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Abortion in the Bible
Passages from the Pentateuch: the first
five books in the Hebrew
Scriptures
Sponsored link.
Passages from the Penteach -- books Genesis to Deuteronomy in 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 also contain passages that some feel 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 the man 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:
|
| 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." Many Old Testament theologians believe that this is another remnant of the time when the ancient Hebrews and Canaanites ritually murdered their first son, sacrificing him to their god. |
| Leviticus 17:11: For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. It is a bit of a stretch, but this passage might possibly be interpreted as implying that personhood begins in the embryo when blood first becomes present. Since the heart starts beating about 21 days after conception, then one might argue that the embryo becomes a human person at that stage of pregnancy. |
| 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 a ritual that a husband could force his wife to endure if he suspected that she 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 significent 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." 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. |
See also a list of passages from the
rest of the
Hebrew Scriptures that may refer to abortion.
Related essay and menu:
| Menu: Abortion |
| History of beliefs about abortion in the early Christian movement |
| Jewish beliefs about abortion |
References used:
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
- 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/ This is a PDF file. You may require software to read it. Software can be obtained free from:
- Michigan Christians for Life has a free (as of 2007-MAR) bumper-sticker offer at: http://www.nonprofitpages.com/mcfl/free.htm
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Copyright © 1997 to 2007 by Ontario Consultants on
Religious Tolerance
Last update: 2007-MAY-17
Author: B.A. Robinson
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