The Akedah Servant Complex

The Soteriological Linkage of Genesis 22 and Isaiah 53 in Ancient Jewish and Early Christian Writings

by P.N. De Andrado

Book cover: The Akedah Servant Complex

Extent: 306 pages

Publisher: Peeters Publishers

Subjects: Biblical Studies, Religious Studies

Series: Contributions to Biblical Exegesis & Theology

Series volume number: 69

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(August 2013)

ISBN: 9789042929043

Price: $57.00

In stock

This book traces the convergence of two biblical texts, Akedah (Genesis 22) and the Fourth Servant Song (Isaiah 53) in early Jewish and Christian writings. The passages share verbal and conceptual resonances, including the suffering of a righteous individual, divine complicity in an unjust death, unresisting compliance, notions of cultic sacrifice, exaltation and reward.


This book traces the convergence of two biblical texts, Akedah (Genesis 22) and the Fourth Servant Song (Isaiah 53) in early Jewish and Christian writings. The passages share verbal and conceptual resonances, including the suffering of a righteous individual, divine complicity in an unjust death, unresisting compliance, notions of cultic sacrifice, exaltation and reward. Given their intertextual links, the two passages have been associated together in some ancient texts, within contexts of suffering righteousness and sacrifice. This book labels the apparent convergence of the primary texts as the Akedah Servant complex, and it develops a dialogic intertextual approach to determine the presence of the complex in selected passages: Stage I/ pre-70CE Jewish writings; Stage II/ New Testament; Stage III /post-70CE (rabbinic and patristic) texts. This study indicates that the linking of Isaiah 53 and Genesis 22 is a long-standing tradition which resulted in shaping an early Christian model of atonement.

  • By (author) PN De Andrado

"This is an interesting and useful work...De Andrado's monograph contributes to the ongoing discussion of the reception of the Akedah and Suffering Servant Song in ancient Jewish and Christian writings. It may interest those who study the complex interactions between Jewish and Christian exegetes in late antiquity and those studying ancient Christian theology." --John W. Fadden, Review of Biblical Literature, 7.26.2015