Fetus In The Bible

[dairygirl4u2c]

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If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life. -- Exodus 21:22-23
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does this mean the fetus is not considered life, or just is valued less or. ?

[StColette]

[quote name='dairygirl4u2c' post='1617020' date='Aug 4 2008, 12:22 PM']----
If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life. -- Exodus 21:22-23
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does this mean the fetus is not considered life, or just is valued less or. ?[/quote]

Not sure how you are getting that question from this verse. Is it because it says child instead of fetus?

I double checked that verse in Hebrew and the word used is transliterated as yeled meaning child. I also check a Biblical Hebrew Dictionary and there is no word for fetus, only child. So the word child "yeled" in this case would encompass all meanings of child, including fetus.

Also according to a Medical Dictionary fetus is used to describe a child from age 8th week after conception until birth, before that it is called an embryo.

[Deb]

Fetus is just a word used by pro-abortion so that women will somehow forget that it is a child. In the bible passage you stated, causing a woman to miscarry could be punishable by a persons life. Pretty simple to me.

[kujo]

[quote name='Deb' post='1617049' date='Aug 4 2008, 02:00 PM']Fetus is just a word used by pro-abortion so that women will somehow forget that it is a child. In the bible passage you stated, causing a woman to miscarry could be punishable by a persons life. Pretty simple to me.[/quote]

Word.

[Justin86]

[quote name='Deb' post='1617049' date='Aug 5 2008, 02:00 AM']Fetus is just a word used by pro-abortion so that women will somehow forget that it is a child.[/quote]
Well, "fetus" is Latin for "little one", so I actually have no problem referring to a child from 8 weeks of gestation to birth as a "fetus". On the other hand, I've met some pro-choicers that refuse to use the term and insist on referring to a child up until full delivery as "a clump of cells" .

As for the verse it seems to state that if a man causes a woman to have an abortion, but does not kill her in the process, the punishment is to be decided by the father. If the woman dies however, the killer's life is automatically forfeited. I can see how you might assume this means the Jews didn't regard their unborn children with the same dignity as born children and adults, however we shouldn't fault our Jewish ancestors for not being too attached to their children. Most children didn't live into adulthood even in Jesus' day. Parents had a lot of desire to protect themselves from getting too hurt back then. If anything, the Old Law allowed for equal punishment of the murder of the unborn which is more than can be said of our own society.

Edited August 4, 2008 by Justin86

[geetarplayer]

I think Biblical laws concerning fetal homicide had to do with people's limited knowledge of life in the womb at that time. Thank God we have sonograms now, as well as a wealth of knowledge about fetal development, the fertilization and conception process, etc.

Remember, the Bible is spiritually infallible, not so much historically or scientifically or legally.

-Mark

[Aloysius]

that statement can be interpretted incorrectly... the Bible is inerrant in everything it intends to say; but it very rarely intends to make a perfect historical record (the Hebrews did not concieve of history the way we do in modern times anyway)... or say something about science; but saying it's only infallible 'spiritually' paints with a broad brush that leads to people questioning the historical events in the life of Jesus or the actual existence of various biblical figures like Adam and Eve or the Patriarchs... all these people did exist as it is clear that the sacred authors intended to relate them as people who actually existed, but this or that detail might reflect something the sacred author intended to say about them which is not "this literally happened" but rather "this is what you need to know about who this ancestor was, or about who God is"... the time periods between them were clearly intended usually to just say that a long time passed by listing out many long liftimes in geneologies...

anyway, what does "mischief" mean? are we definitely to take that to mean death of the mother? can life for life indicate the possibility of a recognition of the child's end as the end of a human life or is it definitely about the mother's life? it wouldn't be entirely unfeasible for them to recognize a pre-born child as fully human as Isaiah does discuss God's relationship with an individual whilest still in the womb.

the precepts of the Mosaic law do not always indicate spiritual realities; this demands punishment because it recognizes the tremendous evil of the act, but the Mosaic law does not always perfectly reflect divine law, it is an imperfect representation of divine law which makes compromises because of the 'hardness' of the people's hearts, in the words of Christ as he discusses why Moses allowed for a bill of divorce.

[geetarplayer]

Thank you for clarifying, Aloysius. That generalization can get us into all sorts of trouble.