"It would be difficult, then, to imagine styles more contrasted than those of the two equally ancient and equally epic texts. On the one hand, externalized, uniformly illuminated phenomena, at a definite time and in a definite place, connected together with lacuna in a perpetual foreground; thoughts and feelings completely expressed; events taking place in leisurely fashion and with very little of suspense. On the other hand, the externalization of only so much of the phenomena as is necessary for the purpose of the narrative, all else left in obscurity; the decisive points of the narrative alone are emphasized, what lies between is non existent; time and place are undefined and call for interpretation; thoughts and feeling remain unexpressed, are only suggested by the silence and the fragmentary speeches; the whole permeated with the most unrelieved suspense and directed toward a single goal (and that extent far more of a unity), remain mysterious and 'fraught with background.'"

On the other hand, Genesis does not explain to us Abraham's every motive. We are left to infer his obedience, fear, and love for both God and his son.

The conflict in Homer's work is between characters and explicit struggles. The conflict for Abraham is internal: he struggles with himself.