Jephthah's daughter
Jephthah's vow and his daughter — an actual sacrifice, lifelong dedication mourned as her virginity, or a tragedy the narrator reports without divine endorsement.
Judges 11:29-40
29Then Yahweh’s Spirit came on Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon.
30Jephthah vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, “If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand,
31then it shall be, that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be Yahweh’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”
32So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them; and Yahweh delivered them into his hand.
33He struck them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and to Abelcheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.
34Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house; and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child. Besides her he had neither son nor daughter.
35When he saw her, he tore his clothes, and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are one of those who trouble me; for I have opened my mouth to Yahweh, and I can’t go back.”
36She said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to Yahweh; do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth, because Yahweh has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, even on the children of Ammon.”
37Then she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me. Leave me alone two months, that I may depart and go down on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions.”
38He said, “Go.” He sent her away for two months; and she departed, she and her companions, and mourned her virginity on the mountains.
39At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed. She was a virgin. It became a custom in Israel
40that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.
What each tradition says
Rabbinic / Midrashic
The Jewish Encyclopedia reports that some commentators, including Kimhi and Levi b. Gershom, held Jephthah only kept his daughter in seclusion. But the Targ. Yer. to Judges xi. 39 and the Midrash take for granted that he immolated her on the altar, a criminal act, since he might have applied to Phinehas to be absolved of his vow.
Emil G. Hirsch, M. Seligsohn, Solomon Schechter, George A. Barton (1901-1906), The Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 7, s.v. 'Jephthah' (New York: Funk & Wagnalls) — section 'In Rabbinical Literature'
Patristic
Ambrose says he cannot believe Jephthah made his vow in any way other than thoughtlessly, when he promised to offer God whatever met him at his house on return. He repented of the vow when his daughter came to meet him, tearing his clothes and saying she had entangled him and become a source of trouble to him.
Ambrose of Milan (c. 339-397), On the Duties of the Clergy (trans. H. De Romestin), in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ser. 2, vol. 10 (New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1896) — Book III, ch. 12, §78
Catholic
Near-universalDriscoll says the obvious import is that Jephte's daughter was offered as a human sacrifice, the unanimous interpretation in Jewish and early Christian tradition. Some modern apologists, shocked that a judge with the spirit of the Lord could do this, argue the vow meant perpetual celibacy, but he calls their arguments far from convincing.
James F. Driscoll (d. 1928), The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 8, s.v. 'Jephte' (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910) — paragraph on the sacrifice of Jephte's daughter
Orthodox
Chrysostom says Jephthah fell into the snare of child-murder; his daughter first met him, he sacrificed her, and God did not forbid it. He knows many unbelievers accuse us of cruelty and inhumanity on account of this sacrifice.
John Chrysostom (c. 349-407), Homilies on the Statutes (trans. W. R. W. Stephens), in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ser. 1, vol. 9 (New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886) — Homily XIV, §7 (on oaths; the case of Jephthah)
Reformed / Protestant
Matthew Henry writes that most condemn Jephthah: he did ill to make so rash a vow, and worse to perform it. Because God forbade human sacrifice by the sixth commandment, Jephthah could not be bound by his vow to kill. Henry cites Dr. Lightfoot that it was effectively a sacrifice to Moloch.
Matthew Henry (1662-1714), An Exposition of the Old and New Testament, vol. 2 (Joshua to Esther) (London, 1706-1710) — Exposition of Judges 11:34-40, on whether Jephthah did well to fulfil the vow
Evangelical
John Wesley holds that Jephthah's daughter was not sacrificed but devoted to perpetual virginity. He reads her mourning in verses 37-38 as lamenting her virginity rather than death, and verse 39's note that she knew no man as explaining what the vow entailed.
John Wesley (1703-1791), Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (Bristol: William Pine, 1765) — Note on Judges 11:39 ('Did with her')