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| Background: The Book of Judges, chapter 11 of the bible tells the story of Jephthah, the Israelite who was a bastard and a real son of a bitch (illegitimate son of a whore) who was kicked out of his home by his father who told him that he's not going to inherit anything from the family. So he "fled" to the land of Tor, 'till the leaders of the Israelites came looking for him. The "children of Ammon" attacked the Israelites and drove them from some land and the Israeli leaders came to ask Jephthah to lead them into battle. "But you kicked me out of Israel" said Jephthah, "and now you want me to lead you?" Judges 11:8-11 (KJV) "And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Therefore we turn again to thee now, that thou mayest go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, If ye bring me home again to fight against the children of Ammon, and the LORD deliver them before me, shall I be your head? And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, The LORD be witness between us, if we do not so according to thy words. Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them: and Jephthah uttered all his words before the LORD in Mizpeh." The story goes on where Jephthah, through messengers, conversed with the King of the Ammonites and the King's story was that the Israelites stole the land after leaving Egypt, but the Israelites deny this, saying that if it wasn't the will of 'god' then they couldn't have taken it, yada-yada. So, Jephthah goes to war... Judges 11:30-33 (KJV) "And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands. And he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel" Jephthah made a business deal with Yahweh, Jesus' father, that if he delivered without fail into his hands then he will offer a human sacrifice to Yahweh. ('Yahweh' is the secret Jewish name for the biblical 'god' of the Jews and Jesus' father). The typical Judeo/Christian appology to this is that the text does not say that 'god'-Yahweh liked the idea but this is not true. Verses 32-33 (above in green) says that the lord delivered them into his hands and he smote them. It didn't say that Jephthah won the battle without the lords help or that he won it by chance and mistakenly thought the lord helped. It says that the lord delivered them into his hands and he killed them. Yahweh wanted the sacrificial human blood or he wouldn't have delivered the Ammonites into Jephthah's hands. So, Jephthah wins battle after battle until he slew all the other guys, then he goes home. He only has a single daughter and a wife, and it is his daughter that comes out to greet him. He acts all upset (I suppose he was looking forward to killing his wife instead). He tells his daughter all about it and she insists that he do what he said he was going to do, but let her go into the hills and woods and "bewail her virginity" (women are only good for bearing male children, so she needs to 'bewail' not bearing any male offspring for her human-sacrificing father). She came back in two months and... Judges 11:39 (KJV) "And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man." Strangely enough, I have had several encounters with biblical fundementalists who insist that Jephthah didn't offer his daughter up as a burnt sacrifice, but there it is in Judges 11:39. "Burnt Sacrifice" in Hebrew (phonically) is "'olah" and is the same word used in Genesis 8:20 where Noah offers up a burnt offering of animals to 'god' when he parks his boat (and 'olah is used in many other places in the bible meaning the same thing). There is no mistaking that Jephthah offered up his daughter in a human sacrifice to the 'god' Yahweh, who is described as being complicit with the deal. Here's the deal. Was the human sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter (we don't even know her name) morally good or morally bad in your opinion? Is human sacrifice to a 'god' morally wrong? Yes or No? |