I’m wondering where in the Bible does it say this or make a reference to it?
I was wondering the other day why Protestants hold that life begins at conception, because I havn’t found it in the Bible and seems to be more of a Church teaching.
I’m probably wrong and/or have a number of wrong assumptions, so enlighten me
There’s lots of biblical quotes on this subject. Someone put them all up here:
bible.ca/s-Abortion.htm
And let me say that not all teachings are in the Bible. Remember that we were instructed in Scripture to learn verbal as well as written Tradition.
Note, the below exerpt is NOT my own reasearch, it’s from this website:
religioustolerance.org/abo_hist_c.htm
Note the EARLIEST teaching on this subject dates 100-150CE, which is as close to the original teaching as one is gonna get in this matter:
*A brief timeline:
**Circa 100 to 150 CE: The Didache (also known as “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles”), was a document written for the guidance of Christians. It forbade all abortions. **
Prior to 380 CE: Many Christian leaders issued unqualified condemnations of abortion. So did two church synods in the early 4th century:
Circa 380 CE: The Apostolic Constitutions allowed abortion if it was done early enough in pregnancy. But it condemned abortion if the fetus was of human shape and contained a soul.
St. Augustine (354-430 CE) accepted the Aristotelian Greek Pagan concept of “delayed ensoulment”. He wrote that a human soul cannot live in an unformed body. 3 Thus, early in pregnancy, an abortion is not murder because no soul is destroyed (or, more accurately, only a vegetable or animal soul is terminated).
Pope Innocent III (1161-1216): He determined that a monk who had arranged for his lover to have an abortion was not guilty of murder if the fetus was not “animated” at the time.
Early in the 13th century, he stated that the soul enters the body of the fetus at the time of “quickening” - when the woman first feels movement of the fetus. Before that time, abortion was a less serious sin, because it terminated only potential human person, not an actual human person.
Pope Sixtus V (1588) issued a Papal bull “Effraenatam” which threatened those who carried out abortions at any stage of gestation with excommunication and the death penalty.
Pope Gregory XIV (1591) revoked the previous Papal bull and reinstated the “quickening” test, which he determined happened 116 days into pregnancy (16½ weeks).
Pope Pius IX (1869) dropped the distinction between the “fetus animatus” and “fetus inanimatus.” The soul was believed to have entered the pre-embryo at conception.
Leo XIII (1878-1903): He Issued a decree in 1884 that prohibited craniotomies. This is an unusual form of abortion used under crisis situations late in pregnancy. It is occasionally needed to save the life of the pregnant woman.
He issued a second degree in 1886 that prohibited all procedures that directly killed the fetus, even if done to save the woman’s life.
Canon law was revised in 1917 and 1983 to refer simply to “the fetus.” The church penalty for abortions at any stage of pregnancy was, and remains, excommunication.
References:
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
Pope Pius XI, “Christian Marriage,” 1930-DEC-31 at:
vatican.va/
John Cardinal O’Connor, “Abortion: Questions and Answers,” Priests for Life, at:
priestsforlife.org/
St. Augustine, “On Exodus”, (21, 80) *
