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Date:         Sun, 24 Jan 1993 23:09:44 EST
From:         "Spawn of a Jewish Carpenter (Cindy Smith)" <cms@DRAGON.COM>
Subject: Re: Some thoughts on Judges and Jeptha and Jeptha's daughter

Ecclesiasticus 46:11-12

        The Judges too, each when he was called,
           all men whose hearts were never disloyal,
        who never turned their backs on the Lord --
           may their memory be blessed!
        May their bones flourish again from the tomb,
           and may the names of those illustrious men
           be worthily borne by their sons!

 In the Sefer Ha-Aggadah (the Book of Legends) is the following
account:

        Jephthah was no more letter than a block of sycamore wood, and
        because of his ignorance he lost his daughter.  When?  At the
        time he fought the children of Ammon, when he vowed,
        "Whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet
        me....I will offer it up for a burnt offering" (Judg. 11:31).
        The Holy One, provoked by him, said, "Suppose a dog, a pig,
        or a camel came forth out of his house, would he offer it
        to Me?"  So He had his daughter come forth.

        "And it came to pass, when he saw her...he moaned:  'Alas, my
        daughter!...I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot
        go back'" (Judg. 11:35).  But was not Phinehas there [to
        absolve him of his vow]?  [NOTES:  A right that given to
        priests and sages.]   However, Phinehas said:  Shall I, high
        priest son of a high priest, demean myself by calling on an
        ignoramus?  While Jephthah said:  Shall I, chief ot the
        tribes of Israel, foremost of its leaders, demean myself by
        calling on a commoner?  Between the two of them, the hapless
        one perished from the world, and both men were held liable for
        her blood:  Phinehas was deprived of the holy spirit, while
        Jephthah died by having his limbs drop off one by one.
        Wherever he went, a limb would drop off from him, and it was
        buried there on the spot.  [NOTES:  With reference to the
        manner of his death, Scripture says, "Jephthah was dying; he
        was buried in the cities of Gilead" (Judg. 12:7).  Since
        Scripture does not say, "In a city in Gildead," but, "In the
        cities of Gilead," the commentator infers that Jephthah's
        limbs were interred in several cities in Gilead.  JV:  'was
        buried in one of the cities of Gilead."]

        As Jephthah was making ready to offer up his daughter, she
        wept before him and pleaded, "My father, my father, I came out
        to meet you full of joy, and now you are about to slaughter me.
        Is it written in the Torah that Israel should offer the lives
        of their children upon the altar?"  Jephthah replied, "My
        daughter, I made a vow."  She answered, "But Jacob our father
        vowed, 'Of all that Thou shalt give me I will surely give the
        tenth unto Thee' [Gen. 28:22].  Then, when the Holy One gave
        him twelve sons, did he perchance offer one of them on an
        altar to the Holy One?  Moreover, Hannah also vowed, 'I will
        give him unto the Lord all the days of his life'
        [1 Sam. 1:11] -- did she perchance offer her son [on an altar]
        to the Lord?"

        Though she said all these things to him, Jephthah did not heed
        her, but he went up to the altar and slaughtered her before
        the Holy One.

        At that moment, the Holy Spirit cried out in anguish:  Have I
        ever asked you to offer living souls to Me?  "I commanded not,
        nor spoke it, enither came it into My mind (Jer. 19:5).
        [NOTES:  Tanhuma, Be-hukkotai, #7; Gen. R. 60:3.]

From the book the "Bible as Literature" by John B. Gabel and Charles
B. Wheeler, pages 82-83:

        We should conclude by pointing out that if the Bible is
        throughout the word of God, it should in theory be useful
        and relevant in all parts to the same degree.  But no one
        who uses the Bible treats it in that way.  Not all
        canonical books are in practice equally canonical.  For
        all readers there is a canon within the canon, a list
        of favorite books or favorite passages to which they
        habitually return; correspondingly, there are books and
        passages that they never read or read only under duress.
        Few would deny that there is great weariness of flesh in
        working one's way through the lists of names in Chronicles
        or the descriptions of sacrificial ritual in Leviticus; many
        Christians have as little to do with the book of Revelation as
        possible, preferring Paul's teaching on love to John's lurid
        visions of revenge; few readers can find religious inspiration
        in the Song of Songs or in Esther, and most are not uplifted by
        the slaughter that accompanies the conquest of Canaan
        (Joshua 10-11) or the story of the Levite and the concubine
        (Judges 19); and so on.  When using the Bible to provide
        proofs in religious argument, readers always turn to those
        passages that support their own point of view and ignore
        those that do not.  The well-known fact that even the Devil
        can quote scripture to his own purpose indicates the variety
        and multiplicity of this inexhaustible collection, for there
        is something here for all tastes.  Most of us would vote to
        exclude some portions of it in favor of others, if the canon
        were to be submitted for ratification now.

        But it will not be.  Not only can no other books get into the
        Bible, none of the present canonical books can get out.  That
        is what it means to say that the canon is closed.

 I'm not sure I entirely agree with the author on the texts he cites.
For example, I have found great religious inspiration in the prayers
to God in Esther.  I have also found great religious inspiration in a
mystical relationship with God in the Song of Songs.  However, I'm
sure the author would agree with me that he or anyone else might
select texts I would find uninspiring despite their inspired status.
Jephtha's daughter is not a meditative text.  Not all stories in the
Bible are designed to arouse feelings of warmth and piety toward God.
What then is the purpose of the story of Jephtha and his daughter?

 Any good story has plot, theme, and character development.  Was
Jephtha a hero or a villain, a tragic figure or an impetuously
self-destructive fool?  The narrator does not tell us and therein may
lie the greatness of Biblical literature:  We must negotiate among
ourselves what it means.  The editor's comment "There was no king in
Israel at that time and everyone did as he pleased" gives us a clue as
to how a later, more structured society felt about such things.  The
writer of the story may be concerned with certain issues, the editor
with others.  The writer of Jephtha expresses great concern over
matters of political leadership, the relationship between the
community and its members, the importance of fulfilling vows, human
beings' obligations to God (real and imagined), and relationships
between family members (such as father and daughter).  The writer uses
plot, characterization, dialogue, thematic key words, and repetition
of important points to develop his theme.  If we ignore the writer's
art, we miss the intended meaning.

 The writer of Jephtha's tale uses foreshadowing to anticipate the key
problem in the plot:  Jeptha's rash vow.  The writer tells us of a
series of vows and promises made by Jephtha and the elders.  It is
significant that Jephtha is the son of a whore.  In Proverbs 31,
Lemeul's mother refers to her son as the "son of my vows."  Jephtha is
the son of no one's vows, he is the son of a whore.  The elders make
the first vow in 11:11, "Yahweh be witness between us...."  The next
section deals with Jephtha's negotiations with the Ammonites, a text
dealing with violations of trust and bad faith.  Jephtha must assert
that Israel has acted in good faith, and the Ammonites in bad faith.
The honor of Israel is at stake.  Immediately subsequent to this
passage Jephtha makes his rash vow.  The rest of the story is
etiological, explaining the existence of a perhaps originally pagan
custom of girls bewailing their virginity on the local mountains.
These interconnecting details draw us into a major editorial theme of
political leadership and fitting leaders, anarchy and civil war.  When
one tribe gets to powerful, other tribes get jealous and attempt to
curtail that power.  Obviously, the editor is saying, we need a king
to unify Israel!  This will lead very neatly into 1 Samuel, which
is perhaps more appropriate originally called the First Book of Kings.

 Many Bible study texts will begin with the Exodus, arguing that this
text signifies the beginning of the people of Israel.  Such an
attitude completely ignores the thematic unity of the Bible as a
whole.  To understand the Bible as literature, you have to begin with
Genesis.  To understand Judges, you have to know the story of Joshua,
who was the single leader who led Israel to victory.  In the days of
the Judges, there was no single leader, and one was obviously needed.
In the days of the Kings, Israel does have a single leader, but
Israel's success depends on the fidelity of the King.  Most of the
kings of Israel were evil, but we do have a couple of fairly good
models to work from (David and Solomon), although they also have their
tragic flaws.  A unifying theme throughout the Bible is if we only
accepted God as our King, we wouldn't have all these problems.  When
we accept God as our King, we are delivered; when we reject God as our
King, we only damn ourselves.