02-20-2008, 05:33 AM
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#181
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Veteran Member
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Central - New York
Posts: 4,108
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Did Jephthah Sacrifice his daughter?
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Originally Posted by Sheshbazzar
1. On one level, the battle that raged for many generations between the Priests of Baal, and The Priests of YHWH.
2. The Jephthah story was composed as a propaganda tool by the YHWH faction,
3. skip / cut ...............
4. First, by recognizing it as being a political/religiously motivated piece of Yahwist propaganda, secondly, by carefully comparing its contents with the restrictions of The Law. And so percieve that Jephthah was indeed innocent of the false charges brought against him and against YHWH his Elohim.
Nothing particularly "supernatural" here, just an ancient political/religious battle that was carefully crafted and "set up" to be played out over the ages.
Effectively, its intent would be to cause posterity, to in judgement, finally vindicate, and to praise and honor the cause of the Yahwist faction, and dispise both the ideas and the actions of their adversaries.
The "characters" within the story are "story book" characters, of less material substance than even the thinnest of soap bubbles, and have no impact upon, or interaction with reality,
beyond what is conceived in, and believed in, within the minds of men.
But of course what men believe and what they do, because of those beliefs, does have a great impact on reality, thus are simple stories made effective tools and levers, in the fashioning of real reality.
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Quote:
TaterTot
So I was discussing with some friends on whether the stories in the old testament pointed to an angry/vindictive god. Someone brought up the story of Jepthath from judges 11, and it intrigued me. I have heard two theories on the story, that it either refers to a literal killing of the daughter, or that he sent her away to someplace where she would never marry. I unfortunately have no skills in literary criticism or ancient hebrew and I would appreciate it if some here could enlighten me
Fta
The historian Josephus says (Antiquities 5:8:10) Jephthah "sacrificed his daughter as a burnt offering", but modern apologists like J.P. Holding don't like the idea of human sacrifice and argue that the Bible actually means the poor girl was merely condemned to a life of celibacy.
DBT
That apologetic does not appear to be supported by the text...which describes Jephthah promising his God a burnt offering in exchange for a victory in battle, and after much hand wringing and breast beating ''did to her as he had vowed'' - as a burnt offering is not the same as vow of chastity, by not sacrificing his daughter, he would reneging on his vow to God.
SugarHitman
If you read that story you will notice this event happens when Israel was corrupted through Baal worship (read ch.10). Baal worship included human sacrifice. Human sacrifice was agianst the law of Moses, but the law of Moses was largely forgotten through Baal. God used Jephath to deliver Israel but the belief that God required human sacrifice was an error on Jephath's part who like the rest of Gilead who lived amidst the Ammonites was corrupted and influence by Baal worship.
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Regardless if it is solely a construction by much later redactors or a re-telling of an actual historical based event I can only conclude ....
1 - The god protrayed (within the story context) for whatever reason did not express any disapproval of Jephthah's motives or actions.
2 - The prevailing culture (within the story context) did not express any disapproval of Jephthah's motives or actions.
3 - I have to agree that the resultant conclusions formed by the various interpretations of the stories true meaning and the nature of the characters protrayed greatly affect the morales, worldview and actions of the believers.
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