I want to now build off the analysis I did in my previous blog post on the Hebrew word "ruach" and how it relates to the topic of abortion. I'll provide a brief summary here, but if you want to have the background information related to this topic, I would suggest reading the previous post.
First, we know that ruach can refer in the Bible to wind, the breath of life, breathe, and the Holy Spirit depending on the context. We'll use the word "soul" as a word to describe the breath of life from God that provides us a consciousness, mentality, and more even though nogesh is often used in the Old Testament for soul. This is due to the fact we have a better English word to describe nogesh which is "life".
The soul is what makes us fundamentally different from animals and it was mentioned being provided to Adam and other Old Testamant humans. Of course, this is different to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit for select members of the Jewish race, though the same word ruach may still be used (haven't checked).
I want to bring attention to the passage I hinted at in my last post on Ezekiel 37. This chapter clearly highlights the importance of ruach, or the breath of life, for when a human being is considered human. Or should I say, a physical vessel is filled with a soul and becomes a human. This ruach is integral to what makes a human, human. A whole army was built from bones and completely functional human bodies were created, yet they lacked the breath of life in order to actually be human.
I want to bring special attention to the other meanings of ruach, namely wind, breathe, and breath of life. It's apparent to me that ruach should not be interpreted as a metaphorical or metaphysical event that occurs that results in a human soul being implanted into a body. This would be the physical act of breathing. And the endowment of the soul being the very first breath that a human body takes.....To spell it out, a body's first breath is the moment they are born out of the womb.
If the soul is integral to a body being human, and the soul is implanted the moment a baby is born, then a baby is not considered alive while inside the womb. This refutes any and all definitions that involve certain trimesters or growth markers as the moment a soul is imputed into a body.
And to those who still doubt me, what would make more doctrinal sense: The breathe of life is imputed at some arbitrary point during a baby's development? or when the baby breathes for the first time?
I want to briefly touch on a passage I recently heard from a teacher (You'll see why I won't say pastor) of the Bible on the subject of abortion. His theory was that Ecclesiastes 11:5 states that human life begins when the bones are developed. The problem is, he didn't even try to look at other translations of the Bible before he gave the sermon! His whole argument was void when you look at the passage under the KJV or NIV as compared to the ESV. When you look at the Hebrew, you find our favorite word ruach pop up. In the context of the verse though, I believe it's better interpreted "wind" than "spirit" as found in the ESV.
This is just to state that there are likely many examples of individuals and pastors finding a rationale in the Bible beginning in the womb and I have yet to hear of a good one that can provide an alternate and acceptable explanation for how the breath of life is involved in their theory of when a baby in the womb is considered human. Like the teacher in the example before, they pull a verse out of context, and find passages that fit their narrative also out of context to fit their objective. It also might not involve looking at the original languages or even different translations to make sure the passage was translated and interpreted properly.
I hope that help clears up some of the confusion on abortion, but I am a person who always like to trace my lines persay in my logic to my conclusion. So I will provide my logic chain (I think there's a mathematical term for it) down here as a visualization:
Individuals are only fully human after receiving the breath of life -----> passages referring to the breath of life often imply physical breathing to receive a soul -----> babies cannot breathe with their lungs inside the womb ------> Babies do not receive a soul until they are born and take their first breath -----> Babies inside of the womb are not fully human and are only vessels.
Finally, I want to make a final logical argument based off this viewpoint. Babies' attitudes and actions are vastly different outside of the womb than inside. I state this because babies can often (I forget the medical term) live outside of the womb without being developed for the full 3 trimesters. Of course, the baby is in a completely different environment, but it makes you wonder if something happened other than the physical action of birth that led to this baby acting differently......I'll let you fill in the blank.
As a disclaimer, my personal viewpoint on abortions is different and I do think that some boundaries should be made for when they are appropriate, but in the context of the Bible, I'm not seeing a compelling reason for a baby to be physically and soulfully alive while inside the womb. In fact, I think the Bible refutes that notion.
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