Wednesday, August 28, 2013

The History Of Biblical Honor Killing

The History Of Biblical Honor Killing

By Debra Cooley


Providing an account of the biblical honor killing involves looking at the instances in the bible where honor murder was allowed. These instances are provided for in the Old Testament. The first instance is encountered in the book of Deuteronomy. Chapter 22 provides a perfect scenario involving the chastity of the women. There are among the laws which were given to Mosses for the Israelites to follow.

The biblical one on the other hand may be described as a killing which is accepted in the Bible. The ancient laws provided for the various instances where one could be killed and the means which could be used to kill. The laws which God gave Moses at Mount Sinai made provision for this type of killings.

These laws were explicitly provided for in the Old Testament. For instance, a case in point to demonstrate the provision on the Bible is found in the book of Deuteronomy at Chapter number 22. This Chapter talks about chastity. Chastity could be defined to mean pure.

Therefore, the couples were required to use a sheet which is white in color. Both the family of the bride and the family of the groom were required to choose two separate individuals who were considered as being elderly in the society. The role of these elderly individuals was to help in proving the weather the woman had maintained her virginity or not.

In a situation like this, the laws of Moses allowed for the murdering of the woman as she is considered to have committed a crime which attracts death penalty. The law was very biased and did not take some other factors into consideration. For instance, the woman was not allowed to defend himself or even to talk about anything if she is guilty.

It was therefore up to the woman to prove that she is indeed a virgin. A woman who was found not to be chaste was stoned to death and then buried. Others were also burnt before being buried. This was the biblical beginning of the honored killings.

He then made a promise to God that if he get hold of the Amenities and defeated them in war, then he would offer a burnt sacrifice to God. The sacrifice would be anything that Japhthah would meet at the door when he is coming back from the war and after winning the war. It happened that her only daughter after realizing that he was coming back, rushed to go and receive him at the door.

He made a vow to God that if he could get hold of the Ammonites, then he would offer to God sacrifice the first thing that he will meet on the door after coming from the war. God granted him his wish and when he came back, he met his daughter at the door. Therefore, he had no option but to kill his daughter and to offer her as a burnt sacrifice to God even though that was her only daughter. These two provisions of the bible clearly show the antiquity of biblical honor killing as showed in the Old Testament of the Bible




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