The Fight of Abortion - Part 2
WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT ABORTION
OVERVIEW
Overview:
The most accurate religious affiliation survey to date shows that the number of American adults who identify themselves as Christians was about 76% in 2001. If current trends continue, this will drop to about 73% in 2004. About 1% of American adults consider themselves to be Jewish. Thus, an examination of biblical passages on the status of a fetus and abortion may be of interest to most of the public.
The Bible appears to be silent on the topic of abortion. 1 Author Roy Bowen Ward quotes two anti-abortion books in his essay on the personhood of the fetus: 2
 | John T. Noonan (1970) said: "The Old testament has nothing to say on abortion." 3 |
| John Connery (1977) said: "If anyone expects to find an explicit condemnation of abortion in the New Testament, he will be disappointed. The silence of the New Testament regarding abortion surpasses even that of the Old Testament." 4 |
Ward finds this silence difficult to understand, because abortion was widely practiced during New Testament era in the Middle East. The Assyrians had a law concerning self-induced abortions as far back as the 12th century BCE.
On the other hand, there are Biblical passages which might be interpreted as referring to the worth of a fetus. One source states that pro-life groups have cited over 100 Bible passages in support of their position. 5 The passages listed in this section appear to be the most commonly used in abortion debates.
We researched the beliefs of both religious conservatives and liberals in the preparation of this and similar essays. We use either the King James Version (KJV) or the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible, unless indicated.
References:
- What Does the Bible Say about Abortion?," at: http://www.infidels.org/org/ffrf/nontracts/abortion.html
- Roy Bowen Ward, "Is the Fetus a person?" at: http://www.rcrc.org/religion/es2/comp.html
- John T. Noonan, "An Almost Absolute Value in History," in John T. Noonan, ed., "The Morality of Abortion: Legal and Historical Perspectives," Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, (1970), Page. 6
- John Connery, S.J. "Abortion: The Development of the Roman Catholic Perspective," Loyola University Press, Chicago IL, (1977), Page. 34.
- Paul D. Simmons, "Personhood, the Bible, and the Abortion Debate," at: http://www.rcrc.org/religion/es3/comp.html
PASSAGES IN THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES
(OLD TESTAMENT)
THAT MAY DEAL WITH ABORTION
References from the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament):
It is, of course, from the Hebrew Scriptures that modern-day Jews obtain their spiritual insight. In Judaism, a fetus is regarded as a pre-human. A fetus becomes fully human only after it has half-emerged from the birth canal. Christians primarily use the Christian Scriptures for guidance. However, the Hebrew Scriptures are also scanned for passages that may deal with abortion.
| Genesis 2:7 God made Adam's body out of the dust of the earth. Later, the "man became a living soul" only after God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." This seems to state clearly that Adam's personhood started when he took his first breath. Following this reasoning, a newborn would become human after it starts breathing; a fetus is only potentially human; an abortion would not terminate the life of a human person. The most important word in the Hebrew Scriptures that was used to describe a person was "nephesh;" it appears 755 times in the Old Testament. It is translated as "living soul" in the above passage. One scholar, H.W. Wolff, 1 believes that the word's root means "to breath." He argues that during Old Testament times, "Living creatures are in this way exactly defined in Hebrew as creatures that breathe." | ||||||||||||||||
| Genesis 25:21-23 "...Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the LORD. And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger." The passage refers to the twin fetuses of Rebekah as being "nations." They are clearly not nations at that state of development; the word has to be interpreted symbolically. They are rather two fetuses who were later born and whose descendents -- according to the Bible -- became two nations. The passage also refers to the twin fetuses as "banim:" a Hebrew word which almost always means a "newborns" or "infants," or "children." The ancient Hebrews did not have a separate word to describe "fetuses." So they used the same word to describe fetuses that they also used to refer to children. English translations of the Bible use the term "children" here; this would more accurately be translated as "fetuses" except that the latter primarily a medical term. Again, the passage does not address the main question: are the fetuses full persons, or are they potential persons? | ||||||||||||||||
| Genesis 38:24 Tamar's pregnancy was discovered three months after conception, presumably because it was visible at that time. This was positive proof that she had been sexually active. Because she was a widow, without a husband, she was assumed to be a prostitute. Her father-in-law Judah ordered that she be burned alive for her crime. If Tamar's twin fetuses had been considered to have any value whatsoever, her execution would have been delayed until after their birth. There was no condemnation on Judah for deciding to take this action. (Judah later changed his mind when he found out that he was responsible for Tamar's pregnancy.) | ||||||||||||||||
| Exodus 13:1-2 "The Lord said to Moses, 'Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether [hu]man or animal.'" Throughout much of the ancient Middle East, the firstborn son in each family was ritually murdered as a sacrifice to the Gods. However if the first son was preceded either by the birth of a girl or a miscarriage, then the ceremony is not performed, as the son was not the first offering of the womb. In later years, this practice evolved into a substitute animal sacrifice, or a cash donation to the temple, or a dedication of the child to their deity. "...the ancestors of the Israelites probably at one time actually sacrificed their first born children, as Genesis 22:1-14 implies." 2 These passages relate to infanticide, not abortion, because the infant would be killed after birth. But it shows the low regard for newborn humans during that era. Other references of human sacrifices in the Hebrew Scriptures are found at:
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| Exodus 20:13"You shall not murder." This verse is often mistranslated "Thou shalt not kill." Murder is actually being referred to -- the killing of a human person. Since the writers of the Hebrew Scriptures and the tradition of the Jewish people regarded a human person as beginning at birth when the newborn first takes a breath, this verse would not apply to abortion. | ||||||||
| Exodus 21:22 If men strive [fight] an hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit [fetus] depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. One source comments that because some Bible translations (KJV, RSV) use the phrase "woman with child" that God considers a fetus to be a human child. 3 But other translations render the phrase simply as "pregnant woman" and make no direct reference to the fetus. Verse 22 is confusing. The key Hebrew word "yatsa" literally means to "lose her offspring." 4 This has been translated in different Bible versions as:
The New International Version of the Bible uses the phrase: "gives birth prematurely." and offers "miscarriage" as an alternative translation in a footnote. These two translations result in totally opposite interpretations: one supporting the pro-choice faction; the other supporting the pro-life movement. Some liberal theologians reject this interpretation. 5 They point out that this passage appears to have been derived from two earlier Pagan laws, whose intent is quite clear:
Author Brian McKinley, a born-again Christian, sums the passage up with: "Thus we can see that if the baby is lost, it does not require a death sentence -- it is not considered murder. But if the woman is lost, it is considered murder and is punished by death." 4 |
| Exodus 22:29"Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me." This is another remnant of the time when the ancient Hebrews ritually murder their first son, sacrificing him to their god. |
| Leviticus 27:6 And if it be from a month old even unto five years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver and for the female ten shekels. A child was only given a value after the age of one month; boys were worth five shekels; girls three; below that age, (and presumably before birth) they were assigned no monetary value. |
| Numbers 3:15 Take a census...including every male a month or more old. Only male babies over one month of age were considered persons for the purposes of enumeration. One explanation of this policy was that an infant under one month of age and a fetus were apparently not worthy of being counted as a human. Another is that the death rate among newborns was so high, that one could not have a reasonable certainty that the child would live until it was at least a month old. |
| Numbers 5:12-31 Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water..... This passage describes the action that a husband could take if he suspected that his wife had engaged in an adulterous relationship. He would take her and an offering of barely meal to the tabernacle, where the priest would make a magical drink consisting of holy water and sweepings from the tabernacle floor. He would have the woman drink the water while he recited a curse on her. The curse would state that her abdomen would swell and her thigh waste away if she had committed adultery. Otherwise, the curse would have no effect. If she were pregnant at this time, the curse would certainly induce an abortion. Yet nobody seems to have been concerned about the fate of any embryo or fetus that was present. There was no similar magical test that a woman could require her husband to take if she suspected him of adultery. |
| Numbers 31:17-18 Now, kill all the boys. And kill every women who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man. This occurred at end of the genocidal campaign against the Midianites. Moses, presumably under orders from God, ordered the soldiers to kill every boy and non-virgin woman. Presumably, a significant percentage of the latter would be pregnant. So, their fetus was killed along with the mother-to-be. The female virgins would be spared, because they were considered to have value. The fetuses would be destroyed, presumably because they were perceived to have had no value. |
| Deuteronomy 2:34 "At that time we took all his towns and completely destroyed them - men, women and children. We left no survivors." The Israelites tried to negotiate peaceful passage through the land of Heshbon. They were unsuccessful. So, apparently under the instruction of God, they exterminated all of the people, including innocent children. This undoubtedly included killing the fetuses of pregnant women . This is an early example of genocide based on religious belief, not unlike that in Nazi Germany during World War II, and in Bosnia Herzegovina in the 1990s. It demonstrated no regard for the life of the fetuses who were destroyed. |
| Deuteronomy 30:19: "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live." The segment "choose life, that...thy seed may live" at first glance might be interpreted as referring to the choice to not have an abortion. It is even clearer in the Living Bible which says "Choose life, that...your children might live." However, it is always important to consider the context of any isolated quotation. Verses 15 to 18 clearly state that the choice referred to in verse 19 is whether to worship either Jehovah, or the gods of the Canaanites, whose land they were about to invade. Verse 20 picks up the same theme. Verse 19 thus relates to religious choices and is unrelated to abortion. However, the "choose life" portion of this verse is often quoted by pro-life groups. Michigan Christians for Life offers a free, 3" x 6" bumper-sticker which says simply "Deuteronomy 30:19." 6 Automobile license plates that carry the "choose life" message are available in several Southern U.S. states, although their constitutionality is suspect. |
| Deuteronomy 32:23-26: "I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them. They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs. I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men." God is here describing how he will commit genocide against a specific nation. He will murder of persons of all ages and both genders, from infants to old people. It also involves erasing the memory of them as a nation. Presumably, fetuses would also die during the genocide. But they are not even considered sufficiently important to be mentioned. |
| 2 Kings 2:22-24 This describes Prophet Elisha, a bald man, and his interaction with a group of young boys. They called him by a derisive term: "baldhead." Elisha was angry. In an act of black magic, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Two female bears came out of the woods and mauled (and presumably killed) 42 of the boys. This passage has nothing to do with abortion, but does indicate the low regard that Elisha had towards the life of children (because he issued a curse) and that God had towards the children (because he presumably sent the two bears to kill the boys). |
| 2 Kings 15:16 He [Menahem, king of Israel] sacked Tiphsah and ripped open all the pregnant women. He apparently was angry that the people of Tiphsah refused to open the gates of the city. Considering the state of medical sophistication at the time, all of the pregnant women and their fetuses probably died. The king obviously gave no value to the life of a fetus. |
| Job 3:2-4; Job 3:11-19; Job 10:18-19: Here, Job is suffering. God instructed Satan to preserve Job's life while killing his children and destroying everything of value in Job's life, including his health. Job says that it would have been better if he had died at or before birth, so that he would never have experienced such misfortune. This passage seems to imply that a terminated pregnancy is better than bringing into the world a baby who will suffer greatly. |
| Psalms 51:5 Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. The second part of the verse is considered a reference to "original sin" by most Christians. This is the concept that Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and that all subsequent humans have inherited their sin. Thus, the writer's mother was in a state of sin when he, David, was conceived. Some conservative Christian commentators feel that David's reference to his own conception implies that the author regarded himself as a human person, continuously from conception, to birth, to adulthood. 3 But the passage has an alternative interpretation. David may have believed that before he developed into a human, he was a pre-human fetus; and before that, he was a pre-fetal fertilized ovum. i.e. that at conception, he was a living entity which later developed into David, the human person. |
| Psalms 139:13 For thou hast possessed my reins [formed my inner parts]: thou has covered [formed] me in my mother's womb. Again, this describes Jehovah observing and controlling the development of a fetus during pregnancy. No reference is made to miscarriage or abortion. The passage does not deal with the critical question of whether the fetus is a person. It merely describes the developing fetus. |
| Psalms 139:16 "Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." The meaning is obscured in the King James version by the ancient language. In modern English it means that: "God saw by body before I was born. The days allotted to me had already been entered in God's book before any of them ever began." This would seem to imply that during pregnancy, the eventual life span of the resulting newborn had already been decided upon and recorded. It also seems to imply that the person's days begin at birth. i.e. at birth, a fetus transitions from being human life to a human person. If this is correct, then it means that abortion kills a potential person in the womb, not an actual human person. |
| Ecclesiastes 4:1-3 "...But better off than both of them is the one who has never existed, who has never seen the evil activity that is done under the sun." Here, the author talks about acts of oppression and the suffering that this brings to innocent people. The author, traditionally believed to be Solomon, appears to refer to an interrupted pregnancy being better than a live birth, if the person born would suffer great injustices and pain. |
| Ecclesiastes 6:3-5 If a man begats 100 children...and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say that an untimely birth [a miscarriage] is better than he. The passage implies that a person can have many children and a long life; but if he is not motivated by love and goodness, and if he is not properly buried, then it would have been better if he had been born dead. The suggestion here is that a terminated pregnancy (one that does not produce a live birth) is better than a pregnancy that produced a life that is empty and miserable. |
| Isaiah 49:1 "...The Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name." This apparently means that Jehovah was aware of the author's name before the latter was born. Some people interpret this as implying that God recognizes a fetus as a human person by recognizing its name. Others simply regard this as a indication of God's ability to know the future. |
| Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified [set apart] thee." God is here saying that he knew Jeremiah before he was formed in his mother's womb. That is, God knew Jeremiah before conception, when even the most conservative pro-life advocate believes that human personhood begins. Yahweh appears to be referring to his ability to foretell the future. God had important plans for the adult Jeremiah, a priest of the tribe of Benjamin, even before the latter was conceived. Presumably, an omniscient God would know: when the conception would occur, that a miscarriage would not happen, the time when Jeremiah would be born, the name that the baby would be given, and the important role that Jeremiah would play as an adult. The passage does not appear to be related to the morality of abortion or whether a fetus is human person. But it is often cited in debates over abortion. It merely seems to discuss how God had planned the life of Jeremiah the prophet, before he was even conceived. To say that this passages proves that a fetus is human appears to be faulty logic; the passage would then also say that all ova and sperm are also a human persons before fertilization. |
| Ezekiel 37:8-10 Ezekiel was taken by the Lord to a valley which contained many dry, human bones. As he was prophesying, the bones came together...tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. After the bodies were reassembled, they looked like humans, but were in fact not alive because they had no breath. He then prophesied and "breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet..." The implication of this passage is that an apparently fully formed human is not a living person until it breathes. This would seem to confirm the Jewish belief that a fetus is not an alive person until it takes its first breath, after birth. |
| Hosea 13:15-16 I will have no compassion...the people of Samaria...will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground; their pregnant women ripped open. Their crime was that they had changed their religious belief. God obviously exhibited profound hatred against people who worship another deity, and assigned no value to the fetuses of the pregnant women who were obviously not involved in the selection of a new religion. |
| Amos 1:13 "I will not revoke the punishment because they have ripped up women with child in Gilead, that they might enlarge their borders." This refers to atrocities allegedly committed by Ammonite soldiers. Disemboweling pregnant women in that era would be almost certain to kill both the women and their fetuses. The reference to enlarging their border may mean that the Ammonites wanted to prevent children from being born who later might grow up to fight the Ammonites. The horrible nature of the crime appears to be directed at the killing of defenseless women; the deaths of the fetuses is not discussed. |
| The Talmud: "Talmud" means "Book of Study" in Hebrew. 7 They contain "discussions and analysis on Jewish law and how it is applied in everyday life." The Talmuds regard human personhood as beginning only at birth. Specifically, if the fetus is born normally, this happens when its forehead has left the birth canal. If the fetus is born feet-first, it happens when more than half of its body has been delivered. This remains the general belief within Judaism today. |
Related essay and menu:
| Menu: Abortion |
| History of beliefs about abortion in the early Christian movement |
| Jewish beliefs about abortion |
References:
- Hans Walter Wolff, "Anthropology of the Old Testament," Fortress Press, Philadelphia PA, (1974), Pages 14 & 59.
- C.M. Laymon, Ed., "The Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary on the Bible," Abingdon, (1991), P. 46.
- D.W. Cloud, "Birth Control and the Christian," at: http://wayoflife.org/~dcloud/otimothy/tl110003.htm
- B.E. McKinley, "Why Abortion is Biblical," at: http://www.elroy.net/ehr/abortion.html
- Roy Bowen Ward, "Is the Fetus a person?" at: http://www.rcrc.org/religion/es2/comp.html
- Michigan Christians for Life has a free (as of 2001-SEP-14) bumper-sticker offer at: http://www.nonprofitpages.com/mcfl/free.htm
- Talmud Project at: http://www.fontworld.com/talproj1.html
THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES (NEW TESTAMENT) AND ABORTION
The Christian Scriptures were originally written mostly in Greek. The authors used the word "brethos" to refer to a fetus, infant or child. The implication is that to Greek Pagans (the people who originated the Greek language), a fetus is as human as an infant or child. Some references:
| Matthew 26:24: "...but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born." This verse states that it would have been better for any person who betrayed Jesus if he had never been born. The verse might be interpreted as meaning that a terminated pregnancy might be better than a completed pregnancy, if the child's life would be miserable. |
| Luke 1:15....[John] shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. Some translations of the Bible, refer to the time when John was a fetus. Others refer to when John was a newborn; the New International Version uses the phrase "even from birth." The passage in Greek appears to be ambiguous; it might refer to a time during the third trimester when the fetus is viable. At any length, it refers to John' special birth, not necessarily to infants today. |
| Luke 1:35: "...The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." In this passage, the angels refer to the fetus which Mary will carry as a "thing," not a male person. The gender in the original Greek is neuter. Jesus is only referred to by the title "Son of God" after he is born, presumably after he becomes a person. This is consistent with the traditional Jewish belief that a fetus becomes a full human after it has half-emerged from the mother's birth canal. |
| Luke 1:41...when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb.... Elizabeth's fetus was in an advanced stage of pregnancy. Verse 36 states that she was in her 6th month, at a time when the fetus is probably viable. The verse might be intended to imply that a 6th month (26 to 30th week) fetus has some degree of awareness of its environment, is capable of living independently, and should be considered as a "pre-born" human person worthy of protection. It says nothing about a first trimester fetus without a functioning brain, consciousness or nervous system. This passage might be used to argue against the morality of a third-trimester abortion. The passage also clearly relates to two miraculous pregnancies: that of John the Baptist and Jesus; it would not necessarily apply to pregnancies of ordinary people. There never has been a documented case whereby an "ordinary" fetus could understand the words of the woman who was carrying it. This only happens many months after birth. One conservative Christian source 1 noted that the "Greek word for 'babe' in the above text is 'brephos'. In Luke 2:12, 16, the same Greek word is used to describe Christ in the manger. 'Brephos' is also translated 'babe' in I Peter 2:2, 'child' in II Tim. 3:15; 'infant' in Luke 18:15; and 'young child' in Acts 7:19. These scriptures show that God uses the same word to describe a child whether it is unborn, new-born or sometime later." Another way of looking at the term "Brephos" is to note that the Pagan Greeks had only a single word to refer to a fetus, newborn and young child. Since the New Testament was written in Greek, the authors had only that one term available for their use. The fact that they used it to refer to a fetus, newborn and young child is a reflection on Greek Pagan beliefs, not on God's intent. |
| Luke 1:42...Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. This statement by Elizabeth might imply that the embryo that Mary was carrying is a child. Otherwise, she would have said "blessed will be the fruit of thy womb". On the other hand, it might simply mean that the embryo was special at the time because it will grow, become a human person, and eventually be born as the infant Jesus. |
| Galatians 1:15-16 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace that I might preach.... This appears to repeat the beliefs of Jeremiah 1:5; i.e. that God knew Paul's role from before his birth. |
References from early Christian writing:
The Didache (a.k.a. "The Teaching of the Apostles," "Doctrine of the Twelve apostles," and "The teaching of the Lord through the twelve apostles, to the Gentiles") is an important document of the early Christian church. It was written by an unknown author, probably during the late 1st century 2 or early 2nd century. 3 Many theologians link it to the Jewish Christian movement founded by Jesus' disciples. It was never accepted into the official canon of the Christian Scriptures (New Testament). It reads, in part:
| Section 2.2: "...thou shalt not murder a child by abortion nor kill them when born,..." |
The second part of the phrase probably refers to the widespread practice of infanticide in the Roman Empire: The mother would lay a newborn outside the home. If the father accepted responsibility for the child, he would pick it up and bring it into the house; otherwise, the child would be abandoned to die. The early Christian movement was known for its practice of scooping up such abandoned newborns and adopting them into their families. Some Roman Pagans accused the Christians of collecting newborns in order to engage in rituals of human sacrifice. Ironically, during the Satanic Panics (1980 to circa 1995 CE), the tables were turned. Some Christians accused Neopagans of seizing children and infants for abuse and sacrifice in what was called "Satanic Ritual Abuse." Of course, ritual abuse and human sacrifice did not happen, either in among Christians in the Roman Empire or among Neopagans in modern America.
Related essay and menu:
| Menu: Abortion |
| History of beliefs about abortion in the early Christian movement |
| Jewish beliefs about abortion |
References:
- E.L. Bynum, "Abortion! Is it murder?", an unsolicited Email from a reader.
- John Chapman, "Didache: Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles," The Catholic Encyclopedia, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04779a.htm
- Alan Cairns, "Dictionary of theological terms," Ambassador Prod., (1998), Page 124 -125. Read reviews or order this book
posted by Johnathan Cross @ 10:47
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