That's why I put it down after my exegetical argument. It's rhetorical. Like icing on the cake, it appeals to your "sense of propriety" rather than to strict logic. I think that Hebrews' treatment of Jephthah obligates us to read his actions (rec.in Judges) in a certain positive light, preferential to the opposite view.

But to take it a little farther, certain sins God abominates, and sacrificing children is one of them. So, what we're talking about is (supposedly) an act of almost indescribable evil, shocking in its horror, done in Jehovah's name and over his objections, yet Jephthah is to be admired? That is... hard for me to accept. Especially when there is no Word from the Lord that is interposed (in the Judges account), nor any indication of repentance from such a sin. So, it is hard for me to accept that he did such a deed in the first place.

I think, in the last analysis, we have to interpret the Bible according to its own witness. If, for example, Peter calls Lot a righteous man, then we should be reading the incident of Sodom with that fact in mind; and not according to the appearance--which to my superficial reading might cause me to suspect he was a man without a conscience.

The examples you adduce of wickedness in others (in the Heb 11 list) don't seem good parallels to me. Samson we know cried to the Lord in his last hour, and was heard by God. Barak was weak in faith... OK, I don't see how weak faith = sin; in fact, it seems that the point is weak faith is still effective because the Object of faith is strong, not the believer. And I would dispute the notion that Gideon turned into an apostate. Again, that would mean he never had genuine faith to begin with--how could he be in the hall of faith then? All of them were sinners. But they were saved because faith in God was theirs.

__________________
Rev. Bruce G. Buchanan
ChainOLakes Presbyterian Church, CentralLake, MI


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