Child Abuse Yahweh's Way
Farrell Till
Only in the Twilight Zone of biblical times could one
become a "hero of faith" by killing his daughter in order to keep a
foolish oath. In our last trek through the Twilight Zone, we saw that vows were
serious business in those days. None of the Israelite fathers, for example,
felt free to give their daughters in marriage to the 600 males who had survived
the massacre of the Benjamites, because "the men
of Israel had sworn an oath at Mizpah, saying, `None
of us shall give his daughter to Benjamin as a wife'" (Judges
Faithfulness to one's word is certainly an admirable trait, but in the Twilight Zone of biblical times loyalty was sometimes carried to extremes. In the case of the Benjamite massacre, for example, even when the Israelites realized they had sworn an oath in haste that would result in the extinction of one of their tribes, they felt duty bound to honor their vow. So, as we noticed on our last journey, they had to rationalize their way out of the problem by letting the Benjamites abduct Israelite women so that they could have brides who had not been "given" to them. Thus, the problem was solved, while at least the letter of the oath had been respected.
The most extreme example of oath-keeping recorded in the
Bible is the case of Jephthah, an Israelite judge
whose ill-conceived oath led him to sacrifice his only child as a burnt
offering to Yahweh. The story is recorded in Judges
On his return home, however, Jephthah was greeted at his house by his daughter who came out to meet him "with timbrels and dancing" (v:34). When Jephthah saw her, he tore his clothes and cried out in anguish, "Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low! You are among those who trouble me! For I have given my word to Yahweh, and I cannot go back on it" (v:36). Well, pardon me for not having a lot of sympathy for Jephthah, but didn't this guy realize when he made his oath that something like this could easily happen? True, archaeological evidence indicates that Israelites had quarters for livestock in their houses, but I would think that even a nincompoop would have known that his daughter or wife could be the first to come out the door when he returned home.
So surely Jephthah reconsidered and said, "Well, let's face it; I made a stupid oath, and there's no way I can fulfill it." If this is what you're thinking, then think again, and try to remember that these are stories from the Twilight Zone of biblical times. As noted above, Jephthah wailed to his daughter, "I have given my word to Yahweh, and I cannot go back on it." Well, then, surely the daughter said, "Forget it, Pop; I'm not going to fry for some crazy oath you swore." No, no, no, a hundred times no. This is the Twilight Zone we're talking about. Remember? When Jephthah's daughter heard his plaint, she said, "My father, if you have given your word to Yahweh, do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, because Yahweh has avenged you of your enemies, the people of Ammon." Gee, and some of us have trouble just getting our daughters to respect curfews and other simple rules.
To make a long story short, Jephthah's
daughter asked her father to wait two months so that she could "wander on
the mountains and bewail [her] virginity" (v:37). Permission was granted
(so this guy Jephthah was really a decent fellow),
"and it was so at the end of two months that she returned to her father,
and he carried out his vow with her which he had vowed" (v:39). So great
was Jephthah's deed in the Twilight-Zone minds of
biblical writers that he was listed as a hero of faith in Hebrews
Now, as shocking as this story is to modern readers, its
whole purpose was to depict Jephthah as a man who
deemed service to God more important than everything else, even close family
relationships. If that seems hard for you to grasp, you just don't realize that
killing one's daughter and sacrificing her as a burnt offering to Yahweh
wouldn't have been the least bit shocking to Twilight-Zone minds. After all,
these were people who considered Abraham a great example of faith because he
had been willing to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice to Yahweh (Gen.
Well, fortunately, we are more civilized now, and people no longer have such barbaric ideas. Is that what you're thinking? Then stop for just a moment and think about how many sermons will be preached next Sunday about the great love that God showed for humanity by letting his son be nailed to a piece of wood to die an agonizing death for the "sins" of the world. Sometimes Twilight-Zone thinking trickles down to these more civilized times.
Join to Receive the Secular
Humanist Bulletin
Secular Humanism Online Library