Some stories in Scripture get preached from every pulpit you’ve ever sat in. And some get skipped so consistently that you can go your whole life as a Christian without anyone ever mentioning them out loud.
This week’s episode is one of the skipped ones.
Judges 11. Jephthah wins his war, comes home to his only daughter dancing in celebration, and then we watch a vow he never should have made collide with a life he had no right to bargain with. I’m not going to rush us to a moral and call it a day. We’re going to talk about a hard text, bring in some real Jewish tradition on what the rabbis actually thought of Jephthah, and look at the one detail almost nobody talks about: the women who kept this girl’s memory alive long after her father was gone.
Heavier episode this week, but worth every minute.
In the episode I mention Phyllis Trible’s book Texts of Terror. You can find it here.
