| Abstract | Judges 11:29¿40 relates the story of Bat-Yiphtach, the daughter of Yiphtach, and of her sacrifice at her father¿s hands following his vow to YHWH. Through the long history of the narrative¿s interpretation, Bat-Yiphtach has been characterized by readers as child, woman, and young woman. In my childist and child-oriented interpretation of the story, she is a transitioning child. The methodology used is interdisciplinary, drawing on theoretical concerns and ethnographic scholarship in the field of childhood studies and on lexical issues and research in biblical studies related to life stages and to menstruation. My argument for reading the character of Bat-Yiphtach as a child in transition serves three purposes. First, the narrative then invites interrogations of the child¿adult binary and the ways in which its underlying presuppositions influence scholars¿ and readers¿ interpretations. Second, with Bat-Yiphtach as a bleeding child in transition, I argue that menarche and menstruation play a larger role in the language and events in the story than has previously been recognized. Third, using a framework of relational assemblages, an analysis of agency reveals that Bat-Yiphtach¿as exemplar of transitioning child¿exercises only routine agency. In this child-oriented reading, post-menarcheal research subjects offer revelations about what precisely Bat-Yiphtach weeps over¿and about the meanings imposed on her weeping by those far removed from the embodied experience of menarche. |
