General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: what the bible says about abortion: [View all]Motown_Johnny
(22,308 posts)or at least he choose to not speak about it when the opportunity was presented.
In Matthew 5:38 he quotes Exodus chapter 21 (*You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth) and then says that he disagrees with it.
The thing is that Exodus 21:22 says** "When people who are fighting injure a pregnant woman so that she has a miscarriage but no other injury occurs, then the guilty party will be fined what the womans husband demands, as negotiated with the judges."
Jesus says nothing about disagreeing with the statement about causing a miscarriage being something that should be punished with only a fine. This makes it clear that Jesus did not believe that ending a pregnancy fell into the "life for a life" category and supports the distinction between someone who is born and someone who is not which is made in Exodus.
Admittedly, Jesus did not directly say anything about abortion. It can only be inferred that he did not consider it a serious offense since he spoke directly about the part of the Torah which spells out the punishment for it and choose to not disagree with it.
Footnote: I have always wondered what the punishment might be if the father was the one who caused the miscarriage. I can only assume that there would be no fine since the person would be paying the fine to himself. To me that seems to imply that the Bible is pro choice. Misogynistic, but pro choice none the less. Our only disagreement would be which parent gets to make the choice.
* https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A38&version=CEB
** https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+21%3A22&version=CEB