The Holy Bible Makes Me Sick!
...or at least it made me super-queasy last night. I don’t have a strong stomach when it comes to gore.
I’m doing research on an upcoming play about Old Testament stories. There’s a well-known story about how God tests Abraham’s faith by telling him to sacrifice his son, then just before the act, God tells him it was just a test, so the son is spared.
Later in the Bible, there’s a lesser-known story where this happens again, but the child isn’t so lucky. To be fair, as far as the narrative goes, God had nothing to do with it - it was the father’s harebrained idea.
Judges chapter 11 tells the story of Jephthah, a soldier who promises God that if he wins a pivotal battle, he will give a burnt offering of the first thing that leaves his gates to greet him upon his homecoming. He probably should have been more specific, because the first thing out the gates was his daughter, his only child.
Jephthah was pretty upset, and told his daughter why he wept. She told him she’d be a willing sacrifice, and asks to leave into the hills for a few months with her friends to mourn her virginity, and he allows her to do so. She returns, still a virgin, and gives herself to sacrifice.
Aside from the horror we might feel about the actual events, there is potent mystery and poetry to the story. What did she do with her young friends for two months in the hills? What did Jephthah do for those two months? Why, of all things, is it so significant that she’s a virgin?
Upon re-reading the story, there are additional motivating factors surrounding Jephthah’s actions that I’d missed before - he was pretty much a bastard exile and this series of battles was his opportunity not only to return to his people, but return as a leader. It was also interesting to note while Googling, that some commentators see parallels between Jephthah’s daughter and Christ. Interesting stuff.
However, in fleshing out all this narrative (so to speak) I was looking for specifics about what ACTUALLY happened with the sacrifice. How does the story end? What did Jephthah actually do? I guess I always assumed, without giving it too much thought, that there was some simple, swift and straightforward ending to the poor girl’s life, and that was that. What Jephthah did (and what Abraham was willing to do) was, in my mind, what one might see in a late-night vampire movie. Stab, burn, we’re done.
But likely not so. Here’s where things get graphic.
IF YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE READING THE GORE, MOVE ALONG, THERE’S NOTHING TO SEE HERE…
Indeed, in my mind it was maybe a stab to the heart and a burning of the body, or more likely, as one might slaughter a sheep or other consumable mammal, the throat was probably slashed.
However, as with most things under Mosaic Law, Yahweh had very specific instructions on how to conduct a burnt offering. In fact, the entire first portion of the book of Leviticus is dedicated to the different types of burnt offerings and how they are to be performed. Given these instructions, and given Jephthah’s strict adherence to his vow, it’s likely that he first slit her throat, then skinned her, then splashed her blood around the altar. Then he would dismember her, separating her head and fat, and possibly her kidneys and liver, to be burned on the sacrificial altar. Then, the remaining parts of his daughter would be burned on a separate woodpile some distance from the altar. There is some instruction about cleaning the intestines and legs but I imagine that is only necessary if one is to eat a portion of the sacrifice, which I don’t speculate that he did.
Okay, I’m a little nauseous again typing that. Which begs the question, why am I blogging about this? I have to ask the same question about the play itself (Tales of Sex and Horror from the Bible) - why am I writing it? What purpose does it serve?
One of the phrases that’s popped out of the show I'm currently working on (Ice Maidens) is about how life is “scary and beautiful” at the same time. There’s something about the story of Jephthah’s Daughter, and about most of the Bible really, that’s horrifying and beautiful. The yin and yang of horror and beauty, of real suffering and real redemption, of pain and joy, death and love, all of those opposing elements spinning together make the Bible such a beautiful and horrifying book, because it’s about the experience of life. If you are to embrace the Bible, embrace all of it, not just its pretty parts but its ugly parts. If you are to criticize the Bible, know what you’re criticizing - it’s all in a context.
And take a look at the Song of Solomon - it’s hot. There’s a lot of stuff about breasts in there. Good reading for a young Catholic boy. “I’m just reading the Bible, mom!”
Sorry. Flashback.
As a side note, I made a few interesting discoveries/realizations on this last bit of research. I had been thinking that whatever Jephthah actually did was also what Abraham was ready and willing to do. However, Abraham’s story predates the instructions given in Leviticus, so there was no prescribed method for sacrifice. On the other hand, Abraham was surrounded by cultures who practiced animal sacrifice, and indeed, his own tradition (Cain and Abel) included animal sacrifice, so there was likely SOME kind of method in place, if only within his own cultural tradition and experience.
Also, I found out the Qur’an suggests that Ishmael, not Isaac, was the subject of the aborted sacrifice. (If you weren’t aware, Christianity, Judaism and Islam share the same traditions up through Abraham [they are sometimes called the Abrahamic faiths] but the line of succession for Muslims follows the family line of Ishmael, son of Abraham and Hagar, rather than the Judaic traditional line through Abraham and Sarah’s son Isaac - this is where the troubles first begin!). As I haven’t yet read the Qur’an, it’s interesting to find out some of the differences in these stories.
Okay, I gotta finish this script, so’s I can move on to some Norse Mythology. Dang, I love my job!
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