Monday 26 August 2013

The History Of Biblical Honor Killing

By Debra Cooley


Biblical honor killing started 300 years ago as discussed in the Old Testament of the Bible. It is prudent to start off by trying to understand the meaning. Honor killing may be described as a killing which is allowed under the law.

If for anything, they are considered as having acted within the law. There are some instances which murder was allowed in the Bible. The laws of Moses are the first ones which made provision to this effect. The history traces back to the provision of Deuteronomy at Chapter 22. This book of the bible clearly demonstrate the circumstance under which murder was considered as being biblical honor. This specific chapter of Deuteronomy makes specific provision in regard to chastity.

During then, women were required to remain pure at all cost. They were to maintain their virginity until marriage. In order to check on those who broke this law, the tradition required that marriage must be consummated on the first night.

This law required that all women should remain pure before being married. Engaging in sexual intercourse before marriage was considered as committing a crime. When one was found to be guilty of the crime, then the punishment was death. In this regard, the law provided that if a man and a woman is married, there was to be presumption that the marriage will be consummated the same night of the marriage as per the traditions.

Therefore chosen individuals would scrutinize the sheet to establish whether there was any token of virginity. The token of virginity was considered as the presence of blood on the sheet. This would indicate that it was the first time she the man was penetrating into her and therefore some blood came out. It was so unfortunate if the token of virginity was not available in the sheet which the couple used in their first nigh as this would show that she was not a virgin and therefore she is considered as being impure.

The other incident worth mentioning is found in the book of Judges. The book of Judges is in the Old Testament of the Bible at Chapter 11 talks about Japhthah on how he killed her daughter and offered her to God as a sacrifice. Japhthah was to go to war with the Ammonites. He wished that he could defeat them in the war. He therefore asked God to help him to win the war.

The other instance is found in the book of Judges at Chapter number 11. This chapter gives the story of Japhthah when he killed his daughter to offer her as a burnt sacrifice to God. Japhthah had asked God to give him the Ammonites.

God allowed him to defeat the Ammonites in the fight. When he came back, his daughter was the first thing he met at the door. This therefore permitted him to kill his daughter and to offer her as sacrifice to God. He then shared with her daughter whatever he had promised God. None of them could change the situation and he ended up killing the daughter and burnt her as per the promise. This above instances seeks to show the history of biblical honor killing.




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