Jephthah

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This article is about the Judge of Israel. For the oratorio, see Jephtha (Handel).
Judges in the Bible

In the Book of Joshua: Joshua
In the Book of Judges: Othniel • Ehud • Shamgar • Deborah • Barak† • Gideon • Abimelech† • Tola • Jair •Jephthah • Ibzan • Elon • Abdon • Samson
In First Samuel: Eli • Samuel
†Not explicitly described as a judge

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Jephthah (also spelled Jephtha or Jephte; Hebrew: יפתח‎, "Yiftach"; Greek: Ιεφθάε; Latin: Jephte) is a character in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Judges, serving as a judge over Israel for a period of six years (Judges 12:7). He lived in Gilead and was a member of the Tribe of Manasseh. His father's name was also Gilead. The Book of Judges describes Jephthah as leading the Israelites in battle against Ammon and, as the result of a rash vow, sacrificing his daughter after defeating the Ammonites.

The Return of Jephtha, by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini.

Contents

[edit] Summary

The Israelites "again did what was evil in the eyes of God...they abandoned God and did not worship him. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the Jephthah is driven out by his half-brothers, and takes up his dwelling in Tob, east of Gilead. "There gathered around him some worthless ["empty"] men, and they went out with him." (Judges 11:3) The elders of Gilead ask him to be their leader in the campaign against the Ammonites, but he holds out for a more permanent and a broader position, and the elders agree that provided Jephthah succeeds in defeating Ammon he will be their permanent chieftain. On behalf of Israel as a whole, and in reliance on the might of God the Judge, Jephthah challenges the Ammonites. Jephthah swears an oath:

"Whatever/whoever emerges and comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be God’s, and I shall sacrifice him/her/it as a holocaust."[1] (Judges 11:31 - a holocaust is a burnt offering).
"Jephtha's Rash Vow" (1807), by James Gundee & M. Jones, London. From an English edition of Flavius Josephus's works.

The victorious Jephthah is met on his return by his daughter, his only child. Jephthah tears his clothes and cries, "Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low!" but is bound by his vow: "I have given my word to God, and I cannot go back on it"(Judges 11:35). The girl asks for two months' grace, "... that I may go down on the mountains ... and bewail my virginity" (Judges 11:37). And so Jephthah "carried out his vow with her which he had vowed" (Judges 11:39). The story ends by recounting how "the daughters of Israel went four days each year to celebrate about[2] the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite" (Judges 11:40).

According to commentators of the rabbinic Jewish tradition this was a gross violation of God's law, and this part of the Bible illustrates the terrible tragedy of human sacrifice. Flavius Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, writes that "he sacrificed his daughter as a burnt offering: offering such an oblation as was neither conformable to the law, nor acceptable to God; not weighing with himself what opinion the hearers would have of such a practice."[3] However some scholars believe the passage suggests the sacrifice was accepted by God.[4] Others point out the complete lack of censure by God of Jephthah and the sacrifice of his daughter in the biblical account.[5]

Later, Jephthah went to war against the Ephraimites, who refused to acknowledge him. The story is remembered for the killing of the fugitive Ephraimites who were identified by their accent; they said the Hebrew word shibboleth as sibboleth. "And there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand." (Judges 12:5-6).

Jephthah is mentioned in the New Testament in Hebrews 11:32 as a man of faith.

He is commemorated as one of the Holy Forefathers in the Calendar of Saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church on July 26.

[edit] Sacrifice Controversy

Since the 18th century,[6] many scholars have begun to question the traditional interpretation of Jephthah's sacrifice of his daughter. Many alternative views of the events have been proposed, many claiming mistranslations or comparing the sacrifice to other biblical events and given the contradiction in the moral message, seek a more poetic interpretation.[7]

A modern commentator, Solomon Landers, believes that a plausible alternative is that Jephthah’s vow was most likely modified and that she was not in fact sacrificed, but rather, her fate may have been perpetual virginity or solitary confinement. [5] This saving of Ipsis also occurs in Handel's 1751 oratorio, Jephtha. This story stands in stark contrast to the Binding of Isaac in Genesis, where an angel of God directly intervenes and stops the sacrifice.

E.W.Bullinger (Great Cloud of Witnesses in Hebrew 11 (1911) ISBN 0825422477), looks at the word "and" in the Jephthah’s vow (Judges 11:31: "whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering"). As he explains [8] the Hebrew prefix ו that is translated in the above passage as "and" is often used as a disjunctive, and means "or", when there is a second proposition. Indeed this rendering is suggested in the margin of the A.V. Bullinger goes on to give examples from the Bible where the same word has been translated as "or". According to him, the right translation of this passage is: "whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, or I will offer it up as a burnt offering." Jephthah’s daughter, being the first that came out of the house, was thus, according to Bullinger, dedicated to God. He also says:

"In any case, it should have been unlawful, and repugnant to Jehovah, to offer a human being to Him as a burnt-offering, for His acceptance. Such offerings were common to heathen nations at that time, but it is noteworthy that Israel stands out among them with this great peculiarity, that human sacrifices were unknown in Israel."

[edit] See also

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[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The words translated here as "sacrifice" are capable of other readings, and the ambiguity has been the subject of much discussion - see below.
  2. ^ The translation is uncertain: it might mean "celebrate/recount/talk about", or alternatively "lament", or even "to talk with".
  3. ^ The Genuine Works of Flavius Josephus, The Jewish Historian: Containing Twenty Books of the Jewish Antiquities, Seven Books of the Jewish War, and the Life of Josephus, Written by Himself. Translated from the Original Greek, According to Havercamp's Accurate Edition. Together with Explanatory Notes and Observations; Parallel Texts of Scripture; The True Chronology of the Several Histories; An Account of the Jewish Coins, Weights and Measures, and a Complete Index. By the Late William Whiston, M.A. Professor of Mathematics in the University of Cambridge, &c. &c. - A New Edition, Now First Revised and Improved, by the Rev. Thomas Smith. Albion Press Printed, for James Cundee, Ivy Lane; M. Jones, Paternoster-Row; and Williams and Smith, Stationers' Court. (c. 1810), pp. 117-18
  4. ^ "Why the Deuteronomist Told about the Sacrifice of Jephthah's Daughter", Journal for the Study of the Old Testament,Sage Publications, p7,[1]
  5. ^ a b "Did Jephthah Kill his Daughter?", Solomon Landers, Biblical Archaeology Review, August 1991.
  6. ^ Jephtha's Vow Reconsidered
  7. ^ A Moral Argument for Atheism
  8. ^ "Did Jephthah really sacrifice his daughter? An analysis of Judges 11:31". http://www.jba.gr/Articles/jbadec06b.htm. 
Jephthah
Preceded by
Jair		 Judge of Israel Succeeded by
Ibzan
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