The lady clinging to the rock with the baby in her arms. She's about to be killed by the rising water.
Classic JW child mindfuck.
A "My Book of Bible Stories" tale that I've always hated
by JimmyPage 72 Replies latest jw friends
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Ultimate Reality
I have noticed this account used more often lately in the Watchtower, as a positive example of how we should live up to our vow of dedication. Either way, this is twisted. Whether she was killed or not, it is fairly clear that the Bible does not present this situation as something positive or desirable.
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AnnOMaly
It's one of those things that hit me like a brick recently. Where is there any indication in the Bible account the daughter spent the rest of her life in the tabernacle (the Temple hadn't been built yet, of course)?
The account makes better sense - Jephthah's despair, the daughter being given time to mourn her virginity (the family line would die with her - a source of shame for any self-respecting Israelite family), the use of the term 'burnt offering' and that Jephthah kept his vow to offer her as such - if it is understood she was actually sacrificed. The moral of the story is, don't make rash vows.
To the contention that God never approved of human or child sacrifice, the following needs to be considered:
- God commanded Abraham to offer Isaac as a real 'burnt offering.' Yes, He intervened and provided a ram as a substitute. The burnt offering nevertheless was a literal one - victim on a pile of wood, slit throat, dead, then burnt in the fire. There is no indication in the story that God intervened with Jephthah or where Jephthah prayed that God would accept a substitute 'burnt offering' (real or metaphorical) instead.
- Pagan child sacrifice involved worship of false gods and, if I remember correctly, involved burning the victims alive. Jephthah was offering his daughter to the true God and would have sacrificed her the Jewish way rather than the pagan way.
- God doesn't make any comment on Jephthah's actions. And it was Jephthah who made the disastrous vow in the first place. He would know the law where it said you should always pay your vow and not procrastinate about doing so.
- There are so many other stories in the OT that show the people of that time - even 'godly' ones - were not squeamish about taking human life, or doing gross things with people (the concubine being gang raped and cut up into little bits to be sent to each tribe? Lot and his daughters?). And what about the slaughter of men, women, children and animals among their own nation - a consequence of the concubine affair - Israel consulting the LORD all the way (Judges 20 and 21; 21:10,11). So why single out the Jephthah story as being too heinous to consider a literal understanding where he actually might well have sacrificed his own daughter?
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JWoods
I guess the literal sacrifice would morally be no worse than what happened to the "daughters of men who were good looking" that the demons raped before the flood.
The good looking daughters and their offspring got drowned, but the demons apparantly just floated back up into the cosmos without much punishment if any at all.
Or the offer to the fags of Sodom & Gomorrah - take my daughters and do to them as you will...
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snowbird
Where is there any indication in the Bible account the daughter spent the rest of her life in the tabernacle (the Temple hadn't been built yet, of course)?
I meant the Tabernacle; you're right, the Temple hadn't been built at that time.
Judges 11:37 And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows. 11:38 And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. 11:39 And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. KJV
What pushes me into the camp of those who believe she was not killed is the emphasis placed on her virginal state. Why two months to bewail her fate and why four days each year for others to do so if she was to be sacrificed? I would think that if she was killed, they would like to put the whole ordeal behind them as quickly as possible.
Sylvia
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sir82
I would think that if she was killed, they would like to put the whole ordeal behind them as quickly as possible.
I would like to think lots of things...but what does verse 40 say?
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JWoods
Well, Sylvia - I share your thought that actually killing her would have been pretty horrible. But - two points:
1) there are plenty of other pretty horrible things in the bible that are clearly spelled out...like bears coming to kill kids because they dared to laugh at a weird old man who was a judge/prophet.
2) even the WT version of making her a nun-temple-virgin is pretty horrible in it's own right.
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snowbird
11:40 That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.
Why, if she was killed, would this case merit special commemoration?
Sylvia
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JWoods
Why, if she was killed, would this case merit special commemoration?
I would think that being killed would more likely result in special commemoration than just being sent to a nunnery. If it was just that, then why not have four days a year for all the nuns?
BTW, I missed one point in the above thread - IIRC, didn't the WT somehow hint that the father knew that it would likely be the daughter who would come out and greet him? I remember them saying that it probably was a conscious decision on his part to pick his favorite daughter.
Didn't they also try to make a link from this to parents who "give up" their kids to go to Bethel or Pioneer?
Pretty sicko notions all of it, IMHO.
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AnnOMaly
snowbird
Why the emphasis on her virginal state? Because the greatest thing a Hebrew woman could do was marry and have kids - to continue the family line. She'd never fulfill that role. As an only child, it would be doubly tragic for her and her family. Another point I just remembered (I think AuldSoul brought this up on another discussion on this), there was no provision for women to serve in the tabernacle/temple.
Why would this case merit special commemoration? Because she was the innocent victim of a rash vow. She never reached her potential, her life was cut short, she was also an honorable girl in allowing her father to carry out his vow. Perhaps they wanted to memorialize this tragic event and keep it as a cautionary tale.