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Moriah mɒˈraɪə (Hebrew: , Mōrīyya; Arabic: مروه, Marwah) is the name given to a mountainous region in the Book of Genesis, where the binding of Isaac by Abraham is said to have taken place. Jews identify the region mentioned in Genesis and the specific mountain in which the near-sacrifice is said to have occurred with "Mount Moriah", mentioned in the Book of Chronicles as the place where Solomon's Temple is said to have been built, and both these locations are also identified with the current Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Samaritan Torah, on the other hand, transliterates the place mentioned for the binding of Isaac as Moreh, a name for the region near modern-day Nablus. It is believed by the Samaritans that the near-sacrifice actually took place on Mount Gerizim, near Nablus in the West Bank. Many Muslims, in turn, believe the place mentioned in the first book of the Bible, rendered as Marwa in Arabic in the Quran, is actually located close to the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. There has been a historical account of rams' horns preserved in the Kaaba until the year 683, which are believed to be the remains of the sacrifice of Ishmael – the first son of Abraham, who most Muslims believe was the son Abraham tied down and almost sacrificed, and not Isaac. In the Jewish Bible, Moriyya and/or Moriah (מוֹרִיָּה) occur twice, with differences of spelling between different manuscripts. Tradition has interpreted these two as the same place: Genesis: "Then God said, 'Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriyya. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you. 2 Chronicles: "Then Solomon began to build the temple of the in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, where the had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David." Whereas the mention of Moriah in Genesis could be referring to any mountainous region, the book of Chronicles says that the location of Araunah's threshing floor is on "Mount Moriah" and that the Temple of Solomon was built over Araunah's threshing floor.

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Related concepts (20)

Moriah

Binding of Isaac

The Binding of Isaac ( ʿAqēḏaṯ Yīṣḥaq), or simply "The Binding" ( hāʿAqēḏā), is a story from Genesis 22 of the Hebrew Bible. In the biblical narrative, God orders Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac at Moriah. As Abraham begins to comply, having bound Isaac to an altar, he is stopped by the Angel of the Lord; a ram appears and is slaughtered in Isaac's stead, as God commends Abraham's pious obedience. In addition to being addressed by modern scholarship, this biblical episode has been the focus of a great deal of commentary in traditional sources of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Abrahamic religions

The Abrahamic religions are a group of religions centered around the worship of the God of Abraham. Abraham, a Hebrew patriarch, is extensively mentioned throughout the Abrahamic religious scriptures of the Quran, and the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. Jewish tradition claims that the Twelve Tribes of Israel are descended from Abraham through his son Isaac and grandson Jacob, whose sons formed the nation of the Israelites in Canaan (or the Land of Israel); Islamic tradition claims that twelve Arab tribes known as the Ishmaelites are descended from Abraham through his son Ishmael in the Arabian Peninsula.