Jephthah’s Daughter in the Bible and Reception

In this volume, Katerina Koci redefines our understanding of gender-related sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible. Through an exploration of the figures of Jephthah’s unnamed daughter, Isaac, and the classical princess Iphigenia, the biblical roots of sacrifice, gendered sacrifice and the existential phenomenology of sacrifice are woven together, liberating these chosen figures from long-standing gender stereotypes.

Koci begins with a historical-critical examination of female sacrifice, including a syntactic-structural analysis of the original Hebrew text, Judges 11:29-40. Koci explores two parallel sacrificial narratives: from the Hebrew Bible, the story of the binding of Isaac in Genesis 22, and from Classical mythology, Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis. By employing systematic investigation of the reception of sacrifice within existential phenomenology and theology, she focuses on the sacrificial experience of the individual and examines the concept of female sacrifice within the framework of feminist philosophy and theology. Ultimately, Koci offers an insight into the nuances that define gendered sacrifice and how the sacrificial experience may or may not differ if we consider both gender fluidity and other experiences, such as motherhood, that are inherently gendered.