Is biblegod pro life?

In reality the Bible reflects the practices of the culture in which it was written. Not all Christians are pro-life.In my view, miscarriage is something the body does itself whether due to unintentional injury or the death of the fetus. Abortion is something that humans do on purpose whether for medical or personal reasons despite the viability of the fetus. Exodus 21:22-24 is a law dealing with personal injury. This is not abortion. The majority of the translations say premature birth. The words used don't really state whether the child died or not. I think that is determined by the statement that "if there is no serious injury." If the child died, that would be considered serious injury.

quote:

---

Hosea 9:11-16 Hosea prays for God’s intervention. Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer. Give them, O Lord: what wilt thou give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. . .Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.

​

Clearly Hosea desires that the people of Ephraim can no longer have children. God of course is comfortables by making all their unborn children miscarry. Is not terminating a pregnancy unnaturally abortion, as the christian claim?

---

This takes place when the northern kingdom came to an end. In Hosea's time, when bad things happened it was attributed to God removing his protection. Casualties of war. This is not abortion.

quote:

---

Numbers 31:17 (Moses commands) Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every women that hath known man by lying with him.

---

You said it. Moses commanded, not God. Again it was the way of war in those days. Not pretty and not abortion.

quote:

---

2 Kings 15:16 God allows the pregnant women of Tappuah (aka Tiphsah) to be ripped open. And the Christians have the audacity to say god is pro-life. How and the hell is it that Christians can read passages where God allows pregnant women to be murdered, yet still claim abortion is wrong?

---

Menahem did evil in the eyes of the Lord. God doesn't stop people from doing evil. If he did, he wouldn't have had to "chastise" humans so often. This is not abortion.

quote:

---

1 Samuel 15:3 God commands the death of helpless "suckling" infants. This literally means that the children a few months old whom biblegod killed were still nursing.

---

Again it reflects the nature of humanity at the time when conquering other nations. This isn't abortion.

quote:

---

Psalms 135:8 & 136:10 Here god is praised for slaughtering little babies.

---

These are songs reflecting a foundational myth. In the story, God killed the first born of all. This is not abortion.

quote:

---

Psalms 137:9 Here god commands that infants should be dashed upon the rocks

---

This is a lament. God isn't talking. The writer is expressing his anger towards his enemies. This is not abortion.The pro-life movement deals with abortion. Infantcide is not abortion. I don't see that what you have presented truly deals with abortion.

---

"Peshat is what I say and derash is what you say." --Nehama Leibowitz

quote:

---

All this doesn't exactly address my point, which is that the Bible apparently treats the fetus differently than it does the woman carrying the fetus. How do you explain that?

---

The text of Exodus 21:22-23 doesn't say the child was born dead. They had a word for abort or miscarriage and it wasn't used. ( Exodus 23:26) What Exodus 21:22 Says About AbortionIf the child died from being born to early, that would have constituted injury. I don't see in the text that the child was thought of less than the mother.They weren't dealing with a fetus. A fetus is unborn. Once she gave birth, whether the child lived or not, it was a child. This isn't abortion.There is no point here for or against abortion.

---

"Peshat is what I say and derash is what you say." --Nehama Leibowitz

quote:

---

So a miscarriage is a spontaneous abortion. Can we agree on this definition or do you have another definition? If we agree on this definition, then let's move on.

---

Agreed. Miscarriage is a natural abortion of a fetus.

quote:

---

As you can see, in both versions of the Bible, there is a statement of a woman losing the fetus because of blow from a man forceful enough to cause a miscarriage.

---

And I provided an article that shows the word used does not refer to miscarriage but live birth. They had a word for miscarriage. Several translations say, born prematurely. The text does not say how premature the birth is.

quote:

---

Nowhere in those two versions of Exodus 21:22 does it talk about a child being born prematurely. The issue of premature birth is moot because it isn't even being discussed in that particular passage.

---

Being born premature means the child was born before it was supposed to be born. Sometimes that happens naturally. IOW, the blow induced the labor, not the readiness of the baby.

quote:

---

A miscarriage is the loss of the fetus. A man causes a woman to miscarriage just means the man causes the woman to lose the fetus. Get it, a man causes the woman to lose the fetus! Obfuscating the issue by talking about children or prematurely stillborn birth does not change the fact that the Bible treats the fetus as less than the woman. Why? Because causing a miscarriage (i.e. the loss of the fetus) results in a fine as determined by the judges but killing the woman results in death. Do you see the difference? If the Bible treated the fetus as equal to the woman, then causing a miscarriage should also have resulted in death for the offender.

---

No, the text does not treat the child different than the parent. Show me that the hebrew word translated in some translations as miscarriage actually means miscarriage. I showed the word that does mean miscarriage.But again, this text does not support the position that God allows the type of abortion that the pro-life people are against. It deals with personal injury.

---

"Peshat is what I say and derash is what you say." --Nehama Leibowitz

So now you understand that God isn't truly pro-choice and that Exodus 21:22-24 is talking about personal injury, not abortion the pro-lifers are against.The one instance I remember that might concern abortion is Numbers 5:11-31. Unfortunately, I don't think people today really know what the idioms mean. Some say it prevents the woman from having a child, some say it causes her to abort the child if she is pregnant, some say it does nothing other than make her ill for a bit.The originator would have done better to present the scriptures used by pro-life Christians against abortion and analyze those verses.

---

"Peshat is what I say and derash is what you say." --Nehama Leibowitz