Twisting Scriptures, Conflating Words for Political Gain
Blog Series #5 Biblical Foundations, Part 5b Conflating Children and Fetuses
It is interesting to note that in the Old Testament, there does not seem to be a Hebrew word for ‘unborn fetus.’ If there is one, it is not used much in the Old Testament Scriptures. English translations of the Hebrew texts tend to reference pregnancy, miscarriage, or prenatal existence with details that describe what the pregnant woman is experiencing, or verbs that describe what God our Creator is doing, but no real descriptive words for the object developing in the womb. Aside from ‘unformed body’ in Psalm 139:16 NIV, there are usually no nouns in the English translations at all. There are the pronouns ‘I’ and ‘me’ when a prophet refers to his own prenatal existence but, as I point out in ‘Prophetic Voice,’ that is no indication of prenatal viability.
This is evident in Exodus 21: 22-25 where the lack of object nouns in the English translation of verses 22 and 23 leaves the reader wondering if it was the fetus or the pregnant woman that received the ‘injury.’ Where the original Hebrew ‘Yasa Yeled’ literally means ‘child comes forth’ or ‘bring out the youth’ (here is an excellent article on ‘Yeled and Yasa’ ) the English translators have opted to relegate the noun for ‘young person’ as an implied noun, focusing instead on verb phrases such as ‘give birth prematurely’ or ‘miscarry.’ These English treatments of the text omit the object receiving the action altogether (more on this when I examine Old Testament Scriptures such as Exodus 21:22-25 later in this blog series).
One clue that explains this lack of nouns in the Hebrew language, or . . . the ancient Hebrews’ inability to differentiate the unborn fetus linguistically from a breathing, autonomous child can be found in rabbinic thoughts such as this one from Rabi Mara Nathan:
“Until the baby is born, JUDAISM CONSIDERS THE FETUS TO BE PART OF THE WOMAN’S BODY. She is never the villain when difficult choices need to be made. That’s not to say that all Jewish communities are comfortable with women having autonomy, authority or public power. We know this is not the case in most traditional religious communities. But the fact remains that the Torah, the Mishnah, the Talmud and later rabbinic sources consider the woman’s physical and emotional health before that of the fetus. In other words, Judaism has always been pro-choice.” (all-caps emphasis mine)
When the Ancient Hebrew language didn’t artificially conflate unborn fetuses with children, it fused the unborn fetus with the body of the pregnant woman sustaining its existence. One can see how, linguistically, this begins to pose some serious problems when trying to translate Scripture within the context of our post-modern scientific age. Today, due primarily to scientific and medical advancement, we have a linguistic vocabulary that illustrates these differentials. The Ancient Hebrews did not.
Currently, anti-abortion politicians take advantage of the absence of vocabulary in the ancient Hebrew language useful in differentiating a fetus attached to its mother from an autonomous infant. They use Bible verses like the ones I examine in parts 5a and 5c of this series to deliberately conflate living, fully-birthed children with non-viable, unborn fetuses. These anti-abortion politicians are clearly trying to arouse strong emotions in their listeners; powerful emotions that ‘christian’ evangelicals then use to persuade their audience to VOTE the way conservative anti-abortion politicians TELL kind-hearted, church-going people to vote:
AGAINST those ‘child-murderers’.
The strategy is incredibly effective. With this frenzied, emotionally-charged, and wildly popular support, political evangelicals can acquire the political POWER, social PRESTIGE, and material WEALTH they lust for beneath their ‘christian’ facade.
And this is how women who terminate the life-support their own bodies provide to sustain a non-viable fetus become unjustly branded as murderers.
This artificial conflation of linguistic terms is a very deliberate political manipulation of innocent voters in North America -- and not the least bit Biblical OR scientific.
