Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Niels Peter Lemche <npl AT teol.ku.dk>]

> Since the theory of historicity here is not falsifiable, it is redundant. 
> 
> I have seen most of this discussion and wonder why no reference is made to
> classical tradition, the vow by Idomeneos to sacrifice the first of his
> house to greed him if he returns safely to Crete after the Trojan war? It
> turned out to be his son, Faidros Mozart wrote an opera devoted to the
> story and Racine a drama, so it cannot be unknown. The is the close
> paralel, not the sacrifice of Iphigineia, although that one comes close.
> We have a literary motif about hybris--and the Jephtah story has a lot to
> do with hybris. The idea that you can impress your wish on the god without
> retribution.
> 
> As to biblical sacrifices of children, much discussion has been put into
> paper about the kings letting their sons pass the fire, if really a
> sacrifice is intended. Otherwise the position is clear, as expressed by
> the sacrifice of Isaac story, and also the idea about redeeming the first
> born by a substitute sacrifice.
> 
> To bring in the question of historicity is to divert focus from the
> narrative in Judges to something that is foreign to that narrative.
> 
> NPL
> 
>       -----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
>       Fra:    Christian M. M. Brady [SMTP:cbrady AT tulane.edu]
>       Sendt:  4. juni 2002 13:28
>       Til:    Biblical Hebrew
>       Emne:   Re: The daughter of Jeftah died?
> 
>       On 6/3/02 4:22 PM, "Lisbeth S. Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu> wrote:
> 
>       > You must have me mixed up with someone else.
>       > I don't think the story is historical, and I don't have anything
>       > bothering me. I'm trying to get people to realize that
>       > their statements carry implications, that assumptions
>       > are embedded which, upon closer examination, may not
>       > pan out.
>       > When you say "brought together" by  a D narrator,
>       > who was that D-narrator, when did he live, how did
>       > he know the story?
>       > I sense the anger these questions arouse; we tend to
>       > get angry when we run up against questions which
>       > challenge the bedrock of our faith, of who we are as people.
> 
>       But Lisbeth, your questions, valid though they are, do not undermine
> or
>       challenge whether or not the events were historical. I think
> everyone would
>       agree that we cannot *prove* (beyond the text) that these events
> happened.
>       In the same way none of us can *prove* (beyond the text) any
> theories about
>       authorship and transmission with respect to, well most of the
> biblical
>       texts. 
> 
>       As I said your questions are valid, but irrelevant in terms of
> evaluating
>       historicity. 
> 
>       Cb
>       cbrady @ tulane.edu
>       -- 
>       "It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have
>       those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech,
>       freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice
>       either of them."  --Mark Twain 
> 
> 
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