Abortion in the Bible and Early Christian Writings, Part 1

[NoelFitz]

Perhaps it may be of interest to look at references to abortion and related topics in the Bible and early Christian writings. From these a discussion may develop.

For the Bible I use the NRSV in the Libronix Digital Library System (Logos). For the Apostolic Fathers I used Michael William Holmes, *The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations *(Updated ed.; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1999). For Other Patristic Writings I used *“…at your fingertips” *Classictexts.net) prepared from the public domain by Fr Pat Rogers. The references here are not complete. Further details may be supplied if required.

There are not as many references as I hoped to find, and some are difficult to understand, partially because the context is obscure. Thus the quotations from Augustine, and some others, are long, since to shorten them would make them even more obscure.

Would anyone like to add to this list or comment on it?

I divide the study into two parts.

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Bible

None

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**The Apostolic Fathers, **

Didache 2:2
“You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery”; you shall not corrupt boys; you shall not be sexually promiscuous; “you shall not steal”; you shall not practice magic; you shall not engage in sorcery; you shall not abort a child or commit infanticide.

Epistle of Barnabas, 19:5 (part)
“You shall not take the Lord’s name in vain.” You shall love your neighbor more than your own life. You shall not abort a child nor, again, commit infanticide.

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Other Early Christian Writings

**Terrtullian **
On the Soul, ch 37
The embryo therefore becomes a human being in the womb from the moment that its form is completed. The Law of Moses, indeed, punishes with due penalties the man who shall cause abortion, inasmuch as there exists already the rudiment of a human being, which has imputed to it even now the condition of life and death, since it is already liable to the issues of both, although, by living still in the mother, it for the most part shares its own state with the mother.

**Tertullian **
To his wife, Bk 1, ch 5
Burdens must be sought by us for ourselves which are avoided even by the majority of the Gentiles, who are compelled by laws, who are decimated by abortions; burdens which, finally, are to us most of all unsuitable, as being perilous to faith!

Irenaeus
Against the Heresies, ch 30, par 4
For no midwives performed their office upon her, and therefore they were cast forth as an abortion, useful for nothing, and formed to accomplish no work of the Mother.

Jerome
Letter 22 to Eustochius, par 13
Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when (as often happens) they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder.

Jerome
Letter 22 to Eustochius par 18
Do I condemn marriage if I enumerate its troubles, such as the crying of infants, the death of children the chance of abortion, domestic losses, and so forth?

Augustine
The City of God, bk 22, ch 12
For if there is to be equality, where shall those abortions, supposing that they rise again, get that bulk which they had not here? Or if they shall not rise because they were not born but cast out, they raise the same question about children who have died in childhood, asking us whence they get the stature which we see they had not here; for we will not say that those who have been not only born, but born again, shall not rise again.

Augustine
The City of God, bk 22, ch 13
That abortions, which, even supposing they were alive in the womb, did also die there, shall rise again, I make bold neither to affirm nor to deny, although I fail to see why, if they are not excluded from the number of the dead, they should not attain to the resurrection of the dead. For either all the dead shall not rise, and there will be to all eternity some souls without bodies though they once had them, – only in their mother’s womb, indeed; or, if all human souls shall receive again the bodies which they had wherever they lived, and which they left when they died, then I do not see how I can say that even those who died in their mother’s womb shall have no resurrection. But whichever of these opinions any one may adopt concerning them, we must at least apply to them, if they rise again, all that we have to say of infants who have been born.

Augustine
Enchiridion on Faith, Hope and Love, ch 85
So in the first place arises a question about abortive conceptions, which have indeed been born in the mother’s womb, but not so born that they could be born again. For if we shall decide that these are to rise again, we cannot object to any conclusion that may be drawn in regard to those which are fully formed. Now who is there that is not rather disposed to think that unformed abortions perish, like seeds that have never fructified? But who will dare to deny, though he may not dare to affirm, that at the resurrection every defect in the form shall be supplied, and that so the perfection which time would have brought shall not be wanting, any more than the blemishes which time did bring shall be present: so that the nature shall neither want anything suitable and in harmony with it that length of days would have added, nor be debased by the presence of anything of an opposite kind that length of days has added; but that what is not yet complete shall be completed, just as what has been injured shall be renewed.

 

[NoelFitz]

Previously in Abortion in the Bible and Early Christian Writings, Part 1. I included a partial list of patristic writings on abortion. Here I continue the extracts.

I really would appreciate comments and additions. First of all I would like to see a fairly comprehensive list of references to abortion in the early Church, and from these discussions may develop

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John Chrysostom
Homilies on Paul to the Romans, ch 24, Rom 13:11
Why sow where the ground makes it its care to destroy the fruit? Where there are many efforts at abortion? Where there is murder before the birth? for even the harlot you do not let continue a mere harlot, but make her a murderess also. You see how drunkenness leads to whoredom, whoredom to adultery, adultery to murder; or rather to a something even worse than murder. For I have no name to give it, since it does not take off the thing born, but prevent its being born. Why then do you abuse the gift of God, and fight with his laws, and follow after what is a curse as if a blessing, and make the chamber of procreation a chamber for murder, and arm the woman that was given for childbearing to slaughter

John Chrysostom
Homilies on Paul to the Galatians, ch 4, Gal 4:1-3 (part)
You have defaced the likeness, you have destroyed the kinship, you have changed the form, you need another regeneration and refashioning; nevertheless I call you children, abortions and monsters though you be.

Athenagoras
Plea for Justice, ch 35
And when we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder? For it does not belong to the same person to regard the very fetus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God’s care, and when it has passed into life, to kill it; and not to expose an infant, because those who expose them are chargeable with child-murder, and on the other hand, when it has been reared to destroy it.

Apostolic Constitutions
Bk 7, part 1, par 3
You shall not use magic. You shall not use witchcraft; for he says, “You shall not suffer a witch to live.” you shall not slay your child by causing abortion, nor kill that which is begotten; for “everything that is shaped, and has received a soul from God, if it be slain, shall be avenged, as being unjustly destroyed.”
**
Gennadius**
ch 18, Tichonius, Donatist
In this exposition he maintained the angelical nature to be corporeal, but maintains that there will be one simultaneous resurrection of all, at which shall arise even the aborted and the deformed in case any living human being, however deformed, should be lost.

Basil
Lett 188, par 8
Women also who administer drugs to cause abortion, as well as those who take poisons to destroy unborn children, are murderesses.

 

[SHW]

Bible:

**Exodus 20:13 **“You shall not murder/kill.”

Deuteronomy 30:19 “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;”

Isaiah 49:15-16 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. 16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;”

**
Jeremiah 1:5** "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”
**
Leviticus 17:11**; “For the life of a creature is in the blood.”

Matthew 18:10 “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.”

Psalm 139:13-16 “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.”

Also found this:

http://www.crusadeforlife.org/prolife_scriptures.htm

 

[NoelFitz]

SHW

Thank you so much for your reply.

I appreciate your contribution to this topic.

However none of the quotations you give refer to abortion specifically. For example the 5th commandment *Thou shalt not kill * does not explicitly mention abortion, even though abortion is against this commandment.

The web site you gave has pro-life quotations, not quotations concerning abortion.

Once we have a comprehensive list of quotations about abortion, perhaps we can consider why there are so few/many. It might be suggested that few references to abortion were needed as it is so obviouslyt wrong,* thou shalt not kill*.

 

[Zundrah]

SHW

Thank you so much for your reply.

I appreciate your contribution to this topic.

However none of the quotations you give refer to abortion specifically. For example the 5th commandment *Thou shalt not kill * does not explicitly mention abortion, even though abortion is against this commandment.

The web site you gave has pro-life quotations, not quotations concerning abortion.

Once we have a comprehensive list of quotations about abortion, perhaps we can consider why there are so few/many. It might be suggested that few references to abortion were needed as it is so obviouslyt wrong,* thou shalt not kill*.

I think I’m right when I say that I’m pretty sure that abortion is not in the bible at all. I don’t think that it existed that far back in the past?

 

[NoelFitz]

Zundrah

many thanks for your post. I am very pleased to hear from you. It is good to get a discussion going. I had thought that abortion would elicit different opinions.

I agree with you that abortion does not seem to be in the Bible. But I disagree with you when you say it did not exist that far back, as it is mentioned in the Didache which is possibly older than a number of NT texts. At least it is as old.

 

[SHW]

I think I’m right when I say that I’m pretty sure that abortion is not in the bible at all. I don’t think that it existed that far back in the past?

I do not think it is specifically listed by the name “abortion.”

However, Exodus 21:22-25 states: “If men fight, and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman’s husband imposes on him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. 23 But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.”
**
Amos 1:13** “For three transgressions of the people of Ammon, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because they ripped open the women with child in Gilead,
That they might enlarge their territory.”
**
Deut. 27:25** “Cursed is the one who takes a bribe to slay an innocent person.’
“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’”

Interesting Scripture:
**
Genesis 25:22-28** "But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of the LORD.
23 And the LORD said to her:

  “**Two nations are in your womb,
  Two peoples shall be separated from your body**;
  One people shall be stronger than the other,
  And the older shall serve the younger.”

24 So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb. 25 And the first came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over; so they called his name Esau. 26 Afterward his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau’s heel; so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.
27 So the boys grew. And Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was a mild man, dwelling in tents. 28 And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob."

 

[guanophore]

SHW

Thank you so much for your reply.

I appreciate your contribution to this topic.

However none of the quotations you give refer to abortion specifically. For example the 5th commandment *Thou shalt not kill * does not explicitly mention abortion, even though abortion is against this commandment.

The web site you gave has pro-life quotations, not quotations concerning abortion.

Once we have a comprehensive list of quotations about abortion, perhaps we can consider why there are so few/many. It might be suggested that few references to abortion were needed as it is so obviouslyt wrong,* thou shalt not kill*.

Yes, I believe you are right. All conceptions were considered by the Jews to be a gift from God, and a blessing. Although it was not known exactly which point the life in the woman became “human”, it was considered safer to err on the side of life.

Eccl 11:5

5 As you do not know how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

Since we do not know when the body becomes “a living soul” we can be safe in assuming that it is a human soul/life from conception.

Luke 1:44
44 For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy.

As Fr. Corapi is fond of pointing out, “the by products of conception” do not “leap for joy”.

If you ever listen to mothers who want their babies, it is a baby from the beginning. For those that do not, or are unsure, the life in them is called a “pregnancy” (as if it were a disease), the 'by products of conception", or an “it”.

Amos 1:13

13 Thus says the LORD:
"For three transgressions of the Ammonites,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
because they have ripped up women with child in Gilead,
that they might enlarge their border.

It is also interesting to note that all the OT references to women “with child” demonstrate that the fetus is considered a person-child yet unborn.

 

[NoelFitz]

Guanophore,

Thank you for your contribution.

I see you have 13378 posts here, Congratulations.

What is the etymology of Guanophore?

I also see your religion is* Catholic (Ruthenianized Latin)*. What does this mean?

You wrote:

It is also interesting to note that all the OT references to women “with child” demonstrate that the fetus is considered a person-child yet unborn.

This is a great point.

Thus I think we have established the quotations in the Bible and the early Church about abortion. In fact there are none in the Bible and few in the early Church.

I think now we are in a position to discuss abortion in the early Church.

Thre results are clear that it is unequivocally condemned.

 

[NoelFitz]

SHW

Thank you so much for your most recent post.

It is of fundamental importance to this discussion. I said there are no references to abortion in the Bible, you show clearly this must be modified. . Among the quotations you give the following is definitely relevant.

Exodus 21:22-25: “If men fight, and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman’s husband imposes on him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. 23 But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.”

Life for life clearly shows that the child in the womb is a life and killing it is the same as killing any human.

The second quotation you give:

Amos 1:13 “For three transgressions of the people of Ammon, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because they ripped open the women with child in Gilead,
That they might enlarge their territory.”

This also shows that abortion is a transgression.

So, SHW, many thanks for progressing our discussion.

I look forward to hearing more relevant quotations.

 

[Mintaka]

The quotation from St. Irenaeus isn’t actually talking about Christian abortion, or even pagan abortion. It’s about one version of the Gnostic cosmology, and the logical consequences of the Gnostics believing what they believed.

Moving on… from the dawn of time, it’s been possible to abort children by inducing miscarriages on purpose. If you give a pregnant woman a poisonous enough plant, she will probably miscarry. She might die too, of course. Anyway, when you see stuff about “potions” and such in the Bible, a lot of time they’re talking about such poisons (technically called abortifacients). There were also surgical abortions (very dangerous, but done), and the “induce miscarriage by hitting the pregnant lady or making her do weird things” method.

If you want a Roman non-Christian source, you might know already that the Roman love poet Ovid wrote a very sad and angry poem about his lover, a rich Roman woman, getting an abortion, killing his child, and very nearly killing herself in the process.

Abortions were very common in the Roman world, though not as common as just dumping your unwanted baby on a trash heap somewhere. (That’s what they call “exposing the child”.) It was the right of every Roman father of a family to decide whether any baby born in the house would be kept or exposed.

 

[NoelFitz]

Mintaka,

You wrote:

The quotation from St. Irenaeus isn’t actually talking about Christian abortion, or even pagan abortion.

I essentially agree with you. I gave quotations about abortion in the early Church, I did not specify Christian, Pagan or Jewish. I am not really too sure what Christian abortion is.

 

[Zundrah]

What does this mean!? -

Amos 1:13 “For three transgressions of the people of Ammon, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because they ripped open the women with child in Gilead,
That they might enlarge their territory.”

Are they implying that they took out her child prematurely?

 

[SHW]

Yes, by literally slicing her open. Both mother and child died a horrible death. Two murders committed.

 

[Zundrah]

Yes, by literally slicing her open. Both mother and child died a horrible death. Two murders committed.

I hope you are joking…

:snowing: Why did they do that? Was she trying to have a strange primitive abortion and it went wrong? Or was this a deliberate way to kill both her and the baby?

 

[SHW]

I hope you are joking…

:snowing: Why did they do that? Was she trying to have a strange primitive abortion and it went wrong? Or was this a deliberate way to kill both her and the baby?

Not joking. It was a deliberate way to kill both her and her baby with the most trauma possible. This was done by enemies of their nation.

A priest told me that in World War II, the Nazi’s raped nuns and then when it was time for the babies to be born, they tied the nuns’ legs together so that the baby could not be born so both mother and baby died an excruciatingly painful death. War is truly hell on earth.

Humans sometimes do horrific things to other humans.

 

[Zundrah]

Not joking. It was a deliberate way to kill both her and her baby with the most trauma possible. This was done by enemies of their nation.

A priest told me that in World War II, the Nazi’s raped nuns and then when it was time for the babies to be born, they tied the nuns’ legs together so that the baby could not be born so both mother and baby died an excruciatingly painful death. War is truly hell on earth.

Humans sometimes do horrific things to other humans.

Just one question for you; Why did God let them do it?

I can never seem to answer that question my self…

 

[SHW]

Just one question for you; Why did God let them do it?

I can never seem to answer that question my self…

God gave us all free will and this is His Sovereign Will and so He does not take our free will away from us even when we do evil things to each other. Sometimes, however, He does intervene in certain circumstances.

An example of God’s intervention:

Suppose you are planning to fly to Oregon, but you get a flat tire on the way to the airport and miss your plane. You are angry at the flat tire and about missing your plane. But, then you find out that the plane crashed and there are no survivors.

I would then believe that **God intervened in your particular circumstance ** by giving your car a flat tire because you had not yet completed your “one” purpose for which He created you.

2 Timothy 1:9 “God, 9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began”

Another example is when He sends angels or saints to protect persons from evil.

During the war in Israel in the last century, God sent a giant apparition of Abraham which only those Arabs who were fighting the Israelis could see (standing above and behind the Israelis) and so they became frightened and ran away. The Israelis’ would have all lost their lives without God’s direct intervention because they were very outnumbered. God did this for them because He made promises to Israel that they would return to their Promised Land before the end of time and these promises are documented in the Bible and God always keeps His promises.

God does not promise to keep our bodies from harm on earth. He does promise to keep us from both bodily and spiritual harm for all eternity after we have been faithful to His teachings/commandments until death and we are approved to inherit the crown of eternal life.

James 1:12 “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”

Luke 21:17-19 “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. 18 But not a hair of your head shall be lost. 19 By your patience possess your souls.”

 

[Zundrah]

God gave us all free will and this is His Sovereign Will and so He does not take our free will away from us even when we do evil things to each other. Sometimes, however, He does intervene in certain circumstances.

An example of God’s intervention:

Suppose you are planning to fly to Oregon, but you get a flat tire on the way to the airport and miss your plane. You are angry at the flat tire and about missing your plane. But, then you find out that the plane crashed and there are no survivors.

I would then believe that **God intervened in your particular circumstance ** by giving your car a flat tire because you had not yet completed your “one” purpose for which He created you.

2 Timothy 1:9 “God, 9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began”

Another example is when He sends angels or saints to protect persons from evil.

During the war in Israel in the last century, God sent a giant apparition of Abraham which only those Arabs who were fighting the Israelis could see (standing above and behind the Israelis) and so they became frightened and ran away. The Israelis’ would have all lost their lives without God’s direct intervention because they were very outnumbered. God did this for them because He made promises to Israel that they would return to their Promised Land before the end of time and these promises are documented in the Bible and God always keeps His promises.

God does not promise to keep our bodies from harm on earth. He does promise to keep us from both bodily and spiritual harm for all eternity after we have been faithful to His teachings/commandments until death and we are approved to inherit the crown of eternal life.

James 1:12 “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”

Luke 21:17-19 “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. 18 But not a hair of your head shall be lost. 19 By your patience possess your souls.”

But this doesn’t answer the question!!!
Why will God do nothing even if we plead with him to stop what is happening!

 

[NoelFitz]

But this doesn’t answer the question!!!
Why will God do nothing even if we plead with him to stop what is happening!

Zundrah,

You pose again the fundamental unanswerable question.

I have asked it and tried to answer it in many topics and fora.

The best answer for me is to think of Paul who wrote:

14 What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses,
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
16 So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy. 17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses.
19 You will say to me then, “Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use?
The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Ro 9:14-21.

Bur we are wandering from the main point of this topic.

I was surprised that there are so few references to abortion in the early Church, none in the Bible and only two in the Apostolic Fathers. Does anyone have some more, especially from the Fathers?