The Akedah, the narrative account of the near-sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham as recorded in the Old Testament, demonstrates the far-reaching influence of epideictic rhetoric and particularly that rhetoric when embedded in cultural narrative. The Akedah has largely been perpetuated as a story and lesson about faith and obedience only and, thus, foregoes the more immediate and important question of ethics, specifically of Abraham and Sarah's ethical responsibility to not kill Isaac. Using Emmanuel Levinas's "ethics as first philosophy," readers can understand the Akedah differently by examining the language of the face, particularly how Isaac's face as "Other" may have manifested an ethical outcome which allowed him to live. Additionally, Levinas's ideas of the saying and the said, metaphor, and maternity help readers seek further ethical alternatives to the "obedience" message, creating an alternative recognition of ethical possibility and response to the Akedah text.