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{"id":20996,"date":"2014-01-27T10:35:21","date_gmt":"2014-01-27T15:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=20996"},"modified":"2014-01-27T10:35:21","modified_gmt":"2014-01-27T15:35:21","slug":"abortion-and-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/01\/abortion-and-the-bible.html","title":{"rendered":"Abortion and the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It is common for people to think that the Bible contains clear teaching about abortion.<\/p>\n

This state of affairs goes back at least as far as Flavius Josephus<\/a> in the first century. He wrote in\u00a0Contra Apion<\/a><\/em> II, 202: \u201cThe law, moreover, enjoins us to bring up all our offspring, and forbids women to cause abortion of what is begotten, or to destroy it afterward; and if any woman appears to have so done, she will be a murderer of her child, by destroying a living creature, and diminishing human kind\u2026\u201d (See also\u00a0Antiquities<\/a><\/em> IV<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Yet the irony is that there is no unambiguous mention of abortion at all, even though it is clear from ancient laws of neighboring societies that the attempt to provoke a miscarriage \u2013 whether by ingesting something or by other means \u2013 was not unknown. (For the one possible reference to abortion in the Bible, which is not a criticism of it, see\u00a0 Numbers 5:16-28<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

There are all sorts of cases which can be made regarding abortion. But one that ought not to be made, and ought to be treated with scorn if it is, is any that claims \u201cthe Bible says\u201d that \u201cabortion is murder\u201d or makes other such false claims. The Bible says no such thing.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean that abortion therefore ought to be accepted \u2013 that is a different question. But what it does mean is that some people in our time prefer to lie about the Bible, rather than engage in the hard work of trying to make a reasonable case for their viewpoint.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"