Editing Jephthah (section)

===Sacrifice of daughter===
{{see also|Jephthah's daughter}}Jephthah's sacrifice of his daughter stands in stark contrast to the [[Binding of Isaac]] in the [[Book of Genesis]], in which [[Abraham]] was about to perform a divinely ordered sacrifice of his son, when an angel of God directly intervened and stopped the sacrifice.

Some writers have observed that the Israelites of the time widely disrespected [[Mosaic law]], which forbade human sacrifice; and that there are several other examples of rash [[vow]]s, some with similarly terrible consequences (for instance {{bibleverse |2 Samuel |21:6-9}}).<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08333b.htm "Jephte"], ''Catholic Encyclopaedia'', New advent.</ref> David Janzen argued that the story was an integral part of the Deuteronomist picture of moral decline through adoption of non-Israelitic practices such as child sacrifice.<ref>"Why the Deuteronomist Told about the Sacrifice of Jephthah's Daughter", ''[[Journal for the Study of the Old Testament]]'', Sage Publications, [http://jot.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/29/3/339.pdf p. 7]</ref> Solomon Landers believed that the absence of express judgement implies that the sacrifice was not acceptable to God, notwithstanding the fact that the sacrifice nevertheless happened.<ref>Solomon Landers "Did Jephthah Kill his Daughter?", ''[[Biblical Archaeology Review]]'', August 1991.</ref> 

[[Pseudo-Philo]]'s ''Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum'' gives a name for Jephthah's daughter, Seila. Her character is elaborated and emphasized;<ref>Philip Alexander (1988), "Retelling the Old Testament", in ''It Is Written: Scripture Citing Scripture'', Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge.</ref><ref>Frederick Murphy (1993), ''Pseudo-Philo: Rewriting the Bible'', New York: Oxford.</ref> "the author has done his utmost to put this woman on the same level as the patriarchs, in this case especially Isaac."<ref>Pieter Van der Horst (1989), "Portraits of Biblical Women in Pseudo-Philo's ''Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum''", ''Journal for the Study of Pseudepigrapha'', 5, 29–46, at 42.</ref> [[John Chrysostom]] held that God allowed Jephthah to kill his daughter in order to prevent similar rash vows being made in the future and that it was for that purpose that the annual bewailing of the event took place as a constant reminder.<ref>{{cite web | last = Chrysostom | work = Church fathers |url= http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/190114.htm|title= Homily 14 on the Statues |publisher= New advent}}</ref> [[Ambrose]] cited the story as an example of how it is "sometimes contrary to duty to fulfill a promise, or to keep an oath".<ref>Ambrose, [https://archive.org/stream/St.AmbroseSelectedWorksAndLetters/st_ambrose_selected_works_and_letters#page/n139/mode/2up/search/%22make+no+promise+at+all%22 ''On the Duties of the Clergy''], Book I, chapter 50: p. 141 in Schaff's edition.</ref>{{Judges}}One midrash characterizes Yiftach (Jephthah) as a person of poor judgment, who makes "unfitting" vows without proper consideration for consequences ([[Genesis Rabbah|B'reishit Rabbah]], 60:3). Another midrash (Tanhuma Bechukotai 7) asserts that if Jephthah had read the laws of vows in the Torah, he would not have lost his daughter.<ref name = "kadari">{{cite web |last1= Kadari |first1=Tamar |title= Jephthah's Daughter: Midrash and Aggadah |url= https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/jephthahs-daughter-midrash-and-aggadah |website=Jewish Women's Encyclopedia | access-date= 20 July 2018}}</ref> The rabbis also ascribe Jephthah's death to his actions, as punishment: "Jephthah’s penalty consists of the shedding of his limbs, which are buried in numerous places, as is learned from Jud. 12:7: 'Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and he was buried in the towns of Gilead.' One limb would slough away and be buried in one location, and then another would fall off somewhere else and be buried there."<ref name = "kadari"/> [[Rashi]] also quotes the [[Midrash Rabba]] saying that he was punished for not going to the high priest to get the vow annulled and was afflicted with an illness that caused his limbs to decompose off of his body at which point it would be buried where it fell thereby explaining the verse that said he was buried in the cities as opposed to city of Gilead.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Vayikra_Rabbah.37.4|title=Vayikra Rabbah 37:4|website=www.sefaria.org|access-date=Sep 19, 2020}}</ref> According to some rabbinical commentators, Phineas also sinned by failing to address the needs of relieving Jephthah of his [[Neder|vow]] to sacrifice his daughter.<ref>[[Genesis rabbah]], 60,3</ref> As consequence, the high priesthood was taken from him and temporarily given to the offspring of [[Ithamar]], essentially [[Eli (Bible)|Eli]] and his sons.

Since at least the 12th or 13th century, Jewish scholars, among them the compiler and summarizer [[David Kimhi]] (1160–1235) and [[Gersonides|Levi Ben Gershon]] (1288–1344), have taken fulfilment of Jephthah's vow as meaning that he only kept her in seclusion.<ref>[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8584-jephthah "Jephthah (יפתח)"], ''Jewish Encyclopedia''.</ref> This view is put forward also by Christian scholars from the 14th century<ref>Carol Ann Newsom et al. (eds), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=9uUMZ_g2_NoC&pg=PA136 Women's Bible Commentary]'' (Westminster John Knox Press 2012 {{ISBN|978-0-66423707-3}}), p. 136.</ref> and continues to be propounded today, as by Solomon Landers, who considers it most likely that the fate of Jephthah's daughter was perpetual virginity or solitary confinement.<ref name="Landers 1991">"Did Jephthah Kill his Daughter?", Solomon Landers, ''[[Biblical Archaeology Review]]'', August 1991.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title= Jephtha's Vow Reconsidered|journal = Huntington Library Quarterly|first= Susan|last=Staves |volume= 71 |issue=4|pages=651–69|doi= 10.1525/hlq.2008.71.4.651 |year = 2008}}</ref>

[[Ethelbert William Bullinger]],<ref>''Great Cloud of Witnesses in Hebrew 11'' (1911) {{ISBN |0-8254-2247-7}}.</ref> looks at the word "and" in 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<ref>{{cite web | work = JBA | url= http://www.jba.gr/Articles/jbadec06b.htm | title= Did Jephthah really sacrifice his daughter? An analysis of Judges 11:31}}</ref> 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:
{{Blockquote | 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.}}[[File:Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini 001.jpg|thumb|''The Return of Jephtha'', by [[Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini]]]]

However, in the Hebrew Bible, the same word for 'burnt offering' (Hebrew, ''ʿōlāh'') used in reference to Jephthah and his daughter in Judges 11:31 is also used in other Biblical stories alluding to human sacrifice, such as the story of Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 22) and Mesha of Moab and his son (2 Kings 3:27). Moreover, an ''ʿōlāh'' in the Hebrew Bible exemplifies a pure gift to the deity.<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/20504000 "ʿōlāh: The Rhetoric of Burnt Offerings"], ''Vetus Testamentum'', Vol. 56, Fasc. 1 (Jan., 2006), pp. 125–37.</ref> Thus, Jephthah is not stating an alternative between dedicating something to God and offering it up as a burnt offering, but clearly linking the two.

''[[Adam Clarke]]'s Commentary'' has an exposition of the issues at stake in this passage and contends that the vow Jephthah made was not as rash as it sounds.<ref>[https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/acc/judges-11.html Judges 11]. ''Adam Clarke Commentary''. Studylight.org. Accessed 17 February 2021.</ref>

The [[Order of the Eastern Star]] refers to her as Adah.<ref>{{Cite book | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=NXM4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA289 | title= The Builder: A Journal for the Masonic Student| year=1922}}</ref>