if the Day of Atonement institutionalizes for the public community this private experience of Abraham and Isaac.33 Alongside this development of suffering is the development of victory. For the first time since Gen 3:15 the seed—now known to be a royal seed—is promised to “possess the gate of his enemies” (22:17–18). In other words, by Genesis 22 the text has drawn together the seed, royalty, and victory; and all this is interwoven with an account of substitutionary atonement. Although it is still
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