23). Genesis, Galatians and Hebrews all know that Abraham had more than one son, and all single out Isaac as the son through whom God’s promise ran.
From the classic commentators
though Ishmael was his son, he was a son by his maid, by his concubine, and not by his wife; Isaac was his only legitimate son, his only son by his lawful wife Sarah; the only son of the promise, his only son, in whom his seed was to be calledJohn Gill, Exposition of the Bible, on Genesis 22:2 (1746–1763)
Isaac was Abraham's ‘only-begotten son’ in respect of Sarah and the promises: he sent away his other sons, by other wives (Ge 25:6).Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary, on Hebrews 11:17 (1871)
Sources
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: Genesis 22 (HelloAO)
- The Septuagint (Brenton edition), Genesis 22 (HelloAO)
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: Hebrews 11 (HelloAO)
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary: Hebrews 11 (1871), at Bible Hub