Abortion and the Bible

I do not pretend to  even come close to saying everything important relating to this issue that is in the Bible. My only desire is to add something to the debate.

Secondly, my views are not openly expressed in this blog.  I am not out to convince anyone on either side.  To be honest, my views are dictated more by my emotions and experience more than anything the Bible says. 

Furthermore, I don’t see my emotions straying from what the Bible says.  But then again, one can find his/her emotions supported by the Bible in just about anything, if one digs deep enough and twists and turns scripture enough.

I am only trying to discover for myself and for others what the Bible says about abortion.

Even though abortion was common during the Bible days, there is very little mentioned directly about it in the scriptures.  There are, however, two passages that do address the issue from two different angles.

CHILD ABANDONMENT

Ezekiel 16:4-6

On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.

“‘Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!”

Ezekiel gives us an image of an abandon child, barely hours old.  It was not all that uncommon for women to leave their children to die in the wilderness, especially if they were girls.   Archeology has discovered many infants buried near brothels – not just in Israel.  More than that, I would only guess, and I would guess that this type of abortion was practiced by all types of people (prostitutes and others) - for many different reasons.  I would include unmarried girls who did not want to be dishonored in their community, women who could not afford another child, women who got pregnant while their husbands were at war, etc.

No matter what the reason, the Bible says nothing directly against infanticide, which I believe was fairly common in the days the Bible was being written.  However, this is not to say that it was accepted in any way, shape, or form.  Indirectly, we might use verses such as "Do not murder."  But I do want to emphasize that we are placing our modern concepts of murder onto the ancient world.  Few cultures, if any today would accept the killing of a child once it is outside of the womb, and I doubt ancient societies believed that this was morally acceptable; in fact, I believe Israel would consider infanticide equal to murder, but the Bible did not directly address the issue of infanticide. 

Exodus 21:22-25

If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

From a biblical point of view, this verse could settle the issue of abortion once and for all, if we had more clarity.  The Law of Moses was very clear about life for a life - if someone takes a life, their life must be taken.  Murder carried the death penalty, so if this verse clearly stated that one must die for killing an unborn child, then we would know Exodus considered the unborn a living person.  Unfortunately, the verse is not that clear, and for that reason both sides have used this verse to reinforce their own position.  Both sides have read their own world view into this verse.

Let’s start out with the verse, "gives birth prematurely".  Literally the Hebrew is saying that the child “has come out” because of the blow to its mother's stomach.  The NIV footnote to this verse (a translation that was written by Evangelicals from English speaking countries) says that this phrase may be, “she has a miscarriage”.   

If she had a miscarriage but no other harm was done, then the offender did not pay life for life (capital punishment), but rather paid whatever the father deemed necessary.  If this was the case, then the baby was not equal to a living human being because the “life for life” was not evoked in this case.  If the mother had a miscarriage and if there was no other injury, then (in this case) the child’s life was not equal to an adult, because life for life would only have taken place if the mother died from the blow to her stomach.  The child was important, but not important enough to earn life for life.

The next ambiguous phrase is, “if there is serious injury”….  The problem is this:  Who is injured, the mother or the baby?  The bible is not clear on this, and either point of view is possible in a literal reading of the Hebrew.

EXODUS CONCLUSIONS

I am convinced that both sides have been dishonest with this verse.  I can understand that many people trust what they are told by “experts”, and pass on that trusted point of view (on either side).  I can also understand that people are passionate about their beliefs in the right to live or the right to choose.  But those so-called “experts” are betraying their lack of objectivity in reading the Bible.  In other words they find what they want to find to support their own verdict. 

MY CONCLUSIONS

My view on abortion is not set in stone, and every situation is so different.  I believe the spirit of scripture (not any one verse or passage of scripture) and its high view on life suggests that in most cases abortion is wrong.  Even so, it is not an unforgiveable sin.  King David sought God with his whole heart, and yet he killed an adult in order to cover up his adulterous affair.  Although he suffered for what he did, he was forgiven and the second child from that affair was Solomon, who became an important part of God's overall plan for the world.

I am not concerned in this blog to give you my opinions about abortion and when it is wrong or necessary or whatnot.  I am only studying two passages and what they say about abortion.  I know of no other scripture that directly deals with abortion.  When these two were written, abortion was on the mind of the authors.  Other scriptures that are used to support arguments for or against were not written about abortion.  For example, the bible talks about the fetus or a person before conception.  Both Isaiah and Jeremiah were called before they were in their mother’s wombs (Isaiah 49:1, 5 and Jeremiah 1:4-5) and the writer of Psalm 139 celebrates God’s intimate care of him while in his mother’s womb.

These are used to support pro-life / anti abortion.  I am not commenting either way on these because the writers were not talking about or even thinking about abortion when they were writing.