THE BUILDER November 1929

Jephthah's Daughter

A Problem for the Order of the Eastern Star

By BRO. ROBERT C. WRIGHT, Oregon

THE object of this present discussion is, first, to supply some
facts, historical and scientific; second, to put the question
squarely before the powers that be in the O. E. S.; shall the
legend of Jephthah's Daughter he eliminated and something more
elevating and appropriate be substituted in its place?

The writer is a Past Patron and feels justified in pointing the way
to something better fitted for the good old order. Therefore let us
not "get all fussed up pronto" and call this a destructive attack,
but sympathetically analyze the problem. Let it be determined
whether or not the O. E. S. shall put its house in order and cease
teaching the innocent and unthinking ones a harrowing and sordid
tale which would not for one moment be considered as suitable for
any ritual, if concerned with purported acts occurring today in
real life.

Jephthah's origin was such that he was an insignificant person and,
associating with fools, betrayed his tendency to be a fool. (Judges
xi, 1-3) He is one of four mentioned in The Scripture who made
imprudent vows, and the only one of these who is reported to have
had occasion to deplore his imprudence. Some commentators dispute
the account and say he only kept his daughter in seclusion. Others
regard his acts as criminal, for he could have applied to Phinehas,
the High Priest, to absolve him from his vow. But he was an
arrogant soldier, and proud; therefore he said, "I, a judge of
Israel, will not humble Myself to my inferior." Neither would
Phinehas go to Jephthah. Therefore we are confronted with two
premises, either the account is untrue and we teach untruth or it
is true and we teach a crime.

Jewish tradition relates that both Jephthah and Phinehas were
punished. Jephthah died by an unnatural decay of his body,
fragments of flesh falling at intervals from his bones, to be
buried where they fell, his body being attacked in many places.
Phinehas was abandoned by the Holy Spirit. The rabbis considered
Jephthah an ignorant man, for he should have known that a vow of
that kind was not valid. According to Rabbi Johanan, Jephthah had
merely to pay a certain sum to the Temple treasury in order to be
freed of the vow. According to Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish, he was
freed even without such payment. According to other authorities,
even when Jephthah made the vow the Lord was angry with him.

The request of his daughter to go into the mountain to bewail her
virginity lends color to the assertion that he secluded her in the
manner that nuns take the vow of chastity in their chosen life. It
was a custom in Israel. (Judges xi, 37-39) Had an unclean animal,
which could not be offered as a sacrifice, come out of his premises
instead of his daughter, what would Jephthah have done in such a
dilemma? His vow and the character of the sacrifice would have been
in utter conflict, and the vow would have had to fail. Was it not
more important that it should fail for his daughter than for an
unclean animal ?

When about to proceed, his daughter inquired: "Is it written in the
Torah that human beings shall be brought as burnt offerings?" He
replied: "My daughter, my vow was, whatever cometh forth of the
doors of my house." She answered: "But Jacob too vowed that he
would give to Yaveh the tenth part of all that Yaveh gave him. Did
he sacrifice his sons?" (Gen. xxviii, 22) Jephthah remained
inflexible, and the daughter declared that she would go to the
Sanhedrim to consult them about the vow, and -for that purpose
asked for a delay of two months. The daughter was right. Nowhere
does Jewish law require a human burnt sacrifice. The kind of
sacrifice is clearly set forth for everyone "that will offer his
oblations for all his vows, and for all his free-will offerings,
which they will offer unto the Lord for a burnt offering." The
clean animals to be offered are specified (Lev. xxii, 18-33), the
law requiring the offering to be eaten the same day. If then
Jephthah obeyed the law in that respect he would have been a
cannibal and the whole affair degraded to the lowest order of
savages. A vow, interpreted under this law, to include a human
sacrifice is as unlawful as if strained to include an unclean
animal. (Deut. xvii, 1) Israel was forbidden to follow the
abomination of the idolators in the land of Canaan. (Deut. xviii,
9-14) Among these abominations was the burnt offering of their sons
and daughters. This the Lord hateth, and what he commandeth, thou
shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it. (Deut. xii, 31-32)

Even the singular vow of Jephthah could have been overcome by
payment to the Temple of a penance or ransom. (Lev. iv, 2) The
account seems in fact to indicate that she was consecrated by her
father to a virgin life. He had no other to perpetuate his name,
hence that was a real sacrifice, and the custom was such that the
daughters of Israel lamented it every four years. (Judges xi, 37-
40) A perusal of the law should fully bear out what is above set
forth, and convince all fair-minded people.

Three possible constructions of the legend are apparent in
fulfilling the vow. First, the consecration to a virgin life.
Second, release by payment to the Temple. Third, actual immolation
as a burnt sacrifice. The ritual does not contemplate either of the
first two, as they do not fit into its purported lesson at all. It
has always taught the third.

Assume that the horrible tale is literally true, and further that
Jephthah knew the law of consecration and ransom and that human
sacrifice was an abomination and forbidden. Assume that he was
thoroughly counselled as to all this during the two months' delay.
The scientific conclusion is irresistible, that Jephthah, the
arrogant soldier, who could slay forty-two thousand Ephraimites in
cold blood and did not hesitate to sacrifice his own daughter, was
insane, a paranoiac. The unfortunate Ephraimites were of Israel,
related to him. Human nature has not changed since that day and
proof exists now. Undoubtedly Jephthah suffered from an insane
delusion that because he had made the vow to the Lord it must be
carried out literally. A delusion is the product of an insane
belief, a false conception or idea arising from a disordered mind.
Argument will convince the sane of error, but nothing will convince
the insane.

In March, 1925, at Oroville, Cal., one, Sharlow, offered himself as
a sacrifice to the Holy Ghost in a cult he had joined. His head and
the soles of his feet were burned with the sign of the cross and
from these tortures he died.

In January, 1925, a Mr. Bingaman in Pennsylvania, killed two of his
children and caused his aged father to die of excitement witnessing
this. Bingaman was a paranoiac with religious delusions. He told
the officers: "I did right. The spirit told me to kill them and I
did."

True occurrences of this kind could be multiplied, but sufficient
are these. The O. E. S. naturally would not use any of them to base
lessons upon, because of their repugnant hideousness. If the acts
of Jephthah are equally insane, the O. E. S. is confronted with the
full force of the ritualistic view it takes, which is indisputably
a literal human sacrifice. The author of the ritual surely was
hasty and did not give this portion of the ritual the careful study
he should have given it. He had a choice beyond any question among
many other women whose lives and characters are noble and
elevating.

The serious question proposed in the beginning of this article is
timely. It is not too late. It should be solved calmly and without
prejudice, for the real good of the Order and its thousands of
loyal members. Historical matter and references herein have been
carefully sought out. The record is submitted for a decision.
Reformation never comes until error is pointed out. When that
occurs, reformation should come speedily. There should be no
clinging to anything because of some fancied notion that long use
and familiarity with it have clothed it with imaginary beauty or
lesson of duty. No falsehood, no hideous thing should be retained
and worshipped in like manner as the savage of Africa worships his
fetich. The writer hopefully awaits the day when something finer
and grander shall replace this portion of the ritual.
