When Does Abortion Become Murder? - Part 2
We are looking at this question in response to a comment in another of our blogs called "The Jews Sacrifice Children". Part one of this response is at: When Does Abortion Become Murder?
In this post we'll be talking about two passages of scripture. Jeremiah 1:5 and Exodus 21:22-25.
The commenter wrote:
"Jeremiah 1:5. Which, when taken out of context, seem to support the claim that God recognizes a fetus as a person. But, for instance, if we read the entire passage of Jeremiah 1:4-10 it gives that one verse another meaning...and what is true for Jeremiah is not necessarily true for us. We are not prophets."
Here is what Jeremiah 1:5 says: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you, I have appointed you a prophet to the nations."
This verse says God did four things: formed, knew, consecrated and appointed. Is there anything in this passage, or ANYWHERE ELSE in the Bible that indicates God only does these things for prophets? What about doing this for apostles? What about pastors and teachers? What about evangelists? And let's not leave out worship leaders, prayer warriors and those with the gift of serving. Today the Holy Spirit is indwelling all believers, and all believers are consecrated and appointed to have spiritual gifts used to worship, serve and glorify God. So does that mean God only formed prophets in the womb before Christ died, but after He forms all Christians in the womb, but not other people? That does not make sense.
There is no support, anywhere in the Bible, for interpreting Jeremiah as limiting God to forming just Jeremiah, or just prophets, in a woman's womb.
Are there any indications elsewhere in the Bible that God forms all people in the womb? That we all are a creation of God?
Yes, Scripture such as Psalm 139:13-16 clearly says this... nothing more is needed.
But there is more. We read throughout the Bible that God knows us before we were born. He is control and involved in everything. He is the creator of all things. He holds the universe together (Colossians 1:17 and Hebrews 1:3), which means He is actively involved in everything that happens. What we call "natural laws" are in fact God acting in the present to hold the universe together. What Bible scholars call "the flow of Scripture" all favors the understanding of Jeremiah 1:5 as saying Jeremiah, like all other humans, was formed in the womb by God.
The commenter then writes:
"God does give examples that seem to support the view that He doesn't consider us a person until we are at least a month old and, in Exodus 21:22-25, clearly states that causing an abortion is not a capital offense. No, the baby in that passage did not survive. When this passage is properly translated it is a miscarriage, not a premature birth."
Here is what Exodus 21:22-25 says (NIV), "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 a 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."
===== The following is updated from the original post =====
The problem seems to be that the text is not being read for what it says. There is an assumption that the baby dies and the "serious" injury being discussed her is to the woman. But that's not what the text says.
It says that if the woman gives birth prematurely and there is no serious injury... if there is no serious injury then neither the mother nor the baby have been seriously injured and compensation must be paid.
If there is a serious injury, to either the mother or the baby, then there is a just penalty that is appropriate for the injury.
Both the NIV and NASB says "give birth prematurely", they do not say "miscarry". The Hebrew word used here is "yalad" and it means to give birth (alternate translations: born, children, give delivery, bring forth). The Hebrew word for miscarriage is "nephel" and that is not used here. There is no translation problem here.
Exodus 21:14 plainly says that abortion is murder and the penalty is the death penalty.
Labels: abortion
5 Comments:
No. That’s wrong.
The NIV Bible footnotes premature birth with miscarriage. Most of the English Bible translations except the NIV make it clear that this was a miscarriage. The NIV says premature birth in the text but in a footnote says “Or she has a miscarriage.”
Actually, even the NIV Bible acknowledges the translation of miscarriage. The NIV translation adds a footnote to "premature birth" that says “Or she has a miscarriage.”
Most translators of the Hebrew text understand a miscarriage in Exodus 21:22-25 because of contextual uses of the terms in this chapter. And most of the English Bible translations make it clear that this was a miscarriage.
Careful readers of the text, including Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzchak and Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra, have not seen the possibility of a live-birth reading in Exodus 21. All assume a miscarriage here and find no difficulty in this reading.
Thank you for your comments Harrison. I appreciate your taking the time to write.
However, I must disagree on several basis.
First though, whether the proper translation is "miscarriage" or "premature birth" that does not change the meaning related to killing a baby in the womb... it would still be the death penalty.
You are correct about the NIV have a footnote that provides an alternate translation of "miscarriage". What that means is that one or more of the scholars on the NIV translation committee disagreed with "premature birth". There were 100 scholars who worked on the translation of the NIV. They did not all work on every book. Smaller groups of experts then translated each book. Each book was effectively translated three times by three separate groups of scholars. The scholars came from a wide range of backgrounds including both conservative and liberal denominations. If there was a dispute, then the minority opinion, which could be just one strong-willed person, was placed in a footnote. JUst because thre is a footnote inthe NIV, does not make that translation correct.
For example, I love the NIV footnote for Job 40:15 which says behemoth could be a hippopotamus or an elephant. But both of these animals have small tails and behemoth is described as having a tail like a cedar tree! What we're seeing in this footnote is a bias toward Darwinism, with some of the translators unwilling to accept the description of behemoth as written.
You said other translations make it clear it was a miscarriage. Let's look at the top translations. The King James version and the NASB are both highly reguarded as being the best word-by-word translations. Let's see what they say:
NASB: "so that she gives bith prematurely"
KJ: "so that her fruit depart from her"
NLT: "so her child is born prematurely"
In 2002 the liberal editors of the Revised Standard Version (now known as the English Standard Version) recognized their translation as "miscarriage" in this verse was incorrect, and since then they have correctly translated it as "so that her children come out". (There is a shading of the wording in the original Hebrew that indicates she may be pregnant with twins, so the plural "children" is used by the ESV.)
So none of the major English versions translate this as miscarriage, and those that did are going back and correcting the error.
Hebrew has a word for "born" or "come out" which is used here, and a different, distinct word for "miscarriage", which is used, for example, two chapters later in Exodus 23:26. Trying to say Exodus 21:22 is referring to a miscarriage just does not fly.
Someone needs to read Exod 21 again. No where in Exod 21 does it say anything about abortion. Exod 21 talks about a married pregnant woman being attacked by another man. WOW,
EXod. 21:
[1] Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
[2] If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
[3] If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.
[4] If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.
[5] And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:
[6] Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.
[7] And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.
[8] If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.
[9] And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.
[10] If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.
[11] And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.
[12] He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.
[13] And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.
[14] But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.
Fancy: Thank you for your comment.
your quote stops at verse 14. I assume you've read on to verse 22.
The word "abortion" does not have to be specifically used. What does "abortion" mean? It means the child came out and waseither killed before or after the baby came out (the baby was born).
The "abortion" does not have to be done in a Planned Parenthood Clinic by a doctor. Neither the location, cause, nor person who caused the death and "birth" of the baby matter.
In Exodus 21:22-23 the cause of the death and birth was a "struggle" between two men. One of them strikes the pregnant woman. This causes her to give birth. If there is a loss of life, then the penalty is a life for a life (v23). The penalty for the death of the baby (the abortion) is the same as for murder... it is the death penalty.
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