The Four Ladies of the Book of Judges #4
Exploring the “Seed-Bearer” Theme
Jephthah’s Daughter:
“Lamenting Virginity”
Written by Dan McDonald
There are a number of challenges for
the modern reader trying to piece together an understanding of the eleventh
chapter of the Book of Judges. What sort
of man was Jephthah, described as a “mighty man of valor?” Did Jephthah actually sacrifice his daughter
as a burnt offering? What are we to make
of the sacrifice that did take place?
I think it is important to see
Jephthah as a flawed man who nonetheless is considered by the Scriptures to be
a man of faith, even if his faith is flawed.
For most Christians, the inclusion of Jephthah in the rolls of faith in
Hebrews chapter 11 will settle the question of whether Jephthah was a man of
faith or not. Still, that doesn’t
necessarily rule out the possibility that Jephthah was a deeply flawed man as
well as a man of faith.
The Bible tells us of how Jephthah’s
background led him to being made an outcast by his family. He was the son of Gilead but not of Gilead’s
wife. His mother was a harlot or
prostitute. The rest of his family therefore
didn’t want him around them. They tossed
him off the family estate. At least part
of the reason mentioned was they didn’t think he should be rewarded with a part
of the estate when he was the son of a harlot.
After his family disowned him Jephthah
“dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain men to Jephthah, and
went out with him.” (Judges 11:3) The translation of the same sentence by the
Jewish Publication Society’s version of the Tanakh reads more clearly “Men of
low character gathered about Jephthah and went out raiding with him.” If we were to think of Jephthah in modern
terms, he was forced by his dysfunctional home to find family as the head of a
gang. They were tough enough and rough
enough that they got a reputation for being able to more than handle things in
confrontations.
It was somewhere after Jephthah’s
men of low character were seen as “tough hombres” that Jephthah’s family came
asking him if he would fight on their behalf against Israel’s oppressors. The hard years had an impact on
Jephthah. He wasn’t the sort of guy who
now naturally supposed that God loved him and had a wonderful plan for his
life. He was a disinherited son that had
fought and clawed his way to the top of a gang.
He had learned that offering security was a liability unless there were
some paybacks for the security offered.
He told his brothers if they would agree to be ruled by him, he would
fight on their behalf.
After Jephthah is recognized as
their leader and commissioned to fight Israel’s battle, it would appear that
Jephthah then determines it is important to seek the Lord. He makes a vow that if God would enable him
to defeat the enemy he would offer as a burnt offering anything that came out to
meet him when he returned to his land.
This is something that I think shows the basic problem with Jephthah and
why he made his rash vow to God.
Jephthah had not learned to be a man who was loved. He was an outcast who gathered friends who
were outcasts, and together they could make a living by raiding others. Alliances were perhaps the closest things
Jephthah knew to friendships. He was an
alliance builder who knew how to offer security by bargaining until his
reasonable offer was accepted.
At this point I think we can see
from a Biblical perspective a flaw in Jephthah’s approach to life, a flaw very
common in people that had a background like his. From a strictly Protestant perspective that
flaw might be described as not being grace centered. He was the sort of person who had learned to
obtain security through deal making.
Sociologically his flaw could be described in similar manner as having
been introduced to society through a non-loving family. His sense of security had not been fostered through
a loving family but in the structure of a gang.
They obtained security by being tough hombres able to defeat other
hombres and able to trade for needed alliances to defeat those who had to be
defeated. Jephthah took that attitude in
his approach to God when he felt he needed help to defeat the enemy.
I wonder if another attitude wasn’t
part of his composition. Jephthah had
gained security, even his brother’s recognition by being a leader. Perhaps there was a consideration within
Jephthah’s mind that obedience would be desired by God rather than sacrifice,
and a living sacrifice of our hearts, minds, and souls would be the reasonable
service God would desire. But Jephthah
wanted to make a deal so he could remain a leader and not just be a servant to
God. Perhaps Jephthah wasn’t willing to
offer God himself as a living sacrifice.
Perhaps Jephthah gave God his terms instead of the terms God would have
given him in going to battle. God was
gracious to allow Jephthah victory, but God showed that no one again should
ever want to make such a deal for if we failed to give ourselves there was
nothing we could offer worthy of the gift we refused to offer. Jephthah came to his estate and his daughter
came running out to him. She ran from
the house with timbrel. She was prepared
to dance joyously for the great victory Israel had won. But her joy was short-lived for soon he
shared with her the horrible news of the vow he had uttered.
Jephthah’s daughter learning of her father’s vow
Even at this juncture Jephthah
should have recognized he had made a rash vow and repented of his error. But Jephthah’s religion was partially
Biblical and partially made of religious traditions not as gracious as that of
the Scriptures. Perhaps he was a
legalist in some ways who made a stand based on rigid principles such as his
own time period’s version of the principle of, “a righteous man swears to his
own hurt and does not change.” So
Jephthah in some manner sacrificed his daughter.
It is common in modern treatments of
Jephthah and his daughter to suggest that Jephthah’s daughter lived a life in
seclusion from humanity rather than being literally sacrificed. I would like to say that was true, but no
commentator either in Judaism or Christianity proposed an alternative to actual
sacrifice prior to 1000 AD. Philo,
Josephus, the church fathers, the Talmudic writers before 1000 AD regarded to a
person an actual sacrifice. I hope they
were all wrong and the one or two commentators who suggested otherwise between
1000 AD and 1400 AD were correct. I
would be happy enough for the alternative view to be correct that I will
acknowledge it as a possibility. But
that does seem like a lot of religious tradition to overcome. For further reading on this I provide this link from a
Jewish source telling of both Christian and Jewish traditions on this passage.
Jephthah’s daughter and her companions lamenting her
virginity
Jephthah’s daughter agrees to
whatever sort of sacrifice it ended up being.
She asks one thing of her father.
She asks that she may have two months to spend with her companions. She will lament her virginity. For a Hebrew woman of Old Testament times
virginity was seen as a temporary glory to be exchanged for a greater glory,
the glory of union and the possibility that one might become a mother in Israel
and be somehow included in the promise of the birth of the one who would crush
the serpent’s head. Jephthah’s daughter
lamented that she would die a virgin and be excluded from being a mother in
Israel. She faced her coming death with
valor, with resolve, and lamented with bitter tears and great sorrow that she
would die a virgin. For surely no virgin
could ever be associated with this promise, that through the seed of the woman
would come the son who would crush the serpent’s head.
But perhaps the one thing that
Jephthah’s daughter lamented so grievously, and which Israel for many years
marked on its calendar with a festival, was the one thing that tied this
otherwise sad woman with the coming birth of the promised son. For Jephthah’s daughter lived before Isaiah
declared that this son would be born of a virgin. But here in Judges perhaps Jephthah’s
daughter prefigures it. This son
according to Deborah would be the word made flesh, according to Jael would
crush the Serpent’s head, and according to Jephthah’s daughter would be born of
a virgin. Her lamentation would in a
better place be turned to joy as angels sang around the virgin who had given
birth in yonder stall in Bethlehem.
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