In today’s first reading, Jephthah offers his daughter as a burnt offering to God? I never saw this reading before. God accepted a human sacrifice? This is very troubling to me. Is it to be taken literally? Jephthah really did this? God didn’t stop him the way he stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac?
Yes, Jephthah really did this, that is what the scripture says and there is no reason that we shouldn’t take this literally or historically and there is no indication that the inspired writer is not setting down historical fact here, that is, real events that happened in Israel’s history.
The offering of Jephthah’s daughter in sacrifice is troubling though. It is written in the law that God gave to the Israelites through Moses:
“When you come into the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you, you shall not learn to imitate the abominations of the nations there. Let there not be found among you anyone who causes their son or daughter to pass through the fire of sacrifice” (Deut. 18: 9).
And, “When the LORD, your God, cuts down from before you the nations you are going in to dispossess, and you have dispossessed them and are settled in their land,
be careful that you not be trapped into following them after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire regarding their gods, “How did these nations serve their gods, so I might do the same.”
You shall not worship the LORD, your God, that way, because they offered to their gods every abomination that the LORD detests, even burning their sons and daughters to their gods.” (Deuteronomy 12: 29-31).
It is also written in the Law "When you make a vow to the LORD, your God, you shall not delay in fulfilling it; for the LORD, your God, will surely require it of you and you will be held guilty. Should you refrain from making a vow, you will not be held guilty.
But whatever your tongue utters you must be careful to do, just as you freely vowed to the LORD, your God, with your own mouth.(Deut. 23: 22-24).
So, when Jephthah saw his daughter as the first to come out of his house he was kind of between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, God commanded not to offer your son or daughter in sacrifice as some of the other surrounding peoples did. On the other hand, the Law says to make good your vows to the Lord. I think here we have a case of religious ignorance or bad judgement on Jephthah’s part though he thought he was doing the right thing because the law of God forbade human sacrifice and even certain animals were not to be sacrificed such as donkeys. St Thomas Aquinas says that vows which are freely and voluntarily made should always be about a better good and the very nature of a vow is that it is about something that is not strictly commanded by God as in the ten commandments. Vows are about something over and above what we are required to do such as the counsels of Jesus Christ and the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience which religious make.
St Thomas says that if a vow entails an evil result, such as was the case with Jephthah, then we must not keep it because the very nature of a vow concerns good or more specifically, a better good and not something sinful. Accordingly, St Jerome in commenting on Jephthah says: “In vowing he was foolish, through lack of discretion, and in keeping his vow he was wicked.”
Jephthah did not have to keep this somewhat rash vow he made to the Lord as it entailed an evil result, namely, human sacrifice which is against God’s law. He blindly followed what is written in the Law concerning vows through lack of good judgement and in so doing transgressed the Law concerning the sacrifice of your own sons or daughters.
St John Chrysostom as one of the posters here remarked appears to be of the same mind as St Jerome. Jephthah made a rash vow.
In Judges 11:29, it says " The spirit of Yahweh was on Jephthah." Someone might argue that Jephthah was moved by the Holy Spirit to make the vow although the scriptures do not explicitly state this. It says " And Jephthah made a vow to Yahweh." Even if Jephthah was inspired by the Holy Spirit to make a vow which is a good thing, the scriptures do not say He was commanded by God to make such a vow and as the Law says “Should you refrain from making a vow, you will not be held guilty” (Deut. 23:23). The type of vow which Jephthah voluntarily made was also one which lacked discretion as St Jerome and St John Chrysostom say. And as St Thomas says, he should not have kept it as it involved an evil result, a sin, a transgression of the Law itself, namely, he sacrificed his own daughter.
The Holy Scriptures do not appear to blame Jephthah for offering his daughter in sacrifice although he was not commanded by God to do this as was the case with Abraham and Isaac. It involved a transgression of the Law itself. The emphasis of the story appears to be concerned with the faith and devotion of Jephthah toward God and the Law of Moses and the fulfilling of vows once made. Thus Jephthah is considered as one of the saints of the Old Testament in Hebrews 11:32. It appears from the story that Jephthah thought he was doing the right thing and God allowed it to happen and thus it probably mystically foreshadows something good, namely, the sacrifice of God’s Son for the salvation of the world. For God is able to draw good out of evil. Again though, Jephthah blindly followed the law concerning vows and according to the fathers and doctors of the Church I mentioned above, made a bad judgement on keeping a vow that was rashly made through lack of discretion. Again though, Jephthah through religious ignorance we might say, thought he was doing the right thing and so the scriptures do not appear to blame him for his sinful deed of sacrificing his daughter.
