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stories and video clips about the abuse of Children and women have been in the news lately. Maybe this was last week. So when I was writing this , um considering this, it's quite disturbing to hear

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, as we just did from our readings today. But the writer of the Book of Hebrews counts jep that if you missed it in that long list of the heroes of faith, the man who sacrificed his

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only daughter among one of the heroes of faith that he lists along with moses and Abraham. Now this is not someone I would have picked if I was picking a who's who of faith. And indeed when

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students and faculty picked this year's chapel theme heroes and heroines in the bible Jeff, that was probably not what they had in mind either. I hope not . Um, yet the remembrance object that in Hebrews

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raises a question as to why he is remembered as a hero of faith while his daughter who seems to happen, the more instrumental, more active participants, or more accurately, the victim of his act is

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ignored. Okay, what about his daughter? The unnamed victim of her father's rash vow. How are we supposed to consider her if Jack Dot is a hero, that isn't his daughter? More so.

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And while on the subject of heroes, is she a hero or she a victim? And who cares why does it matter? The story of the sacrifice of Jettas daughter in judges 11 then surprisingly, is

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not a favorite topic of sermons or bible studies at least not want to hear. Um, and the Judges as a whole is conveniently disregarded when church related things or call for her tail is is not the

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most comfortable one, not the best feeling to say the least. Okay, the outline you just heard right. Her father kept that before. A very important battle, makes a rash vow to God ambiguously

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promising that whatever comes out of the door first, after he turns home, he will sacrifice. And as it was common for groups of women to meet men returning from war or battles and music and singing

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. You see this with moses also get that. Unsurprisingly, is met at the door by his only daughter carrying a temporal. Why he is not more precise when he makes a vowel, The text never

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explains. Nor does it explicate why object that surprise when his daughter meets him, as would be expected . What what did he expect to meet him anyway ? The chicken or a goat or a girlfriend?

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It's hard to know. Okay, unsurprisingly modern bubblicious , especially feminist scholars have faulted, kept that for being well, foolish. Okay, and perhaps even cold hearted, blaming his daughter for daring to be

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the first to meet him after battle. The gall of this girl. Okay, in the carol Delaney in her book on another infamous near sacrifice of a child in the bible that is Isaac by his father

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Abraham, which we'll get to in a minute writes that such stories in the bible work to legitimate child abuse in the world by the West, which takes the bible as his foundational literature, her critique sadly

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seems to be valid to some degree in recent articles on spanking. In light of the charges against the football player Adrian Peterson, if I'm getting the sports facts wrong, I don't know sports very well.

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Okay, okay, so in light of the charges against this football player, the old testament proverb in 13 24 spare the rod spoil the child is frequently cited. Okay, moreover, further strengthening Delaney's critique

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that the biblical text conveys a disturbing lack of care for Children is the fact that as we just heard that that is remembered as a good guy by the later tradition writers of Hebrews. Considering this evidence,

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I have to admit it's difficult to not see the bible, especially in stories like this as validating child abuse or at least child sacrifice, which is not much better. Okay, apparently you can try to

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kill your child and still be remembered as a hero of faith. Now I admit I maybe I would be a little bit more sympathetic or empathetic to the writer of Hebrews and judges if I had Children,

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maybe your parents out there can relate a little bit more uh, to get that or to the writer of hebrews at points. I don't know. Indeed turning back to get that his daughter is not the

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first nor the only child to be sacrificed in the biblical text. Second Kings three describes how mobile king sacrificed his son to turn the tide of battle okay in his favor. But since he's a mobile and

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though his sacrifice seems to work, we can ignore him for the moment. Okay. The closest analogy that we have to the case of Gupta's daughter, at least in the hebrew bible, as I just

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mentioned, is near sacrifice of Isaac. And when these stories that looked at, they are frequently compared And when they are compared, readers have noticed some disturbing variances to refresh everyone's memory very quickly. In

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Genesis 22, the story known as the al Qaeda or the binding of Isaac God called Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. Abraham is however stopped at the last minute by a miraculous appearance of a

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ramp that takes the place of his son, Isaac . In other words, in the other story of child sacrifice, a child that is Isaac is not killed or at least not in the tradition that we

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have when the story of Isaac sacrifices compared to that object that's daughter. The contrasting endings become starkly apparent . Why is the daughter kill? When Isaac is not? Why does God step not step in as

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he did for Isaac? Is it because the daughter is a girl and Isaac is a boy? Does God only intervene to stop sacrifices when the intended victim is a male child? Indeed, the gender objectives

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daughter seems to be emphasized in the text. Not only does the story in seemingly with her sacrifice, but also strangely notes that she was a version or a young woman of marriageable age, that she had

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not known a man and that before she is killed , she gets to throw some kind of bachelorette party in the woods to lament her virginity. Okay, we're even told at the end that she is remembered

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for this little get together that is commemorated and that it becomes a tradition among young women in Israel, in other words, her gender and her status thus seem intimately tied to the way the story ends and

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hand seems to be of some importance the writer, so does her gender then explain why she was sacrificed while Isaac was not And to this question, some commentators have said perhaps, yes, okay. Uh

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some argue that the gender of Jeff's daughter is significant to the meaning of the tail, which in essence is not about her victim, her or just her victimhood, but about the victimhood of all women in

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the ancient and some may argue in the modern world and support commentators note some very odd features of this text. Okay, first, the daughter is never given a name. Okay, though you can explain

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this as just again, patriarchal literature. Okay, another way to explain the lack of a name is that it shows that this story is meant to be taken at something universal or symbolic. The daughter is

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not named because she stands for every woman at the cusp of maturation. Okay, moreover, her story concludes with a focus on women or groups of women in general and a strange female ritual morning or celebration

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to lament virginity, which seems to have big helm , some kind of custom or some kind of thing that women did. Okay, uh, there's also the similarity to the story to Miss in Greece and

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other parts of the mediterranean world. Therefore, some commentators have interpreted this tale is not about real sacrifice per se, not about literal death, but about the metaphorical sacrificial arc of a woman's life, especially

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in the ancient world. Women who are nameless given identity only through their fathers or through their husbands are bargained off and married off to whomever the father chooses or foolishly promises her to at the cusp of adolescence

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. This trajectory, commentators argue, would have felt a lot like being put to death. And the story, they argue is that's a metaphor about women as they transition from being a child to a wife

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, a transition which is likened to being put to death or being sacrificed. This son explains why the daughter is killed while Isaac is rescued. It's because she's a woman and because the point of the stories

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are different now, according to this interpretation, then Jeff's daughter is portrayed as the opposite of the hero . Okay, she is not only a victim but a larger met a symbol of the victimhood of all

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women. And if this interpretation is correct, and there are some easy lessons we can initially draw from this tale the first and I think that's a nice lesson. Okay, is that by portraying the daughter

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as a victim of her father's carelessness and that the patriarchal system in general, Okay. A society that marries off their daughters without me. Stay on their part the text and the writer forces us that is

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the reader to recognize and perhaps even protests against this kind of inequality, in other words, attacks by pointing out the victimhood of women and society, the quiet sacrifices they make asked us to ponder and perhaps

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even to argue against such abuses. It asks us to remember Jeff's daughter and her victimhood and in so doing to think about the victimization of all women according to this reading, then, yes, that is

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certainly not a hero contra hebrews, but a perpetuators of violence and abuse. Moreover, according to this reading, a daughter is not a hero, but the opposite of a hero, a victim. Now

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, while I generally agree with this interpretation and certainly his message, I find something about it a little unsatisfactory and as far as I can make it out . The main thing that hurts me about this kind

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of reading is the designation of the daughter as a victim. Something about calling her victim feels not quite right to me. I feel like in so doing that, I'm further victimizing her that I'm reducing her

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down to the role that she plays a role. That is not very good. A similar debate is going on. I think in the discussion of that very disturbing video of another football player's wife being beaten

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in the elevator. Should we be watching this? And is it fair to reduce this woman and others like her into the simplistic simple role or symbol of a victim of domestic violence? By doing so?

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Are we not in some weird way taking part in their victimization somehow? Aside from ignoring the complexities of these women? Are we not also with the simple categorization, ignoring the small ways that these women have

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protested, resisted or even fought these abuses with the constraints that they have. Are we not also failing to understand their humanness somehow and the ways that they have tried to use their very limited powers to resist

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? Okay, in other words, a problem with the above interpretation and said. It removes the daughters as well as other women's agency but is the agency of the daughter so completely absent in the tail and

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judges she nearly just the victim. And more importantly , am I okay with this vision? Okay. Uh these questions are of course complicated by the fact that I am a particular reader. I'm located in

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a particular century. I watched specific videos. Okay , I am motivated to find evidence of her agency . I want her to resist and therefore I am much more inclined to look for some hints of this

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in the spaces within the text. And unsurprisingly therefore , I do see some tiny points of her resistance . All right. First though, she's nameless and dies without a child. In particular sons. The

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main way that women can be remembered in the ancient world. Jeff's daughter, we are told became a tradition maybe even better than having a son. Okay . She became known in Israel for a custom.

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She initiated and as a result though she is nameless , she is not forgotten. Moreover though, she's at the in sacrifice. Whether metaphorically or literally we can see agency and the way in which she dictates

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the manner in which she will go. She asked for time to mourn her life with her frets some time away from it all to perhaps reflects something that you would not have gotten as an ancient woman.

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Hence though she is victimized and though she is nameless , she is not voiceless or completely voiceless in her death. Indeed, some have argued that the daughter is not a victim, but really a heroin,

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especially if we compare her to hero types and literature . These figures that is heroes and literature and myth are usually portrayed a skill, strong courageous characters who transcend the ordinary as thomas. Schettino's heroes and legends

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are models of courage and florida to who reflect the moors of society. Jettas Daughter certainly does this okay , does seem to face her coming death with courage and fortitude. She does seem to reflect the moors

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of society. Moreover, if we follow joseph Campbell and other mythologies, a hero in literature follows a traditional set arc. They experienced a traumatic moment that leads to an adventurer or journey where the hero has

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to prove themselves and at the end, the hero not only experiences atonement with the father, but is rewarded spiritually if they die, you know, Star Wars, this is the classic. One can see

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elements of this in the portrayal of Ghattas Daughter, though she does not go on a journey per se or a little journey being a woman and all one can argue that I'm finding out about her father's now

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. She's challenged to prove herself, moreover, by allowing herself to be sacrificed. She not only experiences , but also obtains atonement for her father. Lastly , she is rewarded. One hopes if not spiritually

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, then, at least traditionally by being remembered as a hero of source by the women in her society . So then it's a better and more proper to think of Captchas daughter as a heroin and not as

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a victim. Have I rehabilitated her by declaring her a hero instead, here again some problems by transforming Depp's daughter from a hero into a victim. I may in some ways be legitimizing her victimization. Haven't

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I just made it OK for this character to be agreed to agree to be sacrificed because of a stupid without have an eye in this interpretation. Made this willingness a heroic app a blog on the web by

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a woman named Mick. Not this mega. Okay . Elucidates the problem and declaring captain's daughter a hero . And this meg writes that Jessica's daughter is a heroin, not a victim for several reasons. Number

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one, she honored God by telling her father to do what he vowed to God to. She took time to mourn the occurrences in her life. And lastly three, she honored God with the time she

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had left by not rebelling and by not by dying as a version instead of running away or finding a loose man. Okay, Meg writes, Jeff's daughter instead quote, value the cleanest of her heart more

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in her purity. I'm certain she stood on these mountains and heard God's voice speak into still comfort for her comfort for her soul. This interpretation, I am. It really disturbed me when I read it

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. Yeah. For a variety of reasons, uh , more than anything convinces me that there's something wrong with transforming Gupta's daughter into a heroin and therefore into a model of how we and other women should behave

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. Yeah. And the reason for this is that in so doing whether we intend to or not, we may end up telling women and Children to accept the abuse done to them by the men in their

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lives. We may be telling them that this abuse is okay if they face it with courage and Godliness and if they take time to think about it. Sure. So what at the end is Jeff's daughter

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, Is she a victim if she a hero? How do I interpret the story in a way that both acknowledges her victimhood and also heroism without collapsing the two categories, something which is so easy to do

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in our interpretation of both the biblical text and of the world. I guess what I'm trying to get at is that I'm thinking about this year's theme in declaring someone in the bible a hero or heroine.

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This act for a biblical cyst, especially the old testament. Scholar is really difficult. Okay, It's perhaps impossible. The truth of these stories lies in the fact that there are no clear heroes or heroines

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in this book. Not even God, one can argue is heroic at all points in the old testament text, every character in the hebrew bible behaves and perfectly at times does things we wish they did not

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do. Sometimes really terrible things. Uh, they have points our victim at other points are the inducers of their own distress and even other points something approaching a hero. In other words, they are,

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they behave like us. Indeed, let's take jack to again. Okay, here in judges 11, he's a fool. Perhapsuators of violence in hebrews, he has become a hero of faith before judges 11

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. However, in the preceding chapter, we are told that he is the bastard son of a family who rejects him. It is because of this rejection he so desperately yearns for success. He too,

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in a way is a victim of a society that cares too much about the identity of his parents. Moreover, as we are told that he has no other family in sacrificing his daughter. Okay, We

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have to presume that he essentially traded. The only family he ever had to get ahead in his career seen in this light isn't just that a kind of victim to. Certainly it becomes something much more relatable

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and understandable. In other words, it's too it's difficult and perhaps too simplistic to declare a biblical character a hero and a victim. And in this this reading cautions us to be careful of such easy declarations

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and readings in life as well. The truth is that we like these characters are are ambiguous and the lives we lead are ambiguous ones where we slide from heroes to victims everything in between. Indeed, there

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is some irony that we're focusing on civil discourse while also looking at heroes and heroines in the bible. Okay, one can argue that this type of easy characterization of someone of some or some character as a

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hero or as a victim is the very thing that makes it difficult to have fruitful dialogue or to put it differently. I wonder if that the reason why we can't talk to each other very well. Okay

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, uh whether it be people from different sides of the political religious spectrum, whether this is caused by an intimately bound up with our desire to place people into need easy categories, victim perpetrator or even the

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hero as it is difficult to see the complexity of characters when we easily lump them into such ordered categories . So also these categorizations clouds our ability to see similar complexity in people. And murky is our ability

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to see their humanity in some way somehow, and therefore to extend them. Grace and understanding. It is this danger that the story of Gupta's daughter, especially when examined in relationship to how Jet that is

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, remember later in the new testament. It is this lesson, I think that the story elucidates and stress it, and it is for this reason, by pointing out this danger and for calling for deeper

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examination of stories, characters and people in general. It is for this reason that the story of Jettas daughter has and should have continual resonance. Or to put it simply if Jeff's daughter is a hero,

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that she is a hero, for showing us how ambiguous this term is when applied to her and to