The Antiquity 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.

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.

The individuals in charge of the scrutiny would report back their findings. The law therefore required that a woman who is not pure to be killed. The killing was being done through stoning and burning of the woman to death. Then they are being buried. This is a perfect example where the biblical law permitted the murdering.

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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