Abortion: Exodus 21 and Numbers 5 a detailed review
Any discussion on the biblical position of abortion is not complete without a discussion of Exodus 21:22–25 and Numbers 5:11–31. The former is where we get the phrase “Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” and the latter is known as the “Ordeal of bitter water.” Despite voluminous disingenuous arguments by evangelicals, these verses provide no support for the pro-life position, and instead clearly show that abortion on demand is permissible in certain contexts.
First, Exodus 21:22–25 states:
22 And if men strive together, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart, and yet no harm follow, he shall be surely fined, according as the woman’s husband shall lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. 23 But if any harm follow, then thou shalt give life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot…
Theologians who wish to push a pro-life agenda, such as John Piper obfuscate (read: lie about) the real controversy. They bring the pro-life reader’s attention to the phrase “וְיָצְאוּ יְלָדֶיהָ” translated literally as “offspring go out”. They indicate that this phrase is never used to indicate a miscarriage, but if they were honest they admit this phrase is never used anywhere else in the Bible, and it is absolutely used to indicate a miscarriage in Mishana Bava Kamma 5:4 (Cite).
The real question of this passage is whether punishment is for “serious injury” of the woman, the fetus, or both? First, the earliest translations and commentaries clearly indicate that the punishment is only for serious injury to the pregnant woman.
The Jewish Historian Josephus noted in his book Antiquities of the Jews (94 AD):
He that kicks a woman with child, so that the woman miscarry, let him pay a fine in money, as the judges shall determine, as having diminished the multitude by the destruction of what was in her womb; and let money also be given the woman’s husband by him that kicked her; but if she die of the stroke, let him also be put to death, the law judging it equitable that life should go for life.” (emphasis added, Cite)
Further, the first Latin translation of the Bible, the Vulgate (405 AD), states:
Si rixati fuerint viri et percusserit quis mulierem praegnantem et abortivum quidem fecerit sed ipsa vixerit subiacebit damno quantum expetierit maritus mulieris et arbitri iudicarint. Sin autem mors eius fuerit subsecuta reddet animam pro anima.
If men quarrel, and one strike a woman with child and she miscarry indeed, but live herself: he shall be answerable for so much damage as the woman’s husband shall require, and arbiters shall award.
sin autem more eius fuerit subsecuta reddet animam pro anima.
But if her death ensue thereupon, he shall render life for life. (emphasis added, Cite)
Additional, the Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (pronounced: néfesh) provides additional guidance to unlocking the correct interpretation. Verse 23 specifically states, “But if any אָסוֹן (pronounced; ason, meaning evil/harm/mischief, Cite) follow, then thou shalt give/take/render néfesh for néfesh.”
Jewish law, such as, Mishnah Oholot 7:6 (Cite) makes it clear that a fully gestated fetus that has not had the majority of its body exit the vagina is not “néfesh.”
הָאִשָּׁה שֶׁהִיא מַקְשָׁה לֵילֵד, מְחַתְּכִין אֶת הַוָּלָד בְּמֵעֶיהָ וּמוֹצִיאִין אוֹתוֹ אֵבָרִים אֵבָרִים, מִפְּנֵי שֶׁחַיֶּיהָ קוֹדְמִין לְחַיָּיו. יָצָא רֻבּוֹ, אֵין נוֹגְעִין בּוֹ, שֶׁאֵין דּוֹחִין נֶפֶשׁ מִפְּנֵי נָפֶשׁ:.
If a woman is having trouble giving birth, they cut up the child in her womb and brings it forth limb by limb, because her life comes before the life of [the child]. But if the greater part has come out, one may not touch it, for one may not set aside one person’s life for that of another.
Finally, Jewish law repeatedly indicates “Before forty days the fetus is ‘mere water.’” (Yevamot 69b, Cite).
Turning our attention, to Numbers 5:11–31, which states:
The Test for an Unfaithful Wife
11 Then the Lord said to Moses, 12 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him 13 so that another man has sexual relations with her, and this is hidden from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act), 14 and if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure — or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure — 15 then he is to take his wife to the priest. He must also take an offering of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour on her behalf. He must not pour olive oil on it or put incense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, a reminder-offering to draw attention to wrongdoing.
16 “‘The priest shall bring her and have her stand before the Lord. 17 Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water. 18 After the priest has had the woman stand before the Lord, he shall loosen her hair and place in her hands the reminder-offering, the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse. 19 Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, “If no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you. 20 But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband” — 21 here the priest is to put the woman under this curse — “may the Lord cause you to become a curse among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. 22 May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.”
“‘Then the woman is to say, “Amen. So be it.”
23 “‘The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water. 24 He shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering will enter her. 25 The priest is to take from her hands the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the Lord and bring it to the altar. 26 The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial offering and burn it on the altar; after that, he is to have the woman drink the water. 27 If she has made herself impure and been unfaithful to her husband, this will be the result: When she is made to drink the water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering, it will enter her, her abdomen will swell and her womb will miscarry, and she will become a curse. 28 If, however, the woman has not made herself impure, but is clean, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children.
29 “‘This, then, is the law of jealousy when a woman goes astray and makes herself impure while married to her husband, 30 or when feelings of jealousy come over a man because he suspects his wife. The priest is to have her stand before the Lord and is to apply this entire law to her. 31 The husband will be innocent of any wrongdoing, but the woman will bear the consequences of her sin.’”
The key phrase here is: “her abdomen will swell and her womb will miscarry, and she will become a curse”. In short, a man can force his wife to have a miscarriage (read: abortion) if she has cheated on him and gotten pregnant.
The pro-life contingent has three main arguments to try to avoid the obvious implication of this passage, but all such attempts fail. First, they argue that this isn’t about abortion, this is just another method for determining (female) infidelity (subtext: God doesn’t care about male infidelity as long as it is with an unmarried woman). However, the penalty for female infidelity is already death, why does the Bible include a description of a “belly swelling” and “thigh falling off,” euphemisms for miscarriages. All you need to do is mark the woman as committing adultery and stone her. Obviously, some of the women forced to undergo this ordeal would actually have cheated, and many of them would be pregnant. As such, any ordeal which kills the woman, clearly also commits feticide if she is pregnant.
Second, they claim that “miscarry” is a mistranslation and it should really mean the wife becomes barren, but what happens if you make a pregnant woman suddenly barren…ding ding ding…an abortion. Third, they argue that even if this passage describes an abortifacient à la the morning after pill, this doesn’t okay abortion for convenience because God did it. This is patently stupid. If there is nothing morally abhorrent about aborting a fetus conceived via infidelity, then there is nothing morally abhorrent about aborting a fetus at any time. To believe otherwise would contradict Deuteronomy 24:16: “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.”
In conclusion, these passages, do nothing to help the pro-life position. They clearly indicate life does not begin at conception, and they require an abortion if the life of the mother is in danger. Further, these verses allow for priests to induce an abortion in the case of infidelity.
