Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/391

 JENNINGS

3.33

JEREMIAS

A portrait engraved by le Pouter in 1694 is prefixed to a Paris edition of "A Contrite and Humble Heart". lioDO. Church History, III (Brussels. 1739-42); Bowen. in- troductioQ to God's Safe Way of Obedience (London. 1S72); Brady. Annals of the Catholic Hierarchy (London, 1877); Gil- low, BibLDict. Eng.Cath.,s. v.; Cooper in Diet. Xal. Biog., s. v. EowaN Burton.

Jennings, Sir Patrick Alfred, Australian states- man, b. at Xcwry, Ireland, 1S31; d. July, 1S97. He received his education, which included a training in engineering and surveying, in his native town, went to Victoria in 18V2. antl settled in the St. Arnaud dis- trict, where ho (ilK-d various public offices. In 1863 he went to New South Wales, and engaged in pastoral pursuits in the Kiverina district. Four years later he was appointed to the Legislative Council of Xew South Wales, from which he resigned in 1S69, and stood as a candidate for the Legislative Assembly, to which he was elected. In 1S74 he was honoured by Pius IX with the Order of St. Gregory the Great, and in 1876 was made a Knight Commander of the Order of Pius IX and St. Clregory the Great. In 1876 he represented New South Wales and other states at the Philadelphia Exhibition. He was created C.M.G. in 1879, and in the following year K.C.M.G. For a few months in 1883 he was Vice-President of the Executive Council, and colonial treasurer for a short period in 1885. In the following February Sir Patrick became premier and colonial treasurer, but resigned these offices in 1887. On revisiting Ireland in 1887 he was made an honorary LL.D. of Dublin Universitj^. In the same year he went to Rome, and received the Grand Cross of Pius IX from Leo XIII. He was called to the Leg- islative Council in 1890, was a mem.berof the Senate of Sydney University, a Fellow of St. John's (Catholic) College, and trustee of the Sydney .\rt Gallery. From 1891 until his death he led a somewhat retired life, but took a keen interest in benevolent and social move- ments.

Heaton, Australian Dictionary of Dales (Sydney. IS79); Mennell, Dictionary of Australasian Biofrraphy (London, 1892); ^fen of the Time (13th ed., London. 1S91)._

John W. Kennedy.

Jephte (nns'), one of the judges of Israel. The story of Jephte is narrated in chapters xi and xii of the Book of Judges. He was a warrior of Galaad and the son of a harlot. His father's name was Galaad, who having a wife and other children, these latter thrust out Jephte from the family and he fled to the land of Tob in Eastern Syria. Here he became the leader of a band of "needy men" and robbers who followed him as their prince. At this juncture the Israelitish terri- tory east of the Jordan was invaded by the Ammon- ites, and the elders of Galaad, being in sore need of a leader to conduct the defence, .saw themselves forced to go to Tob and ask Jephte to return and be their prince. After expressing surprise that they should make him such an ofTer. considering the treatment he had received in his native city, he yielded to their entreaties, but insisted on the condition that, should he be victorious over the .\mmonites, his own country- men would remain faithful to their word and recognize him as their prince. The elders made a solemn prom- ise, and Jephte returned with them to the land of Galaad, where he was nuide chief by popular acclama- tion. Before beginning his campaign Jephte made a vow to the Lord, .saying: "If thou wilt deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, whosoever shall first come forth out of the doors of my house, and shall meet me when I return in peace from the children of .\mmon, the same will I offer a holocaust to the Lord." After a rather long negotiation with the King of the .Ammonites as to Israel's right of pos- session of the land of Galaad, Jephte led his forces against the invaders and "smote them from .\roer till you come to Mennith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel,

which issetwithvinej-ards, witha very great .slaughter, and the children of .\mmon were humbled by the children of Israel " (Judges, xi, 33).

On his triumphant return to his home in Maspha, the first person to come forth to meet him is his only daughter, accompanied by a chorus of women. On be- holding her he is stricken with alarm and dismay, remembering his rash vow, but he declares that he has opened his mouth to the Lord and cannot do other- wise than fulfil it. The daughter expresses a noble and generous resignation to her fate, but asks a respite of two months that she may "bewail her virginity" in the mountains with her companions. Xt the expira- tion of the two months "she returned to her father and he did to her as he had vowed." Whence arose a custom that from year to year the daughters of Israel used to assemble together and lament during four days the daughter of Jephte the Galaadito.

The obvious import of the narrative is that the daughter of Jephte was offered up as a human sacrifice, and in fact, such has been the unanimous interpreta- tion of it in Jewish, as well as in early t:hristian, tradi- tion. Some modern apologists, howe\'er, shocked by the idea that a judge upon whom came "the spirit of the Lord " (xi, 29) could commit so barbarous an act, have endeavoured to prove that the words of Jephte's vow should not be taken literally, but as referring to perpetual celibacy to which his daughter was to be condemned. The arguments to this effect, which are far from convincing, may be found in \'igouroux, "Dictionnaire de la Bible", s. v. They ignore the barbarous ethical condition of the Israelites at that relatively remote epoch — a condition ■v\hich is evident from other narratives in the same Book of Judges (v. g. that of ch. xix). That human sacrifice was ex- pressly forbidden by the Mosaic Law does not help the argument, for, evengrantingthattheLawthene.xisted at all otherwise than in embryo, which is at least very doubtful, it is plain from the historical books referring to this and subsequent periods that its prescriptions were constantly ignored by the Jewish people. That such rash vows with their dire consequences, and even human sacrifices, were not things unheard of in that stage of Israel's history, may be gathered from such passages as I Kings, xiv, 24 sqq.; II Kings, xxi, 6-9; IVKings, xvi, 3; etc.

After the conquest of the .Ammonites Jephte be- came involved in a severe conflict with the neighbour- ing tribesmen of Ephraim who arrogantly complained that they had not been invited to take part in the expedition. Jephte retorted that they had been called upon to assist him but had declined, and the result was a fierce struggle between Ephraim and the men of Galaad in which the latter were victorious. They obtained strategic control of the fords of the Jordan by which the fleeing Ephraimitcs were obliged to return homeward, and when the fugitives appeared, each one was asked to pronounce the word "shibbo- leth" (an ear of corn), and if according to the Eph- raimitic dialect it was pronounced "sibboleth" the man was immediately put to death. That forty-two thousand Ephraimites were slain on that occasion may be an exaggeration or possibly a change of the text. After a judgeship of six years Jephte died and was buried in his city of Galaad.

Palis in \'igouroux. Diet, dela Bible, s. v. Jephte; Cooke in Hasti.mgs, Diet, of the Bible, s. v. JephDuih.

J.vMES F. Driscoll.

Jeremias [lleb. n'OT, Irmeyah; often in the para- gogic form in'DT, Irmeyahu, especially in the Book of Jeremias — meaning, possibly, "whom Jehovah ap- points" (.see Gesenius," Lexicon", s.v.);. Sept. 'Ifpe/ilas], the name of seven or eight men, besides the prophet (see Jere.mi.\8 the Prophet), mentioned in the Old Testament: —

(1) Jeremi.\s of Lobna (A. \, Li'^nah, II Kings,