But this history the falsifying poets of the Greeks have coiTupted by that fable of theirs concerning the sacrifice of Ipliigenia, begun by her father Agamemnon, but who was liberated by the substitu- tion of a doe.-^ Hence, in Euripides, these words are falsely applied to the virgin destined to be sacrificed, which (the proper changes being made) might with more propriety be spoken of Isaac, when acting in obedience to the command of God and of his father.
u -raTip "rrupufj.! not, Ctc.
" O, father, I am here present ; and I cheerfully deliver up my body for my country and for all Greece, to be sacrificed at the altar
' Agamemnon, as tlic story runs, liad killed one of Diana's staffs, and the goddess would be appeased on no other terms than by the sacriticc of his daughter ; but after she was laid on the pile, Diana, pitying the virgin, put a doe in licr room, and made Iphigenia her priestess. — Tk.
ON HUMAN SACRIFICES. 533
of the goddess, by those who now conduct me thither, if the oracle so require," Euripid. Iphigenia?in Auhs, near the end, v. 1552.
It is worth while to notice, by the way, the use of the word v'xsp. The virgin to be sacrificed declared that she was willing to appease the anger of the gods, and suffer punishment in behalf of, or instead of, her country and all Greece ; and but a little before she is intro- duced exulting in these words, —
''EXiiTiriT a,y.if) vaov, ctc.
" Invoke to her temple, to her altar, Diana, queen Diana, the blessed Diana; for if it shall be necessary, by my blood and sacrifice I will obliterate the oracle," lb. v. 1480.
Justly celebrated, too, in the second place, is the history of Jeph- thah's sacrificing his only daughter, related by the Holy Spirit in these words: Judges xi. 30, 31, 34, 39, " And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said. If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Amnion into mine hands, 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.'' But when he returned, " his daughter came out to meet him;" and "at the end of two months, he did with her according to his vow." If any passage ever puzzled both JoAvish and Christian interpreters, ancient and modern, as well as all your disputants upon and patchers up of common-place difficulties, this one has. For, on the one hand, here it is supposed that all oflering of human sacrifices is detested and abhorred by God ; and to ascribe such a thing to a man of piety, and one celebrated by the Holy Spirit for his faith, many will not venture. But again, on the other hand, the words of the history, the circumstances, the grief and lamenta- tion of the father, seem hardly capable of admitting any other mean- ing. But to me these things are ambiguous.^
First, It is evident that a gross ignorance of the law, either in making the vow or in executing it, is by no means to be ascribed to Jephthah, who was, though a military man, a man of piety, a fearer of God, and well acquainted with the sacred writings. Now, then, if he simply made a vow, that a compensation and redemption, ac- cording to the valuation of the priests, ought to have been made, could not have escaped him ; and therefore there was no reason why he should so much bewail the event of a vow by which he had en- gaged himself to the Lord, and to which he was bound, for he might
' That is, the expressions relating to this subject are capable of more meanings than one. and to ascertain the right one is attended with difficulties. — Tr. [This seems a mistake. It is a Greek word in the original, avz/xipiirS-^ryirx, and signifies " indisput- able," or " beyond controversy." Had the word been aft(pi(rS>iT»Ta, it might have borne the meaning attached to it by the translator. — Ed.]
634 A DISSERTATION ON DIVINE JUSTICE. [PATtT T.
both keep his faith and free his daughter, according to the words of the law, Lev. xxvii. 1-8.
Or if we should conjecture that he was so grossly mistaken, and entirely unacquainted with divine matters, was there no priest or scribe among all the people, who, during that time which he granted to his daughter, at her own request, to bewail her virginity, could instruct this illustrious leader, who had lately merited so highly of the commonwealtli, in the meaning of the law, so that he should neither vex himself, render his family extinct, nor worship God to no purpose, by a vain superstition ? I have no doubt, then, but that Jephthah performed his duty in executing his vo^v, according to the precept of the law, however much he might have erred in his original concej^tion of it.
Nor is it less doubtful, in the second place, that Jephthah did not offer his daughter as a burnt-offering, as the words of the vow imply, according to the ceremony and institution of that kind of sacrifice ; for as these sacrifices could be performed by the priest only by killing the victim, cutting it in pieces, and consuming it by fire upon the altar, — offices in which no priest would have ministered or assisted, — so also, such kind of sacrifices are enumerated among the abominations to the Lord, which he hateth: Deut. xii. 31, "Thou shalt not do so unto the LoRD thy God ; for every abomination to the Lord, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods ; for even their sons and their daughters have they burnt in the fire to their gods."