"The Binding of Isaac" and biblical sacrifice

I've noticed a trend in the games I've been playing. I noted it first in Blasphemous; I noted it in Devil May Cry. The bible seems to infiltrate several video games as their main premise. Some more than others. The Binding of Isaac especially so. The title itself is ripped from the Book of Genesis. But what does that mean for the story? Spoilers for The Binding of Isaac endings ahead.

https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2021/03/03/binding-of-isaac-repentance-ps5/, Isaac in the mines.

I wasn't raised religious, so I don't know much about the Bible or it's stories. The most I know is from what I've learned in school, or heard from my religious friends. The Binding of Isaac, similar to many other games I've played, takes a lot of inspiration from Christianity--to the point where the game itself is oriented around religious items, characters, bosses, and even the overarching plot.

The title "The Binding of Isaac" is a one-to-one copy of a chapter in the Book of Genesis, as I mentioned earlier. In this chapter, God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on the mountain Jehovah-jireh. From here, it seems to be debated whether or not Isaac is actually sacrificed. In some telling's, Abraham does actually kill Isaac. But the more common conclusion involves an Angel of the Lord descending from Heaven, and stopping Abraham just as he's about to kill Isaac. Isaac is then replaced with a ram, who is sacrificed in his stead.

The plot of the game The Binding of Isaac is almost exactly the same, at least in its premise. God commands Isaac's mother to kill Isaac as proof of her faith. You play as Isaac, attempting to escape your dogma-crazed mother through the monster-filled basement under the house.

As if the conjecture on the original Bible story bled into the game, this game also has multiple endings. Each either build off of each other, or depict different endings for Isaac. However, there seems to be one connecting theme between each ending--unlike the biblical story, the video game Isaac is dead. The sequence we play--of him fighting off monsters and eventually his own mother--is all imagined by him, as he is slowly dying. Almost every ending in this game depicts Isaac being dead in some way, but the most repetitive imagery is of Isaac's remains being found in a locked chest. Although many players do debate whether or not Isaac is actually dead in certain endings, it's widely accepted (and confirmed by the creator of the game) that what we see is Isaac's delusions and coping before he dies.

It's a tragic ending for sure. A small child, abused and tormented (and nearly killed) by his own mother in the name of a religion. Unlike Abraham (at least in some readings), Isaac's mother carries through with her sacrifice, in a way. It makes me wonder about the significance of mirroring the biblical story, only to subvert the ending to one that is no longer widely taught. In comparison, the ending of Isaac being spared rather than actually sacrificed is taught far more. Or at least, that Isaac would be revived if he were actually slain. But The Binding of Isaac doesn't exclusively represent this Bible story--to me, it's a story on the dangers of Christian fanaticism. A story of blind faith. In fact, one of the various bosses you can fight as Isaac is called Dogma, and it emerges from your mother's TV. It's not hard to assume that she might not have heard the voice of God, but perhaps the voice of religious radio. And that voice she heard that told her to kill Isaac might have been her own. And yet, we know (in some twisted way) that Isaac's mother did care for him, as the player can see that she put up missing posters in one of the endings.

Isaac is a victim of an individual's descent into this fanaticism, which grew into some kind of religious psychosis. In a sense, Isaac's mother is a victim too. The story is vague, but it seemed that she was plagued by financial stress, the abandonment of her husband, and various other life-altering events. She didn't have anyone to go to, besides the religious man in the TV.

But what she didn't realize was how these events impacted Isaac too--her neglect drove him to demonize and blame himself for everything. But he's still a child. He hid from his mother's attempt to sacrifice him, locking himself away in a chest, too afraid to leave. Isaac, frozen in fear, still dies. Not as a sacrifice, but as a helpless, scared child.