What Does the Bible Say about Abortion?

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman

Chris Huntley

Christianity, History, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 745 Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2024

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Bible is frequently invoked in the ongoing national debates about abortion, almost always to show that abortion is murder and strictly forbidden. Is that true?

This episode is not meant to resolve the issue about whether abortion should ever be considered a legitimate procedure or not.

The focus is on what the Bible actually says. Does it condemn abortion? Does it indicate that the fetus is to be considered a human with human rights, so that abortion constitutes murder? When, according to the Bible, does life begin. The overarching point of the episode is that those who cite the Bible in support of their social and political views should at least read what it says and be clear about what it means.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just over two years ago, Roe v. Wade was overturned, leaving abortion access in the USA in the hands of individual states.
0:08.4	Since then, many states have restricted access to medical care, with anti-abortion advocates often citing so-called biblical morals in favour of their position.
0:17.5	Do the Old and New Testaments actually say anything about abortion, and was abortion even a
0:22.6	procedure that ancient peoples would have been familiar with?
0:25.4	How about the beginning of life?
0:26.8	What does the Bible say about that?
0:28.8	Stay tuned for that and much more today.
0:34.1	Welcome to Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman.
0:37.4	The only show were a six-time New York Times
0:40.3	bestselling author and world-renowned Bible scholar, uncovers the many fascinating, little-known
0:45.7	facts about the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the rise of Christianity. I'm your
0:51.5	host, Megan Lewis. Let's begin. Modern legal and political decisions in the
0:57.4	USA often make arguments using the biblical texts, often misrepresenting or misunderstanding what
1:03.0	the text is actually talking about. The abortion debate is no issue for both sides. And today I'm
1:08.7	going to be talking to Bart about what the Bible actually says
1:11.8	about the issue before all of that. How are you today, Bart?
1:15.3	Yep, doing well, thanks. Things are clicking along. I've got this view that if you keep busy
1:21.2	enough, you know, you don't really notice. But, you know, actually one of the things I'm liking
1:25.9	about these podcasts that we do is that we get so intensely into this thing, like I forget the rest of the world.
1:32.0	And this time we're going back and forth, then it's kind of pleasant, actually, to forget about the world for a while.
1:36.5	How are you doing?
1:38.1	You know, I entirely agree.
	...

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