Back to my story of Jephthah and his daughter. Let me show you what the vow Jephtah made actually says and you tell me what it means...
30--And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord, and said, "If You will indeed deliver the people of Ammon into my hands..31--Then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering". ... Do you know what it means to offer up a burnt offering in Israeli terms? You have to have a blood sacrifice for the burnt offereing. The only people in Jephthah's house was his wife and his daughter. What do you think this vow means now?
2007-09-04 05:43:29 · 24 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Not one Christian has stepped up to the plate to answer your question. I would offer my interpretation but since it corresponds with your own, it would be pointless.
Okay, finally someone attempted to answer using cut and paste twisting. There are SO many other things about these verses that are problematic. The most obvious is that Jephtah clearly believes God to be a capricious entity, willing to help whomever it is that offers him the most. If he believed that God was a purposeful entity, he would simply pray, "God, if it is your will, deliver the Ammonites into my hands."
The second is that the wife and daughter are viewed as his PROPERTY, to be "sacrificed", whatever you take that word to mean. I suspect that given the conditions of the day, it was a merciful act to deny his daughter sexual relations with a man. I mean, if the men were all brutes like her father, why would she want to have anything to do with them?
2007-09-04 06:01:37 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 3⤋
Burnt offering could be bull, lamb, dove, grain, wine, or incense depending on the purpose. sin, thankfulness,etc. Those who followed God did not sacrifice people. A child could be given to serve god in the temples. I really can't remember this particular king but there were a long line of kings who did not follow God yet made a big show of asking for his protection and power. Like Manasseh who really did not return to God until old age but always asked for his help in battle, which he never got by the way. He also did sacrifice a son to another idol.
2007-09-04 13:00:23 · answer #2 · answered by Connie D 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Some people will or would twist the words of the Bible, the Gospel and the Quran and the Veda and whatever Holy scripture to suite their own agendas and/or lust for power.
Some other people will not believe or will not realize that those words have been twisted or could be interpreted in other ways.
the results are under our eyes every single day.
2007-09-04 13:20:58 · answer #3 · answered by simonetta 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Definitely. Everyone does it, Christians to support their personal a la carte version of Christianity, non-christians do it too.
What I find amazing is that a book that says so many different things, even taken in the context of the passage, is so contradictory and can be used to support almost any view point, can be described as the words of a perfect God.
IMHO, theologically the entire thing is a bad joke.
2007-09-04 13:04:07 · answer #4 · answered by Simon T 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Yes. Trinitarians twist the Bible all the time. They use terms like God the Son and God the holy spirit and pretend those terms are in the Bible.
They also say that God is composed of 3 co-equal, co-eternal persons, even though they can't find one scripture in the Bible to support their claims.
Even the KJB has been twisted to support the trinity. The three biggest twists occur at Acts 7:59, 1 Tim. 3:16 and 1 John 5:7. Fortunately, those twists were discovered and corrected in modern Bibles.
You have the wrong impression of Jephthah's vow. Let me explain. Some critics and scholars have condemned Jephthah for his vow, having the view that Jephthah followed the practice of other nations, offering up his daughter by fire as a human burnt offering. But this is not the case. It would be an insult to Jehovah, a disgusting thing in violation of his law, to make a literal human sacrifice. He strictly commanded Israel: “You must not learn to do according to the detestable things of those nations. There should not be found in you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire . . . For everybody doing these things is something detestable to Jehovah, and on account of these detestable things Jehovah your God is driving them away from before you.” (De 18:9-12) Jehovah would curse, not bless, such a person. The very ones Jephthah was fighting, the Ammonites, practiced human sacrifice to their god Molech. See 2Ki 17:17.
When Jephthah said: “It must also occur that the one coming out, who comes out of the doors of my house to meet me . . . must also become Jehovah’s,” he had reference to a person and not an animal, since animals suitable for sacrifice were not likely kept in Israelite homes, to have free run there. Besides, the offering of an animal would not show extraordinary devotion to God. Jephthah knew that it might well be his daughter who would come out to meet him. It must be borne in mind that Jehovah’s spirit was on Jephthah at the time; this would prevent any rash vow on Jephthah’s part. How, then, would the person coming out to meet Jephthah to congratulate him on his victory “become Jehovah’s” and be offered up “as a burnt offering”? Jg 11:31.
When Jephthah brought his daughter to the sanctuary, which was in Shiloh at that time, he undoubtedly accompanied his presentation of her with an animal burnt offering. According to the Law, a burnt offering was slaughtered, skinned, and cut up; the intestines and shanks were washed; and its body, head and all, was burned on the altar. (Le 1:3-9) The wholeness of such offering represented full, unqualified, wholehearted dedication to Jehovah, and when it accompanied another offering (as, for example, when the burnt offering followed the sin offering on the Day of Atonement), it constituted an appeal to Jehovah to accept that other offering.—Le 16:3, 5, 6, 11, 15, 24.
2007-09-04 12:48:07 · answer #5 · answered by LineDancer 7 · 1⤊ 6⤋
Churches,preachers, people ,counties,governments all twist religion and the bible to fit their particular situation or belief.
No matter what it is some one, some where will find a text to cover it,and then they can justify their actions and let them selves off the hook and feel good about it
2007-09-04 13:05:11 · answer #6 · answered by kevinmccleanblack 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
The bible is written in a poetic form. it's subject to many interpretations.
Christians tell me the Bible is ‘absolutely true’. Well it hard to believe a book can be so in light of the following:
1) What we now call the bible was cobbled together by many people—actually committees--well after Christ and the apostles died.
2) The completed bible underwent many translations from Greek to Latin to the modern languages of the world. Much was changed in the translation. (Read: ”Who Changed the Bible and Why”)
3) There are many versions of the bible that exists today. Such as the Vulgate of St. Jerome; the Roman Catholic—Douay; Coptic, etc.
4) There are many individual interpretations of any one version of the bibles that exist today. Especially among Protestants.
2007-09-04 12:48:58 · answer #7 · answered by robert2020 6 · 2⤊ 4⤋
People will use the available tools in order to be effective in convincing other people....it is up to you to detect whether someone is using propaganda methods on you or simply telling you the truth....remember there are many versions of the truth....
2007-09-04 13:01:38 · answer #8 · answered by Vicente L 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Very often this occurs because of personal interpretation. St Peter warned against this. The result is a further degradation of the Word of God and the multitude of Christian sects. They rip and tear at the seamless truth and eventually the whole of it begins to unravel
2007-09-04 12:52:31 · answer #9 · answered by Gods child 6 · 1⤊ 4⤋
Yes and yes
You cant beat the bible in an arguement because of its vague contents it can be, and is, twisted and manipulated into meaning absolutely anything.
The creator of evan almighty translated the story of noahs ark, where it says "and everything with breath was killed" as a story of compassion.
Now thats ignorant.
2007-09-04 12:50:37 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 4⤋