I know that the topic of child sacrifice is not exactly light reading – or uplifting. But it is an important topic when it comes to Biblical history, especially as it relates to the Conquest and the Judean Exile. A friend of mine has observed that when we hear of an execution, the first question that usually comes to mind is, “What was the crime?” In the book of Jeremiah, ‘the Crime’ was child sacrifice at Tophet. It also features prominently among the sins attributed to the Canaanites.
But there is another reason why this topic is important. It tends to be one of those match point issues that reveals the rift between those who think that all cultures and religions share the same DNA and have evolved together and those who do not think this.
I’ve spent some time working through a paper I wrote on the subject some time ago and have added some graphics, etc. The paper can be accessed here.
