Mass Child Sacrifice in Found in Peru:
140 Skeletons Discovered at Site of Mass Child Sacrifice in Peru
One of the skeletons of 140 children who were ritually sacrificed during a ceremony about 550 years ago near the modern day city of Trujillo, Peru. Mariana Baz/Reuters
Archaeologists in northern Peru say they have found evidence of what could be one of the world’s largest single cases of child sacrifice.
The pre-Columbian burial site, known as Las Llamas, contains the skeletons of 140 children who were between the ages of 5 and 14 when they were ritually sacrificed during a ceremony about 550 years ago, experts who led the excavation told The Associated Press on Friday.
The site, located near the modern day city of Trujillo, also contained the remains of 200 young llamas apparently sacrificed on the same day.
The burial site was apparently built by the ancient Chimu empire. It is thought the children were sacrificed as floods caused by the El Niño weather pattern ravaged the Peruvian coastline.
“They were possibly offering the gods the most important thing they had as a society, and the most important thing is children because they represent the future,” said Gabriel Prieto, an archaeology professor at the National University of Trujillo, who has led the excavation, along with John Verano of Tulane University.
Archaeologists Discover Site of One of History's Largest-Recorded Incidents of Child Sacrifice
History’s Largest-Recorded Incidents of Child Sacrifice
The excavation uncovered the remains of more than 140 children and 200 llamas, who were sacrificed some 550 years ago in Peru’s northern coast
Julissa TreviñoMay 1, 2018
Back in 2011, archaeologists first uncovered evidence of a large-scale human sacrifice that occurred some 550 years ago in Peru. Now the full details of the excavation in Peru’s northern coast, near the modern-day city of Trujillo, have been revealed, Kristin Romey reports in a National Geographic exclusive.
The 7,500-square-foot burial site, known as Huanchaquito-Las Laamas, is believed to have been built by the Chimú empire, Peru’s most important civilization to pre-date the Inca empire.
While the Aztec, Maya and Inca civilizations are known to have performed human sacrifices, the Huanchaquito-Las Laamas discovery is believed to be one of the largest-recorded incidents of child sacrifice in human history.
According to researchers, more than 140 children between the ages of 5 and 14 were sacrificed at the pre-Hispanic site. Evidence, including damage on their breast bones and dislocated rib cages, suggests that their hearts were ripped out.
The children, many of whom also had red pigment on their faces, may have died when their chests were cut open, but researchers haven’t ruled out that they may have also been killed another way first.
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Does the Bible endorses or allows Child Sacrifice? For example:
1. Abraham, willing to sacrifice his son?
2. Wasn't Jephthah, who had invoked the name of Yahweh (translated as "the Lord" in most English Bibles), bound by the third commandment to fulfill his vow and offer his daughter to Yahweh, the very God who had forbidden the practice (Judges 11)?
3. What about the passage of Isaiah 30:27-33?
What's the history, purpose, and practice of Child Sacrifice? What's the Bible's position on this topic, then and now? CM
Comments
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Oops, correction of the OP
Mass Child Sacrifice Found in Peru: Does the Bible endorses or allows Child Sacrifice?
For example:
1. Abraham, willing to sacrifice his son?
2. Wasn't Jephthah, who had invoked the name of Yahweh (translated as "the Lord" in most English Bibles), bound by the third commandment to fulfill his vow and offer his daughter to Yahweh, the very God who had forbidden the practice (Judges 11)?
3. What about the passage of Isaiah 30:27-33?What's the history, purpose, and practice of Child Sacrifice? What's the Bible's position on this topic, then and now? CM
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@C_M_ said:
Oops, correction of the OP
Mass Child Sacrifice Found in Peru: Does the Bible endorses or allows Child Sacrifice?
For example:
1. Abraham, willing to sacrifice his son?
2. Wasn't Jephthah, who had invoked the name of Yahweh (translated as "the Lord" in most English Bibles), bound by the third commandment to fulfill his vow and offer his daughter to Yahweh, the very God who had forbidden the practice (Judges 11)?
3. What about the passage of Isaiah 30:27-33?What's the history, purpose, and practice of Child Sacrifice? What's the Bible's position on this topic, then and now? CM
Here are a few verses showing widespread rituals of burning children alive. Possibly these were hardcore literalists. But God took the Levites in trade for all of Israel's first born that belonged to him since the original Passover.
“Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what pleased the LORD his God, in contrast to his ancestor David. He followed in the footsteps of the kings of Israel. He passed his son through the fire, a horrible sin practiced by the nations whom the LORD drove out from before the Israelites.” (2 Kings 16:2–3) (NET)
“Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hephzi-bah.” (2 Kings 21:1) (KJV 1900)
“And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.” (2 Kings 21:6) (KJV 1900)“And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.” (Jeremiah 32:35) (KJV 1900)
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In view of the OP, consider the information below when it comes to child sacrifice.
In Jerusalem who disparage others in order to shed blood, and some― ,ָש ִכיל even go so far as taking bribes in order to shed blood (Ezek 22:12). It is interesting to note that part of the crimes of bloodshed in Jerusalem involved child sacrifice (cf. Ezek 16:22; 23:37-39). God complains that the people of Judah go to his sanctuary after slaughtering their children to their idols and thus pollute it (Ezek 23:39). {See also Ezek 20: 26, 31. For The prohibitions on child sacrifice in the Old Testament see Lev 18:21 and Deut 12:31; 18:10. For discussion see chapters 4 and 5 that deal with idolatry and impurity in Ka Leung Wong, The Idea of Retribution in the Book of Ezekiel (Leiden: Brill, 2001).}
Harlan said, "the most vulnerable in society were cruelly killed". Because of these crimes of bloodshed, YHWH declares his unrelenting resolve to bring judgments upon them (Ezek 16:38), and as a consequence of these crimes, he will punish the people of Judah by scattering them among the nations and dispersing them through the lands (Ezek 22:15). He does this is because the crime of bloodshed is not just a crime against human beings. It is above all a crime against YHWH, in whose image human beings are created (Gen 1:27) and who has commanded that life not be indiscriminately ended (Exod 20:13). Such a serious crime unquestionably justifies YHWH‘s judgment against Israel.
Needless to say, Because of these crimes of bloodshed, God brought judgments upon them (Ezek 16:38), and as a consequence of these crimes, he will punish the people of Judah by scattering them among the nations and dispersing them through the lands (Ezek 22:15). He does this because the crime of bloodshed is not just a crime against human beings. It is above all a crime against God, in whose image human beings are created (Gen 1:27) and who has commanded that life not be indiscriminately ended (Exod 20:13). Such a serious crime unquestionably justifies YHWH‘s judgment against Israel. Other references to child sacrifice in Ezekiel 16:20-21; 20:26.
Child sacrifice, of the past or today, God will note and act accordingly. CM
SOURCES:
- Ka Leung Wong, The Idea of Retribution in the Book of Ezekiel (Leiden: Brill, 2001).}
- P. J. Harland, "A Land Full of Violence: The Value of Human Life in the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel," in New Heaven and New Earth: Prophecy and the Millenium: Essays in Honor of Anthony Gelston (ed. P. J. Harland and C. T. R. Hayward; Leiden: Brill, 1999), 116.
