If you ask me, the Bible is trying to tell us the possible consequences of being a fanatical lunatic asshole......
....and don't keep your animals running around the house.....
Latest Study Article: Was Jephthah surprised at his daughter coming out?
by garbonzo 41 Replies latest watchtower bible
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garbonzo
@notjustyet You must not read your Bible, then. =P The Bible clearly says "burnt offering" even in the NWT. JWs say it was figurative, just like a lot of things they do not understand / contradict their teachings / The Bible.
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Quarterback
Human sacrifices were never acceptable to Jehovah. Jeremiah 32: 35 mentions that, "such a thing has never entered into His heart". The sacrifices were not always living things. Based on the person's financial status, a measure of wheat could have been offered.
I'm not sure about how the drama played out between, Jephta, and his daughter, but we know what message the society is giving. They want many to give their children to full-time service whether in Bethel, or pioneering. Of course, the parents have not vowed this, but the Society is implying that they did, or they should, and it's all a wonderful thing.
I'm not sure what would have happened if Jephta's daughter would have refused.
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Sulla
QB, the Jews were quite upset at the idea of human sacrifice; it is, after all, one of the key complaints in the OT against the people who lived in Caanan. That said, the text pretty plainly says that is what happened. And we know that human sacrifice in the region was common to some degree. 2Kings has an interesting event where, even 300 years after the Jeptha incident, the Jews were pushing some king really hard in batle and, in desperation, the king slaughtered his son on the wall of the city. This freaked the Jews out, who thought that such an act just might work.
Anyway, the story is that Jeptha sacrificed his daughter. Can't really read it any other way.
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transhuman68
It’s worth remembering that the Bible wasn’t written like a newspaper- as it happened- but was written by scribes: hundreds or even a thousand years after the events they wrote about may have taken place. So many of the events described in the Bible didn’t happen (the Exodus from Egypt, Jericho’s walls falling down, an angel killing 185,000 Assyrians, King Solomon etc.) and so much has been copied from other cultures (the flood myth, the Ten Commandments, Ecclesiastes etc.) that it is impossible to say whether Jephthah was a real person, or just an ancient anecdote that was thought worth including in the scrolls. Much of the meaning of the Old Testament can only be guessed, and even the translation of some words are still in dispute, as the old Hebrew language had no vowels in its alphabet, meaning that Bible scholars had to sometimes guess their meaning. So a story like this one of Jephthah’s daughter can’t be read as actual history- although that doesn’t stop the Watchtower Society from trying to do so….
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ProdigalSon
My guess is that Jephthah was very real, and he really did barbecue his daughter..... but the same can't be said for his imaginary god.....
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Leolaia
You mean that Jephthah duaghters was to be sacrificed, like killed? I always thought that it was to do some type of lifetime service for the temple or something. Why have I never been told this, how do I know that it is true now, where is the proof?
Ummm, the Bible?
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james_woods
The Bible clearly says "burnt offering" even in the NWT. JWs say it was figurative, just like a lot of things they do not understand / contradict their teachings
Great - THIS is figurative, but the scientifically impossible global flood was literal.
Makes perfect JW sense.
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rocketman
It was not a human sacrifice. Jepthah would have exercised the option of redeeming his daughter by means of a lamb as an offering instead.
The girl weeped over her virginity, which would be perpetual due to her temple service. She wasn't weeping over her untimely death.
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james_woods
It was not a human sacrifice. Jepthah would have exercised the option of redeeming his daughter by means of a lamb as an offering instead.
The girl weeped over her virginity, which would be perpetual due to her temple service. She wasn't weeping over her untimely death.
How do you know for sure?