The story of Jephthah and his daughter has elements of drama, beginning
with the difficult conditions of his early life. His
history begins with eviction from his home and family, a son of a
prostitute/concubine driven out by his half-brothers. Yet after this
loss of place and status, by his own strength and prowess he became a
chieftain in his father's clan of Gileadites and eventually a judge in
Israel.
Jephthah was appointed to command the fighting
men of Gilead against the Ammonites, who were attacking them. Before
engaging the enemy in battle and after we are told that ‘the spirit of
God was on Jephthah’ (11:29)
he promises the pay a price for victory: And Jephthah made the following vow to the Lord. "If you deliver the Ammonites into my hands, then whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me on my safe return from the Ammonites shall be the Lord's, and shall be offered by me as a ‘olah’" (Judges 11:31-32). Did Jephthah not know what we knew that god had already promised him victory? Or did he need further guarantees?
What living creature could he have expected to come first out of his
house? Animals were not kept inside houses, so should he not have
expected it to be a human being – his wife, his daughter, a servant or
slave? (Augustine in The City of God suggests that he intended to
kill his wife.1) As it happens, that is his daughter, his only
child, come to meet him with dancing and playing upon a timbrel –
the customary way for women to greet the return of a victorious hero.
(Miriam dances after the victory over the Red Sea (Ex. 15:20) as did
David when bringing the Ark to Jerusalem (IISam. 6:14).
Jephthah at once shifts the responsibility from his own folly onto
her: "Alas, daughter! You have brought me low; you have become
one of those who trouble me! For I have uttered a vow to the Lord and I
cannot retract" (v. 11:35). The end of the story is stated
almost evasively . . . he did to her as he had vowed (v.
39).
Jephthah made a rash and thoughtless vow
or promise, as others had done but without the calamitous
consequences. Caleb had declared made a vow "I will give my
daughter Acsah in marriage to the man who attacks and captures Kiriath
Sepher" (Josh. 15:16). By good chance, that man was an eligible
and suitable husband for Acsah. Another rash vow was
made by King Saul before entering into battle against the Philistines:
"Cursed be any man who eats food before evening comes, before I have
avenged myself on my enemies!" (I Sam. 14:24). When he
learned that his son Jonathan, who had not heard this decree, had eaten
some honey he threatened to put him to death, but was prevented by his
own men. The rash vow closest to that of Jephthah is found not in the
Bible but in Greek mythology: Idomoneus, King of Crete, caught in a
storm at sea vowed to the god Poseidon that if he reached shore safely
he would sacrifice the first creature he saw – who turned out to be his
young son. He however, refused to carry out his vow, a plague ensued
and he was exiled.
In the Bible the major tale involving
sacrifice of a child by a father is the Akedah of Isaac. However the
Lord's command to Abraham is rescinded and the son saved (Gen.
22:1-18). (2) Another Greek parallel to child sacrifice is Agamemnon’s
daughter Iphigenia to be sacrificed to appease the goddess Artemis. The
purpose of this sacrifice was for the Greeks to begin a war over their
enemies, the Trojans. According to Aeschylus tale (in
‘Agamemnon’) she begged her father for her life. In Euripides version
(‘Iphigenia in Tauris’) she accepts her fate and in fact beseeches her
father to accomplish the act. Iphigenia’s mother Clytemnestra totally
rejected her husband’s action and conspired to murder him in revenge.
How did Jephthah’s wife react to her husband’s vow and her daughter’s
reaction?
In the case of Saul and Jonathan, the
King's own men prevented the execution. It seems that there was no
attempt to stop Jephthah, not even by the daughter's own friends and
kin. Why did not anyone of his associates remind him that human
sacrifice was forbidden to the Israelites (Lev. 18:21, 20:2-5;
Deut. 12:31, 18:10) ? Ester Fuchs asks why the daughter did not appeal
to Israelite morality, rather than respond by quoting his "‘I have
opened my mouth to the Lord’ (Jud. 11:35-36) and thus my death is
ordained? Was she volunteering for martyrdom and if so why (3)?
THE VOW
Would a vow to commit a grave sin – sacrifice of one’s child – be valid? Must a vow be fulfilled regardless of the consequences? The sacrifice of Isaac, often compared to the sacrifice of Jephthah’s daughter took place before the laws given at the hand of Moses and in any event is introduced as a test of Abraham’s faith (Gen. 22:1). The Mishna (the first code of Jewish law) which was composed 1500 years after the period of Jephthah states that a vow to commit an act in direct violation of a halakha (Jewish law) is an invalid vow (Mishna Nedarim 2:1). The Talmud states that Jephthah’s vow was invalid (JT Pesah, 9:6) but assumed that nonetheless Jephthah sacrificed his daughter. Why does the text not condemn this vow? Jon Levenson suggests that despite the Torah condemning human sacrifice the redemption of the first born (Ex. 13:2) was sometimes seen via an appropriate sacrifice (4)
The theme of violence is the central core of the book of Judges. The
book as a whole seems to suggest that the Israelites, instead of
rejecting the idolatry and pagan morality of the neighborhood they
conquered, adopted them. One commentator suggests that Jephthah
sacrificing his daughter is the quintessential symbol of that adoption
(5)
DID JEPHTHAH SACRIFICE HIS DAUGHTER?
The text does not state explicitly that Jephthah sacrificed his daughter, but only that ‘ he did to her as he had vowed’ (v. 39). This ambiguity allows a fascinating debate to arise. He had vowed to offer her as an olah.’ Does that Hebrew word mean only a "burnt offering," or a "consecrated offering" of some other kind.
For the first millennium of the Common Era, Jewish commentators
unanimously (insofar as is known to us) interpreted the text
literarily: that Jephthah put his daughter to death. This
includes non-rabbinic sources such as Josephus and Pseudo-Philo, the
latter of whom draws a comparison of the fate of Jephthah’s daughter to
the near death of Isaac.
The comparison lies in both experiences bearing a value of atonement. But a midrash states that God tells Jephthah's daughter that her death would have no value of atonement (6). These authors would almost certainly be aware of the Christian concept regarding Jephthah’s daughter as not only having value of atonement but foreshadowing the crucifixion of Jesus.
In the Middle Ages, many highly respected Jewish commentators were
unwilling to tolerate the concept of a human sacrifice in the holy
Scripture and they struggled to find an acceptable alternative. Many
accepted a refashioning and re-sculpting of the text to conclude that
Jephthah in fact consecrated his daughter as a perpetual virgin and
anchorite rather than take her life as a sacrifice. This was considered
a preferable alternative, despite the fact that this ideal of perpetual
virginity and asceticism had never previously appeared in Jewish texts
and in fact lay outside the Jewish belief system and cultural milieu.
The first Jewish commentator to suggest the
alternative of a different mode of consecration was Abraham Ibn Ezra
(1089-1184). According to Ibn Ezra, the vow implied that the
first thing to appear if appropriate would be sacrificed, if not it
would be consecrated for holiness, with the key words being "if
appropriate." This approach increases the options for the
exegete’s interpretation, but of course those words do not appear in
the text. We shall see below how another exegete found a textual
justification for a non-sacrificial mode. Ibn Ezra
then continues that Jephthah built daughter a house outside the city
for seclusion and provided her sustenance all the days of her life (7).
David Kimche (Radak - 1160-1235) states in the
name of his father Joseph that the ‘ve’ in ‘ve’ha’ali’tahu olah’ makes
it conditional, interpreting the letter ‘vuv’ to mean ‘if.’ He
stresses that ‘if’ it is an appropriate sacrifice then it will be a
burnt offering, and ‘if’ not it would be consecrated to God.
Defining the ‘vuv’ as ‘if’ – rather than the conjunctive ‘and’ – is not
a usual interpretation of that letter in that context. Kimche despite
living in Provencal was influenced by the grammatical work of the
Andalusion Ibn Ezra. Kimche stated that "she secluded herself as do
ascetics who are enclosed in their cells" (8)
One must understand the historical atmosphere
reigning in this era in order to grasp the context of this
interpretation. The period 1080-1170 was the time of greatest growth of
monastic life for women in Spain, England, France and Italy. According
to a study noted by Berman there were in fact more female recluses than
males ones in the period being discussed (9)
Gersonides (1288-1344) and Abarbanel (1437-1508) adopted the consecration ideal as against the sacrificial one (10). The former suggests that a male would be dedicated to the Tabernacle, not unlike a Levite or Priest, despite the rule that only a member of the hereditary line of Levi could be so dedicated. In the case of a woman, she would be required to be celibate, and that Jephthah built a cell for his daughter. Abarbanel states that the Church "derived the practice of establishing houses of seclusion for women from the daughter of Jephthah” (11) He states also that the daughter could not even see her female friends who come the four days of the year to visit her, but only hear their voices. That may have come from the Ancrene Riwle well known at the time, that prohibited Christian anchoresses from viewing other persons even in confession (12), and believes she chose the site for her cell during the two months she wandered on the mountains.
The cultural adoption of a Christian idea by
these Medieval-Renaissance Jewish commentators is remarkable. All were
and remain leading exegetes. To extol a celibate woman appears
nowhere in the Tanakh, although Jeremiah in noted as a celibate prophet
and priest (Jer. 16:2). Given that these Jewish commentators lived in
areas where women's convents were established, it is difficult to
believe, as noted by Berman, that they were not influenced by Christian
women’s monastic ideals (13).
ABRAHAM'S SON AND JEPHTHAH'S DAUGHTER
‘Whatever will emerge from the door of my house to meet me . . . shall belong to God and I shall offer to consecrate’ (Jud. 11:30) The Hebrew words are ve’ha’ali’tahu olah, almost identical God's command to Abraham,‘ve’ha’ali’hu le’olah’ on the sacrifice of Isaac (Gen. 22:2). Rashi wrote in reference to Abraham and the sacrifice that the word ‘le’oleh.’ although usually translated ‘for a burnt offering,’ comes from a root meaning "going up" and may have meant "take him up." Thus, he proposes that God may have requested Abraham simply to take Isaac ‘up’ to Mount Moriah, perhaps for a direct blessing and now ‘take him down (14).
In many ways the stories of Abraham and
Jephthah are mirror opposites of each other.
* Abraham is the eldest son of a respectable family, while Jephthah is illegitimate.
* Abraham’s child is named Isaac, Jephthah’s daughter is unnamed.
* God is testing Abraham’s faith, Jephthah vow originated from perhaps his lack of faith that he could be assured of victory without it.
* Abraham consoles his son ‘God will provide the sheep for the burnt offering’ (Gen. 22:8). Jephthah not does not console his daughter, he bemoans his own fate and puts the blame on her.
* An Angel appears to save Isaac, girls appear to lament Jephthah’s daughter.
* Abraham's story is told clearly. Jephthah’s story is full of ambiguities.
* Jephthah had no other child, and his vow left him childless and without progeny. Abraham, after the Akedah, leaves many progeny.
* Abraham’s child is male, Jephthah’s is female.
Despite one dying and one saved both are seen by Christian
commentators as having atoning value and as a foreshadowing Jesus’
crucifixion.
CONCLUSION
There is no punishment of Jephthah in the biblical text, but the midrash suggests he was punished. Phineas, the local priest, could have saved the daughter by annulling the vow, as in talmudic times a High Priest could annul a vow. But instead, he said, ‘I am a High Priest, the son of a High Priest, shall I go an ignoramus?’ He was insulting Jephthah who in turn responded by saying ‘I am the chief of Israel, shall I go to Phineas’ (Gen. Rabbah 60:3) Thus the daughter lost her life. Both Phineas and Jephthah were condemned and punished.
According to the biblical text, when Jephthah dies ‘he was buried in the cities [plural] of Gilead’ (12:7) According to the Midrash, that is because his parts disintegrated and were in the cities where they fell (Gen. Rabba 60:3, Lev. Rabba 37:4). The former midrash tells us Phineas lost his Divine inspiration as a result of not acting to save Jephthah’s daughter.
Notes
(1) Quoted in Thompson, John, L., ‘Writing the Wrongs’ (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001) pg 126.
(2) In another such deed King Mesha of Moab, who to save himself from defeat by his foes sacrificed his son the crown prince; but he was a pagan (II Kings 3:27).
(3) Ester Fuchs in ‘Marginalization, Ambiguity and Silencing’, in Brenner, Athalya, ed. ‘A Feminist Companion To Judges’, JSOT, Sheffield University Press, Sheffield, 1993) pg. 125.
(4) Levenson, Jon, D., The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son, (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1993) pg. 16.
(5) David Janzen, ‘Why the Deuteronomist Told about the Sacrifice of Jephthah’s Daughter’, The Journal of the Study of the Old Testament, Vol. 29, March, 2005, pg. 35-36.
(6) Ginzberg, Louis, Legends of the Jews, JPS, Philadelphia, 1967) Vol. IV, pg. 43-47, VI pg. 203.
(7) Joshua Berman, ‘Medieval Monasticism’, Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 95, Spring 2005, pg. 227.
(8) From Uriel Simon, ‘Tehillah La Moshe, (Hebrew) translated by Joshua Berman, and quoted in ‘Medieval Monasticism’, pg. 230. Also see Mehlman, Israel, Jephthah and Jephthah’s Daughter, (World Jewish Bible Society, Jerusalem, 1962) pg. 21-23.
(9) Berman, pg. 253.
(10) Berman, pg 230 and Marcus, David, Jephthah and his Vow, (Texas Tech Press, Lubbock, Texas, 1986) pgs. 8-9.
(11) Berman, pg. 230.
(12) The ‘Ancrene Riwle’ of which many texts still survive was a well known thirteen century manual for anchoresses.
(13) This is well documented by the Berman article noted above. It is interesting that Jephthah’s virginity appears as a key ideal of holiness while her grandmother, Jephthah’s mother is noted as the mirror image, a prostitute. A prostitute is in some occasions in the Hebrew Bible called ‘Hakodasha’ the holy one as when Tamar acted as a prostitute to seduce Judah (Gen. 38:21). It refers to be consecrated to a Temple as a holy prostitute.
(14) See the article by the author in the Jewish Bible Quarterly ‘Abraham’s Moment of Decision’ Vol. XXXV:1 (137), pg. 56-59. I should note that Rashi assumed that Jephthah sacrificed his daughter.