A brief description of Laszlo Bito's Abraham and Isaac.

Abraham and Isaac

Laszlo Bito

This fascinating biblical novel, was first published in Hungarian by Magyar Könyvklub (Hungarian Book Club) in May 1998 with two more printings required in the same year. Russian translation by Tatjana Voronkina, was published by Phantom Press (Moscow) in the fall of 1998. Serialized in Belorussia in the World Literature Magazine of Minsk in 1999. Spanish translation by Irma Aguero and Judit Xantus, as well as German translation by Paul Karpati are ready for publication.

A play based on this novel was premiered at the Madach Theater (Budapest, Hungary) on March 30th, 2000, adaptation by Janos Koltay.

The stories of the Bible -- especially those of Genesis, the First Book of Moses -- describe tragic events comparable to the legendary events that the plays of Sophocles and Euripides -- which were written in the same millennium -- are based on. But in contrast to the Greek tragedies that dwell into the emotions, the internal struggles of their protagonists, the Bible mentions no emotions, reasons. When Abraham hears his God's voice telling him to obey his wife, Sara, he banishes, without questioning or hesitation, his beloved first-born, Ishmael, and his beautiful mother, Hagar. A few years later, he hears the same voice again and puts the pyre wood on the back of his second son, Isaac – the only son God gave to Sara -- takes the knife and torch and journeys to Mount Moriah to obey his God who asked for his second son's life in a burnt offering. While the journey is said to have taken three days, we learn nothing about what went on in Abraham, or in Isaac, who sooner or later must have found out what his father was up to.

In his novel, Bito goes beyond these stories, exploring the emotions and the intrigue that led Sara to force Abraham to banish his loved ones. He describes in a poetic lament his suffering, doubts, and self-recrimination after he watched his son and Hagar -- the wife the barren Sara gave him to bear them an heir -- disappear into the deadly desert. We also learn about the conflicts and intrigue that led Abraham to want to kill Isaac, believing again that he is obeying his God's voice. We also learn of Isaac's mounting fear as they ascend Mount Moriah with the pyre wood on his back and the knife and torch in his father's hand, but without a sacrificial lamb. We hear the boy's more and more worried questions -- and his Father's silence.

The skill of the novelist lets us understand the suffering of both the son and the father who tries not to think, not to question his decision, but at the end he is incapable of killing his son...

Bito comes to the shocking conclusion that it was not God's Angel that halted Abraham's hand, but the inhibition of killing our own kind -- the "Thy shall not kill" commandment -- that we are all born with. This made him hesitate long enough to give Sara's servant, Omaan, time to grab his arm, making the knife impotently fall to the ground. Following this gripping high drama, we learn about how -- with the help of Omaan -- father and son reconcile. Through this process, we learn about the conflicts between Sara and Abraham who once asked her to deny him -- thus, becoming the Pharaoh's richly-rewarded concubine. In contrast to Kierkegaard who depicts Abraham as a champion of faith, Bito's Abraham emerges as a man of no faith, who lives in Sara's shadow.

Bito does not stop with the high drama of Mount Moriah and the reconciliation of father and son. We enjoy a touching story of Isaac and his beautiful bride, Rebecca. A wonderful marriage that is nearly ruined by her barrenness -- and Isaac's worries about the future of mankind. We also learn about Rebecca's intrigue, who like Sara, was manipulating events, making his weaker, second born son, Jacob, steal the blessing that the aged Isaac was ready to bestow on Esau.

Following this dramatic intrigue, the book ends with the Visions of Isaac, who sees Esau as the man whose descendants will lead mankind into a new Eden, after the end of the epoch of conflicts, and more and more cruel wars and holocausts. Images of Mount Moriah multiplied by thousands. Isaac sees that the blessing Jacob stole by deceit will become a curse on his descendants.

Concluding the book is a Postscript by the author. This is a convincing essay on how these biblical stories -- that influenced us over three millennia, making us accept blind faith and obedience -- need to be reexamined. And there’s still time to reexamine them, unless we want to continue over the next millennium on the same road that led to more and more devastating wars and sacrifices on altars of false beliefs, self-deception and unquestioning obedience to voices coming from above.