The Binding of Jephthah: Learning Orthopathy from the Daughter of Judges 11
Abstract: This article continues the author’s journey of forming an ‘orthopathic hermeneutic’ with special attention to Pentecostalism and the ‘Texts of Terror’. It examines the narrative of Jephthah, his daughter, and her sacrifice as found in Judges 11. Texts of Terror like Jephthah’s daughter’s story have been long neglected, rejected, or protected by ministers and theologians alike. With the work of Pentecostal scholars such as R. Moore, C. Johns, and C. Green in mind, Cole identifies that Judges 11 and similarly terrifying texts can be used today to make meaning in the Church. By examining our own desires for and in light of the text, the Spirit can make meaning for one’s own life by revealing the heart of the reader. In such, the orthopathic reader is called to conformity with the compassion of Christ.
“Orthopathy brings Jesus into every story. One must not merely recognize his or her own emotional responses, but must imagine how Jesus would feel hearing this story. Every passage is the Road to Emmaus. When Christ interprets the Scripture for us, one becomes like the Emmaus disciples whose ‘hearts burned within them’ (Lk. 24.42).” -p.13
“Interesting, Jephthah asks, ‘Why did you, for over 300 years, not care about saving your daughters?’ What ironic foreshadowing the original audiences would hear in this play on words. Thus, perhaps it is to this – this marginalization, this desire for war, and this refusal to listen – that now the Spirit who has been brooding over it all comes to Jephthah. Perhaps the Spirit rushes in as a response for those unrescued daughters, not to cause Jephthah’s vow from which he refuses to save his own daughter.” -p.12
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