Abortion in the Bible
ABORTION
The word is not to be found, in either the Old or New Testament. Moses went into great detail about rules governing menstruation, rape, and incest, but never prohibited abortion. The Hebrew midwives were very skilled, and doubtless knew of herbs that could get rid of an embryo in the first trimester. If Moses (or God through Moses) was concerned about this practice, he surely would forbidden it.
Jesus was stricter than Moses on the subject of marriage.
Matthew 19: 8-9: Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."
However, Jesus never mentioned abortion. Neither did Paul, although his comments on marriage were even more specific than those of Jesus.
How can the evangelicals, who claim to be fundamentalists and take the Bible literally as the word of God, be so vehement about abortion? They lean heavily on the commandment: "Thou shalt not kill". Yet they support killing in wars, of both military and civilians. They support capital punishment. They support the use of depleted uranium, which has produced tens of thousands of abortions in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Surely this is hypocrisy.
The following verses are often quoted by abortion foes:
Exodus 21: 22 "If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely [5] but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. 23 But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise."
This passage is not clear about whether the injury is to mother or baby, since fetuses don't have teeth. Assuming, however, it is about the baby, clearly the pregnant woman must at least be in the second trimester, or else the fetal features would not be so clearly defined. Also, there is no mention of what happens if it is her HUSBAND who hits the pregnant woman and causes a miscarriage, which is much more likely, since pregnant women tend to avoid men who are fighting.
Overall, this passage does not seem to condemn abortion in general. The whole abortion issue is a scam. It is not Bible based at all.
(This material is from my forthcoming book "A Peacemaker's Bible Study")
Carol Wolman, MD
posted by carol wolman @ 3:12 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
The Bible may not directly condemn abortion. However, the Bible does condemn killing another human being (with the exception of certain wars). The Bible is clear in its change to compassion rather than violence in the new testament. If you argue that killing a fetus is not killing a human, I would caution you to examine the facts. Even the best known pro-choice scientist and doctors will accept the fact that abortion is terminating a human life. Everything is not directly addressed in the Bible, but their are some things that can be understood if you take the time to examine what is laid out for you. Any argument where someone explains that abortion is justifiable from a Christian perspective is wrong. There is no going around it. Abortion is killing, the Bible clearly is against killing of other humans, and unless someone chooses to ignore certain verses of the Bible it is impossible to prove the point that the Bible does not condemn the act. The only way of getting around it is by manipulating verses and meanings (which the Bible also clearly warns against).
Your logic has gaping holes. You are obviously not someone who has actually read the Bible. To understand the nature of God, you need to read the whole Bible and understand the context of the quotes you use. You are attempting to utilize what you have learned in psychology to "analyze" the Bible, which is impossible because God is divine, and you are not.
Isaiah 55:6-11 says, "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that He may have mercy on them, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Your only hope is to repent of your blasphemy and accept Jesus as your personal savior, who died to redeem you of your sins.
Even to a non-Christian, abortion is wrong because it is killing a living person. Science, including embryologists and geneticists, ALL agree that life begins at conception when the egg and sperm combine to create a unique cell with DNA that is materially different than that of the parents'.
Re: divinspiration's comments:
Let's not discuss logical fallacies with a fairly clear appeal to a belief, authority, and some pretty hasty generalizations in your statement.
I fear, however, you have created a "gaping hole" yourself if you claim that the attempt to analyze the Bible is impossible and yet further claim to know exactly what the Bible intends w/ regards to abortion. How can you know what God means if he claims that you don't in that very quote from Isaiah?
Not to mention the "fact" that you have indeed spoken to every geneticist and embryologist on the planet and they all just happen to agree with you.
Didn't take to time to get a poll of every philosopher or theologian of which I personally have heard arguments that consider life starting at the moment of birth.
Disagreeing with your favorite book doesn't make an argument invalid. Poor arguments do.
You are certainly right that there is no Biblical condemnation of abortion. Generally, the Bible believes life to begin either at first breath, or at a month from birth.
However, you do your case no good by assuring us that midwives knew herbs that could abort a pregnancy in the first trimester. What are these herbs? Why aren't they in use today?
In Biblical times, unwanted children were mainly dealt with by means of infanticide. Newborns were exposed on a hillside (or similar places -- famously, placed in a basket on the river). Hence the "one month" rule. And if infanticide makes you queasy, then maybe you can begin to understand the anti-abortion standpoint a little better. We're talking about very hard choices here.
http://www.ccel.us/BiblePassages.html
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