Ambrose of Milan : Therefore he brings his well-beloved son to be sacrificed, and offered promptly him whom he had received late; nor is he restrained by being called by the name of father, when his son called him "Father," and he replied, "My son." Dear pledges of love are these names, but the commands of God are loved still more. And so although their hearts felt for each other, their purpose remained firm. The father's hand stretched out the knife over his son, and the father's heart struck the blow that the sentence might not fail of being carried out; he feared lest the stroke should miss, lest his right hand should fail. He felt the movings of fatherly affection, but did not shrink from the work of submission, and hastened his obedience, even when he heard the voice from heaven. Let us then set God before all those whom we love, father, brother, mother, that He may preserve for us those whom we love, as in the case of Abraham we behold rather the liberal Rewarder than the servant. — On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus, Book 2, Section 97 Ephrem the Syrian : In two things then was Abraham victorious: that he killed his son although he did not kill him and that he believed that after Isaac died he would be raised up again and would go back down with him. For Abraham was firmly convinced that he who said to him, "through Isaac shall your descendants be named," was not lying. — COMMENTARY ON Genesis 20:2 Origen of Alexandria : What after these things? "Isaac said," it says, "to Abraham his father: Father." And this too, uttered by the son at that moment, is a voice of temptation. For how do you think the son, about to be immolated, shook the father's heart by this voice? And although Abraham was rather rigid for faith's sake, yet he too returns the voice of affection and answered: "what is it, son?" And the other: "behold," he says, "the fire and the wood, where is the sheep for the burnt offering?" — HOMILIES ON Genesis 8.6