Virgin Daughter Sacrifice

[bevin]

Quote:

---

However it does seem odd to me that a girl that is about to die is crying about never having had sex (or children) and never getting to have sex (or children). Why is she so concerned about her virginity if she is about to die?

---

You are approaching the text as a 20C American.

Ancient peoples, and especially the Israelites and neighbors, were more concerned about "their seed". Individual eternal life was less important, instead it was the prosperity of the family line.

/Bevin

[Nicodema]

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

the vow was to offer whatsoever came out of his house first as a burnt offering.

---

Are we sure about that? I know that is what the English translation says.

---

Well judging from your word study isn't that what it is saying? Or did I misread somehow? (It's possible.) I do not know how to read Biblical Hebrew. I can pick out a word here and there, and/or do a word study like you did, but I don't read Biblical Hebrew, so English is what I have to work with here. How about you? (Greek on the other hand .... yes ... but this wasn't written in NT Greek. )

Anyway my point is, have you found other translations that read differently? If so, do tell! It will certainly shed light on the matter.

[Dr. Shane]

Sister Nico, taking all into consideration, I am really on the fence. It seems like 50/50 to me. I am just not sure how the verse should be translated.

If he actually killed his daughter he had to be far removed from an understanding of Scripture. Now I know Israel had been in apostasy but this happened about 90 years after Gideon had judged Israel (less than 3 generations). Isreal had just confessed their unfaithfulness (Judges 10:10) and God answered (10:10). They got rid of their idols (10:16). If they knew idols were wrong I think it safe to assume they knew human sacrifices were wrong too. [:"blue"] So point one: it is hard to aruge that Jephthah was ignorant of human sacrifices being wrong. [/]

If his vow was rash and wrong, we must ask ourselves why we find him in the Hall of Fame of Faith (Hebrews 11:32)? [:"blue"] Point two: Jephthah is an example of the type of faith each of us should have. [/]

Genalogies in the Bible are almost exclusively of men. Women were second-class citizens. Male children were desired to "carry on the seed". The idea that the daughter of Jephthah wanted children to carry on her seed is not consistant with the culture of the time. [:"blue"] Point three: It is unlikely the daughter's seed was an issue [/]

The vow itself doesn't make sense. First, only clean animals were acceptable as burnt offerings. It would have been sinful to offer up a dog as a burnt offering. Isreal just having had repented, it is hard to believe they didn't know what acceptable sacrifices were. John Wesley (founder of Methodist chruch) made this argument in Notes on the Old Testament v. 40

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />

"It is really astonishing, that the general stream of commentators, should take it for granted, that Jephthah murdered his daughter! But, says Mr. Henry, 'We do not find any law, usage or custom, in all the Old Testament, which doth in the least intimate, that a single life was any branch or article of religion.' And do we find any law, usage or custom there, which doth in the least intimate, that cutting the throat of an only child, was any branch or article of religion? If only a dog had met Jephthah, would he have offered up that for a burnt-offering? No: because God had expressly forbidden this. And had he not expressly forbidden murder? . . ."

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">

[:"blue"] Point four: Rash and foolish vows are not the result of the "Spirit of the Lord" [/]

The Bible doesn't say she died. Verse 30 says, "she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man" The underlined portion seems to be an explanation of the vow. [:"blue"] Point five: The Bible doesn't say she died but rather focuses on her virginity. [/]

Of course, as I pointed out in my word study, the common translation of burnt offering does seem to be a good translation. However just because it is good doesn't make it correct. The Contempory English Version translates verse 31 like this "I will sacrifice to you whoever comes out to meet me first". Verse 38 is translated like this, "She and some other girls left, and for two months they wandered in the hill country, crying because she could never get married and have children."

[Dr. Shane]

Here is another link and the verses from Young's Literal Translation Bible:

Child Sacrifice

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />

Judges 11:30-31, "And Jephthah voweth a vow to Jehovah, and saith, `If Thou dost at all give the Bene-Ammon into my hand -- then it hath been, that which at all cometh out from the doors of my house to meet me in my turning back in peace from the Bene-Ammon -- it hath been to Jehovah, or I have offered up for it -- a burnt-offering.'"

Judges 11:39-40, "and it cometh to pass at the end of two months that she turneth back unto her father, and he doth to her his vow which he hath vowed, and she knew not a man; and it is a statute in Israel: from time to time the daughters of Israel go to talk to the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in a year."

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">

[Kevin H]

Quote:

---

If he actually killed his daughter he had to be far removed from an understanding of Scripture. Now I know Israel had been in apostasy but this happened about 90 years after Gideon had judged Israel (less than 3 generations). Isreal had just confessed their unfaithfulness (Judges 10:10) and God answered (10:10). They got rid of their idols (10:16). If they knew idols were wrong I think it safe to assume they knew human sacrifices were wrong too. [:"blue"] So point one: it is hard to aruge that Jephthah was ignorant of human sacrifices being wrong. [/]

---

Once again may I point you to studies such as by Dr. Dalton from Loma Linda, and others that you can find among our Bible teachers, both the more liberal and the more conservative. It took a while for Israel to realize that Yahweh did not require nor wish for human sacrifice. The Pentituch gives instructions on how to perform human sacrifice, but we tend not to notice due to the instructions in the text not to follow those instructions, but to redeem the person instead. If this was not added to the text later, why didn't the text simply tell Israel to redeem them in the first place?

It is scary when you notice how Samuel knew just how to perform human sacrifice on Aggag and did it nice and quick. Apperently it was not until Ezekiel's day until they really came to understand how much Yahweh hated human sacrifice.

This was not idol worship, but God working with people where they were, and teaching us that as long as we are not in outright rebellion of him, we may do horrible mistakes, and sadly have to live with the pain of these mistakes, but that Jesus does not cast us out because of our mistakes.

[Dr. Shane]

I can't come to either conclusion. I see reasonable doubt in both interpretations. It is quite an odd story. I don't know why they made a child's cartoon out of it.