Jephthae is a name found in the King James Bible, appearing 1 time in the text.
Who This Was
Jephthae, better known by the spelling Jephthah, was a judge of Israel who led the Israelites in battle against the Ammonites. His story belongs to the period of the judges, when Israel was governed not by kings but by leaders raised up by God from time to time to deliver the people. The Ammonites pressed hard against Israel, and the elders of Gilead turned to Jephthah, a mighty man of valor, to command their forces. He took up the cause, and God gave him victory over the Ammonites.
The source note identifies him simply as a judge who led Israel in battle, and that is how he is remembered in the book of Judges. What concerns the New Testament is not the details of his military campaign but his place in the great company of the faithful. In Hebrews 11, the roll call of those who lived by faith, Jephthae is named alongside Gedeon, Barak, Samson, David, and Samuel. The writer to the Hebrews, pressed for time, does not retell their stories; he simply gathers them together as witnesses that faith was active in Israel long before the coming of Christ.
The King James Bible mentions Jephthae only once, in Hebrews 11:32: “And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets.” He appears, then, not as a subject of extended teaching in the New Testament but as one name in a cloud of witnesses, commended for faith.
The Name
The name Jephthae is the Greek form used in Hebrews of the Hebrew name Jephthah. The Hebrew name is commonly understood to mean “he opens” or “he will open,” from a root meaning to open. Because the New Testament gives the Greek transliteration rather than the Hebrew, the meaning is not explained in the text itself; the sense above rests on the established Hebrew name behind it. As with many names in Scripture, the meaning is suggestive rather than central to the person’s role in the story.
A Closing Thought
It is striking that Hebrews names Jephthae among the faithful without rehearsing his record. His life was not without difficulty, and his story in Judges is not a tidy one. Yet the New Testament remembers him as a man who belonged to the company of those who trusted God. That is a comfort to any believer whose own story is uneven. Faith is not the same as a flawless life; it is the hand that reaches toward God even in hard and confusing days. Jephthae stands as a witness that God’s account of a life may be more gracious than our own.
At a Glance
- Gender: Male
- Testament: New
- Mentions in the KJV: 1
Where It Appears in Scripture
- Hebrews 11:32 — And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: