Christians and Abortion Part 1

Few things amaze me more than someone who can claim a Biblical argument in favor of abortion. Over the past couple of years my views on a lot things have changed, but one thing that has not changed is my view on human life. Even before finding Yeshua I had a basic understanding that killing an unborn child was wrong. This attitude was prevalent in my family life as a child even though I did not know it at the time. My parents divorce was caused by a breakdown in their relationship after my mother found out that a positive pregnancy test could mean that she had cancer and the only way it could be determined for sure would kill any child if she was pregnant.

I had a less than pleasant discussion with Ted over at Emunda when Erik had a discussion about abortion. Ted claims that abortion is moral and legal in the Bible because he claims the life does not begin until a person starts breathing based on Genesis 2:7. Well he hit one of my buttons, partially because of his claim, and partially due to his attitude. He came across as someone who has a lot of hatred for those who do not fall in line with his view on the world and religion. After several personal attacks from him I disengaged from the discussion, not because I cannot handle attack (the Lord knows how much personal attack I have gone through to think his petty attacks would hurt me), but because he repeatedly dodged the questions I presented.

Ok, on to the point of the matter. There are two main verses in the Word that people like to use to justify abortion. Exodus 21:22-25 and Genesis 2:7. This first is used as a justification on the premise that an unborn child’s life is worth less than an adult’s and the second is used to justify abortion on the grounds that a person does not have spirit until he / she is born. Both are incorrect interpretations of these verses. Lets take a look.

We will look at Genesis 2:7 first, as that is the verse that Ted used in his defense.

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul
KJV
The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
NIV
Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
NASB
And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
ASV
Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life, and man became a living being.
AMP

These are several translations of the same verse. And they all discuss the same point in that G_d gave life to Adam. Now in order to truly understand the meaning of this verse we have to look at it from the Hebrew perspective. Seeing as how I am just learning all of this now I asked someone for a little help on this. I was told that a more literal translation of the phrase “LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” would be “"Yahweh blew into the nose of the dirt he had assembled." It is not a literal bending over the man with His mouth to man's nose, it is a Hebrew way of saying, "Yahweh brought breath into the nose of the dirt He had assembled." The understood meaning for those Moses wrote this to would be, "He caused life to be in the dirt He assembled together."”

With looking at this from a Hebrew perspective we can see that there was no life at all; Adam was basically mud. No heartbeat, no brain activity, no movement of any kind, just a lump of clay. Then G-d miraculously breathed LIFE into His creation. The important part is that the clinical first breath is not what was being discussed in this verse but that Adam was brought to life. His heart started beating, his brain started functioning, and all things in his body started working and moving. Taking a breath is not a determining factor of whether or not we are alive.

The logical problem with the argument about the breath issue is this, is life in existence without the lungs taking in air voluntarily? The answer is a most definitive yes.

I will discuss the verses in Exodus Christians and Abortion Part 2.