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  • From: Niels Peter Lemche <npl AT teol.ku.dk>
  • To: "'b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu'" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: SV: The daughter of Jeftah died?
  • Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2002 13:36:49 +0200




> 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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