I thought that never happened, but reading Judges 11:30,31 looks to me like Jephthat offered whoever greets him first as a "burnt offering", then when returning, his daughter is who greets him, she says for him to keep his word but let her mourn her virginity, after that, he keeps his vow. I gotta look this one up.
woah, did the Israelites offer human sacrifice to Jehovah?!
by EndofMysteries 8 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Black Sheep
As a born in, I tended to go to sleep during Bible stories, but I still knew that that Jehovah and His People used to have some pretty unsavoury habits.
There is a bit of a breakdown on this subject here.
http://www.evilbible.com/Ritual_Human_Sacrifice.htm
Cheers
Chris
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MissingLink
Some old testament apologists will claim that his "sacrifice" was making her serve in the temple instead of burning her like he promised.
Of course that's total BS. Why would she be mourned so much for the honor of serving in the temple? It just doesn't wash. If you're going to go beyond what the scriptures actually say, then you can make up anything you want. But the story is very clear as written.
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EndofMysteries
from the story, it never said God ASKED or TOLD him to do it either. I think the lesson in it, is that, A. Never make a promise to God you won't keep. B. If it's true he had an idea of who would greet him, (such as wife), may have wanted an excuse to put to death and it backfired on him. C. Israelites may have been apostate at this time doing human sacrifice?
Funny how I'm running into so many scriptures, and if anything maybe a WT from 1950 on them which gives you the run around with words like, "so obviously it means", or "so it would make sense that", or, "it's reasonable to assume", etc.
I guess just keep printing literature repeating the same stuff over and over and over, namely, 1. Praise and obey GB 2. Keep 'busy' in witnessing, if you have an ounce of time, do more door to door. 3. don't waste time on charity, do more door to door. 4. only read the bible after reading all the articles by GB and with GB guides so as to understand the scriptures correctly. 5. Randomly have articles featuring my favorite super here, Captain Obvious, on don't sin, don't do this or that, and quote the scriptures.
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BabaYaga
Jehovah's Witnesses are still offering human sacrifices to Jehovah.
How many die needlessly every year due to refusing blood transfusions?
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Still, thanks for pointing out this unsavory bible tidbit.
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Chalam
The ESV Study Bible notes are helpful as ever :)
Judg. 11:29–40 Victory and Jephthah's Foolish Vow. The conflict with the Ammonites reached its peak with their defeat by Jephthah (vv. 29, 32–33; see map). However, the climax of the Jephthah narrative centers upon his rash vow (vv. 30–31, 34–40). In order to gain God's favor, he promised to sacrifice whatever came out of his house upon his victorious return. This reflected a misguided application of the principle of offering to God the best of one's treasure. Theoretically, a vow to make a burnt offering was valid: cf. Lev. 22:18–20, which also specifies what is a valid offering. The tragic result of Jephthah's vow was the sacrifice of his only child, a daughter (see note on Judg. 11:39).
Judg. 11:29the Spirit of the Lordwas upon. See note on 14:6.
Judg. 11:31whatever comes out. The wording here would indicate that Jephthah intended to offer some animal as a burnt offering. However, the grammar also allows for “whoever” (see esv footnote), in which case Jephthah would have intended to offer a human sacrifice all along. If so, what surprised him was not that he had to sacrifice a person, but that it was his daughter. Human sacrifice was strictly forbidden in Israel (Lev. 18:21; 20:2; Deut. 12:31; 18:10; Jer. 19:5; Ezek. 20:30–31; 23:37, 39). Yet, Jephthah's foolishness impelled him to make such a vow and apparently to follow through with this abomination (see note on Judg. 11:39).
Judg. 11:35I cannot take back my vow. Vows were solemn affairs, made only to God. People were not forced to take them, but, if they did, they had to be kept, under normal circumstances (Deut. 23:21–23; Ps. 15:4; Eccles. 5:4–5). But any vow that would end in sin was not binding; keeping it could not please God, and the Levitical laws provided for such instances (Lev. 5:4–6). Human sacrifice was an abomination, and Jephthah should not have followed through with killing his daughter.
Judg. 11:39who did with her according to his vow. Most likely this means Jephthah literally sacrificed his daughter as a burnt offering. However, another interpretation is that Jephthah dedicated his daughter to perpetual virginity, as a figurative sacrifice (cf. references to her uniqueness [v. 34] and virginity [vv. 37–40]). This would be a tragedy for her, as she would bear no children; but it would also be tragic for Jephthah, whose line would come to an end. Some support for this comes from Jephthah's speech in vv. 12–28, which shows enough grasp of Israel's history that he might well have stopped short of literally sacrificing his own child.
Blessings,
Stephen
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pixiesticks
Saying that she was offered a into Jehovah's service as a perpetual virgin instead of a literal burnt offering is pure, unfounded speculation. Yes, there are several instances in the Bible of children being rendered living into God's service, but not one of them describes this as "a burnt offering", only Jephthah's daughter is.
As far as I can see based purely on scripture, there are two options from a believing standpoint:1) Jephthah did infact literally sacrific his daughter to God and God did not reject his propostal or stop him from carrying out the act.
2) God is an appaulingly bad writer and/or enjoys playing head-games with his "beloved" human creations and, although Jephthah's daughter was not literally sacrificed, he allowed the writing of the verses to heavily imply that she was instead of explicity stating otherwise. -