Classical Christianity

Abortion, Part III – Early Christians on Abortion September 1, 2008

In Part I we discovered how Jews and Romans felt about abortion; in Part II we discovered that the Bible says that a fetus is a person and deserving of protection no later than a few weeks after conception. In this third discussion on abortion, let us see what early Christian writers had to say about the subject.

‘PRO-LIFE’ STANCES

“The second commandment in the Teaching means: commit no murder, adultery, sodomy, fornication, or theft. Practice no magic, sorcery, abortion, or infanticide.” (The Didache, 50-200 AD)

“You shall not kill either the fetus by abortion or the new born.” (Epistle of Barnabas, 70-130 AD)

“…we are not permitted, since murder has been prohibited to us once and for all, even to destroy the fetus in the womb. It makes no difference whether one destroys a life that has already been born or one that is in the process of birth.” (Tertullian, 155-200 AD)

“We say that women who induce abortions are murderers, and will have to give an account of it to God. For the same person, would not regard the child in the womb as a living being and therefore an object of God’s care, and then kill[ed] it.”(Athenagorus, Petition to Marcus Aurelius, c. 175 AD)

“And from [the weeping children] went forth rays of fire and smote the women on the eyes. These [women] were those who produced children outside of marriage, and who procured abortions.”  (Apocalypse of Peter, 175-200 AD)

“Those who slew the unborn children will be tortured forever.” (Apocalypse of Peter, 175-200 AD)

“Some women take medicines to destroy the germ of life in their own bodies. They commit infanticide before they have even given birth to the infant.” (Minicus Felix, c. 180-225 AD).

“Our whole life can go on in observation of the laws of nature, if we gain dominion over our desires from the beginning and do not kill, by means of a perverse art, the human offspring, born according to the designs of divine providence; for these women who, in order to hide their immorality, use abortive drugs which expel the child completely dead, abort at the same time their own human feelings.” (Clement of Alexandria, Paedogogus, 180-200 AD)

 

These are just some of the many pro-life statements by early Christians on abortion.

‘PRO-CHOICE’ STANCES

To this point, I cannot find any actual early Christians who gave statements which were ‘pro-choice’. I will update if such statements can be found.

In conclusion, it is quite clear that early Christians were overwhelmingly pro-life in their attitudes towards abortion, keeping consistent with the belief of early Jews.

Abortion, Part II – The Biblical Context September 1, 2008

In our previous post, we found that the political views of abortion in the New Testament era were much the same as today: the ‘religious zealots’ (the Jews) were pro-life, and the society as a whole (‘Greco-Roman’) was pro-choice. The only key difference between then and now is that the ‘choice’ in Roman society lay not with the mother, but with the father.

Now, we need to see what the Bible says about the topic. The Scripture never explicitly uses the word ‘abortion’, and yet the Jews at the time of Josephus universally believed that the Law forbade the act. Thus, we need to examine all relevant Scriptures to determine what the Bible can tell us about abortion – and why the early Jews felt that the Scripture was so overtly clear on the subject.

There are several key Scriptures on the topic, each of which shall be addressed.

EXODUS 21

The first passage of interest is found in Exodus 21:

If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life… (Exo 21:22-23, NASB)

This passage is often used by both pro-choice and pro-life camps, each trying to twist the text to fit their particular belief; I mention it only briefly, to show that this actually has no bearing whatsoever on the abortion debate. The mistake stems from the fact that the KJV translates the words yeled yasta as ‘her fruit depart from her’, implying abortion or miscarriage. However, this is a mistranslation. The term yasta’ is used over 1000 times in the Old Testament, and in every case it refers to the birth of something living, not dead. Passages referring to stillbirths and miscarriages use a different Hebrew word (shakol).

Exodus 21:22, then, tells us that if a premature birth is caused by a struggle, the offending party must pay a fair amount to the parents of the child. This payment, no doubt, is meant to offset any birth disadvantages and health costs of raising a premature child.

PASSAGES REFERRING TO THE WOMB

Though the Bible never explicitly discusses the topic of abortion, it does discuss the womb on numerous occasions. Let us look at several of these verses and their implications. I will not quote each individually in an attempt at brevity; suffice it to say that there is no ambiguity in the passages.

• Job 31:15 states that God is fashioning us while still in the womb.
• Psalm 22:9-10 states that God is our God even while we are yet unborn.
• Psalm 139:13-16 states that God weaves us in the womb, and has our lives planned out and numbered before we are even born.
• Isaiah 44:2, 24 reaffirms that God creates us in the womb.
• Passages such as Jud 13:6-7. 16:17, Isa 49:1, Isa 49:5, Jer 1:5, Luke 1:15, and Gal 1:15 all verify again that God not only forms us in the womb, but also has plans and goals for us while yet unborn.
• The Bible several times refers to a woman as the mother of a child before the birth actually occurs – e.g., see Lk 1:43 and Num 12:12.
• Luke 1:41,44 shows the fetus of John the Baptist having a soul and ‘sensing’ the soul of Christ. Mary would have been only a few weeks pregnant, and Elisabeth was six months pregnant. Thus, we see that the soul (and personhood) existed during the entire pregnancy.

In conclusion, it is very clear from both the Old Testament and New Testament that personhood is attached to a child within the first few weeks of implantation of the embryo, and may occur immediately upon conception. If personhood thus applies to a fetus, then the obvious logical conclusion is that all Biblical laws about how to treat persons also applies. Thus we see how it was that early Jews and Christians felt that the Bible was overwhelmingly pro-life.

The only question which the Bible does not answer with specificity on the topic is at exactly what point personhood begins. Clearly from numerous passages, personhood is attached very early in pregnancy; just a few weeks after Mary’s pregnancy, for example, John’s spirit recognized Jesus’ spirit from the womb. It seems safe to conclude that the Bible would consider any abortion after, say, four weeks of pregnancy to be murder. And since it is virtually impossible to detect pregnancy prior to this point, then for all practical purposes we can conclude that the Bible rejects all abortions.

Abortion, Part I – The Historical Context September 1, 2008

We start our discussions into politics with perhaps its most divisive issue – abortion. The beliefs about abortion run wide, and most sites that you see will investigate abortion with a wholeheartedly on-sided view: they are either telling why they are pro-choice or why they are pro-life, rather than simply investigating the Biblical evidence and seeing what it actually says.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT: ABORTION IN BIBLICAL TIMES

Abortion is not, contrary to common belief, a modern invention. In the fourth century before Christ, Hippocrates mentioned abortion in his now-famous oath (1); Plato and Aristotle likewise discussion abortion several hundred years before Christ (2); Josephus speaks of abortion in the first century AD (3); and numerous early Christians speak on the subject (4).

At the time of the New Testament, abortion was a very common event. In Roman society, the head of the family (the pater familias) was responsible for ‘accepting’ a child into the world. Until the child was accepted, he/she actually was not considered a person…and thus could be killed without it being considered murder. It was not uncommon for an undesired child to be killed by applying heroin to his mother’s nipples during nursing (a painless and quick death), or–more commonly–by abandoning the toddler in the wilderness. Both Plato and Aristotle, for example, approved of abortions. (However, note that not all in Greco-Roman society were pro-choice; for example, the original Hippocratic Oath specifically mentions that doctors taking the oath are not to perform abortions.)

It is strange, then, that the New Testament never explicitly discusses abortion. The probable reason is that the majority of the New Testament was written to the Jews…and the Jews had completely different views of personhood and infanticide than their Roman contemporaries. Jews at the time of Christ universally interpreted the Old Testament as outlawing abortions, as Josephus points out (Flavius v. Apion, Book 2). The New Testament never discusses abortion explicitly because the vast majority of its audience is in complete harmony on the subject.

In Jewish society, there was one time and one time only that abortion was allowable – the instance where the pregnancy was likely to result in the death of the mother. In such cases, the pregnant woman was actually required to abort the fetus, as it was considered a radef, or ‘pursuer’.

In conclusion, the topic of abortion was heavily debated at the time of Christ, as it still is today. The majority of Greco-Roman society was pro-choice (though the choice belonged to the father exclusively, the mother having no role in the decision). They continued this ‘pro-choice’ mindset throughout the toddler years of the child’s life. Jewish society, however, was almost exclusively pro-life, believing that the Old Testament Law forbids abortion.

REFERENCES

(1) Hippocrates, The Hippocratic Oath. Available online at: http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/hippooath.html
(2) Aristotle: On the Soul. Translated by Hett, 1964, p.4-5.
(3) Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus translated by William Whitson, 1966, p.374-375.
(4) Didache 2:2; Barnabas XIX; Apocalypse of Peter 25; Tertullian, Treat.Soul XXXVIII; Athenagorus, Plea.Christ., 35. All available online at www.ccel.org.