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A Daughter's Legacy
Based on Lesson 2

The following exerpt is from "Ancient Texts, Modern Voices," essays which offer a fresh perspective on the lessons in the 2003--2004 Horizons Bible Study, "The face is Familiar." To read the essays in their entirety, see the current issue of Horizons.

There are passages in the Bible that we glance through but refuse to read. As Christian women we cannot understand how a thing like the sacrifice of a woman can go unpunished in the Bible. In scripture we look for wise and loving words that point the way to God and reveal God's will. A story like that of Jephthah's daughter is troubling. We know the Law of Moses forbade human sacrifice. We like to think it was practiced by only a few pagan religions and that the Israelites only occasionally performed human sacrifice and prophets justly criticized them. And yet the story of Jephthah's daughter clearly relates the sacrifice of a human being to God while passing no judgment on the act. That is what we find most troubling---God's apparent silence.

This passage still rings true today. Domestic violence and the murder of women are a frequent outrage in our midst. In the small country of Costa Rica, the murder of women by coworkers, husbands or boyfriends is on the rise. In less than a year, 24 women were hacked with machetes, cudgeled with hammers, stabbed, shot or beaten to death out of hate or jealousy that began as love. Our churches infrequently speak out and it is rare for judgment to be passed.

Elsa Tamez is professor of theology at the Latin American Biblical Seminary in San Jose, Costa Rica.

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The Face Is Familiar: Remembering Unamed Women in Scripture