Feeding the Dead as a Complementary Practice to Worshipping Yahweh: Deuteronomy 26:14 Revisited

Abstract

Within Christian tradition, particularly Protestant, the ritual of making offerings to the dead (i.e., feeding the dead) is often seen as contrary to Christian faith. Justification for this view is often taken from Deuteronomy 26:14. This verse details a pledge to avoid making offerings to the dead out of loyalty to Yahweh. Thus, I review the academic literature on the rationale behind this pledge to explore whether feeding the dead is contrary to the worship of Yahweh. To this end, I will discuss several studies regarding the ritual of feeding the dead in ancient Israelite society that use archaeological and textual evidence. This paper concludes that feeding the dead and worship of Yahweh are not mutually exclusive, but complementary.