http://ourrabbijesus.com/2012/10/26/abortion-what-the-early-church-said/
http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/52/52-2/JETS%2052-2%20301-321%20Instone-Brewer.pdf
The actual Hebrew text of Genesis 9:6 has always been understood by traditional Jews as prescribing a death sentence for abortion. English translations don’t really communicate this.
Jews thought that this Roman custom was barbaric, and they said so
- Philo pulls no punches when he described what actually happened in practice:
“Some of them do the deed with their own hands; with monstrous cruelty and barbarity they stifle and throttle the first breath which the infants draw or throw them into a river or into depths of the sea, after attaching some heavy substance to make them sink more quickly under its weight. Others take them to be exposed in some desert place, hoping, they themselves say, that they may be saved, but leaving them in actual truth to suffer the most distressing fate. For all the beasts that feed on human flesh visit the spot and feast unhindered on the infants; a fine banquet.”(Spec.3.114-5)
- Josephus contrasted Jewish & Roman cultures in Conta Apionem, incl: [2.202]
How does this specifically square with 1 Samuel 15:3?
Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”
I am not referring to the Amalekite adults who might have been as barbaric as these scriptures mention, but the fact that the killing of the children and infants did not elucidate opposition or revulsion worthy enough to be recorded. In fact, care was taken to record the saving of the animals, which was the basis of the charge of disobedience for not carrying out the commandment to the full. A cultural opposition to killing infants, if it really did exist, would have caused the proponent to oppose the carrying out of the commandment.
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