Thank you friend, this is most interesting. I will reply and have to pick it up again later as I have to run off to two soccer games—not my own ;o) I am afraid that you are making some small but essential mistakes which are causing you to reach inaccurate conclusions.
Jephtha could say whatever he wanted but God does not give him the go ahead. Not ironically, I wrote a detailed reply to this issue based on misinfo on evilbible, see here:
As you noted yourself, Pagan priests were burnt “on their own altars” and not as human sacrifices to God but “to desecrate” the altars. On the other issue, a trial was to be set up whereby “you must examine the facts carefully. If you find it is true and can prove…” then the result is on human sacrifice but capital punishment. Destruction by fire is not the same as human sacrifice.
Now, if I may, do you condemn human sacrifice and logical fallacies and if so, upon what premise.
Enjoy the games! I wanted to go to an air show today, but the rain has cancelled it unfortunately. But it leaves me time to respond. lol
God may have never specifically said to but we can know a few things that show that could argue for why silence is not a NO.1. It said that God gave him the victory. With that we can draw 2 conclusions. A. God silently agreed to it. Cause honestly, how many times did people in the bible or in the real world, do something for God or make a promise to god, and God DIDNT verbally say something. So if he fulfilled it silently, then he had no problem with the idea of sacrificing something to him. God is supposedly omnipotent, so he would be well aware that his daughter was gonna come out first. ESPECIALLY when the verse says ” The first thing that comes out from the door of my house to meet me” I really cant name too many things that run out of my house door to meet me other than humans and then pets. It seems like that would be an oddly specific thing.
B. God didnt fulfill the contract, and his victory was just by chance. This would mean there was no contract fulfilled and thus he didnt have to sacrifice anything to god at all. Which is worse. God didnt say ” Oh hey.. i didnt give you that win.. so no contract … so she doesnt have to be sacrificed”
2. Why would an omnipotent being, who knew that was gonna happen, LET it happen. He didnt simply tell him not do it, nor did he intervene and make something else appear first before his daughter, nor did he pull an abraham and give him a lamb to sacrifice in her stead.
Now i read your response to evil bible, you kinda ignored some really important parts in your response.“*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. And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.
35 And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back.
So this clearly means that his daughter was the first thing out the door. There is NOTHING that says an animal came rushing out the door. Secondly, what the hell would an animal be doing rushing out of his home door to greet him. Are livestock and sheep just chilling in his house?
If there were some animal, why was jephthah so upset. If it was just an animal, no harm no foul. He wouldnt have rent his clothes from his body. He would have just been like.. ” Oh crap… oh ok. nevermind.. theres a sheep.. im good. Ill sacrifice that instead”
And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon.
And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows.
Here his daughter is saying. “You made a vow to kill the first thing out of your house.. and its apparently me.. so you have to do it, because you promised god and he fulfilled it. Again, if there was some loophole that could be filled by throwing in a clean animal, she wouldnt be so concerned and asking to go cry for a few months.
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 manOnce again, the vow is brought up. He made a vow and he DID with her according to his vow His vow was to sacrifice her. So again.. nothing that would imply a clean animal was sacrificed.
“*And it was a custom in Israel, 40 That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.*
It says it is CUSTOM to lament the daughter of jephtha. What are they lamenting for? That she’s a virgin? Obviously not. They are lamenting that she was SACRIFICED.Btw all of that was KJV. I’m sorry but there is NO REASON to assume there was a conveniently placed livestock animal there for sacrificing, and EVERY reason to conclude that she was sacrificed.
As far as the pagan priests sacrificed on the altar, i agree that the “sacrifice” in question isnt the same as the ritual sacrifice that is done but it is quite clear that they will be sacrificed on the altar. The manner of their deaths and what they perform is unclear, but it was according to scripture meant to be something done in the name of God.
Similar vain with the city. It’s not the same traditional jewish sacrifice, but it was a town and things being burned and people killed, to assuage gods anger. That’s a sacrifice, even if not done in the same vain as the normal jewish ritual.
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