This book has been in and on my mind for seven years. During that time I have felt as if I had accompanied Abraham and Isaac on their journey to and from Moriah.

I would like to thank my colleagues at the Centre for Jewish–Christian Relations (CJCR), especially Deborah Patterson-Jones, Melanie Wright, Lucia Faltin, Maty Matychak and Tunde Formadi. CJCR provides a wonderful forum to engage in the study and teaching of Jewish–Christian relations. I also acknowledge with gratitude the students at CJCR, especially those who elected to study my course on Jewish and Christian Biblical Interpretation. They have helped me think through the ideas discussed in this book.

I would like to acknowledge the support of other colleagues who have been kind enough to offer constructive comments. They include James Carleton Paget, William Horbury and Robert Hayward. During my PhD research I was guided by Nicholas de Lange, to whom I am most grateful, and was taught patristic Greek by Liz Irwin, whose patience was beyond measure.

The support of my fellow Trustees at the CJCR has also been a great help in the writing of this book, especially Martin Forward and Julius Lipner who cajoled me into completing the manuscript, as well as Barry Fenton, Bob Glatter, Leslie Griffiths, Peter Halban, David Leibowitz and Clemens Nathan.

Thanks also to Kevin Taylor and Kate Brett of Cambridge University Press who have been most encouraging.