Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.
Parallel translations
- WEB concluding that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Figuratively speaking, he also did receive him back from the dead.
- KJV Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
- BSB Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and in a sense, he did receive Isaac back from death.
- NKJV concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.
- NASB He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so figuratively he did receive Isaac back from death. Faith trusts God's power over death to keep his promises.
Overview
Abraham obeyed because he concluded God was able to raise Isaac, since the promises depended on him. In a figurative sense he received his son back "from the dead" when God spared Isaac and provided a substitute (Genesis 22:13). This points forward to the resurrection of Christ, the true and final answer to the power of death.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Rom 4:17–21As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were.
- Matt 9:28When he had come into the house, the blind men came to him. Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They told him, “Yes, Lord.”
- Eph 3:20Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
- Gen 22:13Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and saw that behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son.
- Heb 11:11–12By faith, even Sarah herself received power to conceive, and she bore a child when she was past age, since she counted him faithful who had promised.
- Gen 22:4–5On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place far off.
- Heb 9:24For Christ hasn’t entered into holy places made with hands, which are representations of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;
- Rom 5:14Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come.
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Hebrews is sustained worship of Christ: better than angels, Moses, and the priests; the great High Priest after Melchizedek who by one sacrifice perfects forever those he saves.
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Original language
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