Essentials

22 If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.

23 And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,

Sure sounds like a property crime, to me. Let's see how this would work. Two guys are fighting, and one gets really out-of-control angry, so he kicks the other guy's pregnant wife in the belly so she has a miscarriage. Well, the Bible treats this as more of a property crime than a capital crime. Now, if the guy keeps it up, apparently the action becomes something like our aggravated assault, and they kill him, but if he regains control of himself, they just let the judges and the husband decide upon punishment and a fine. If it were our system, this punishment is somewhere between a tort and criminal damage to property.

When In Doubt, Change What The Bible Says About Abortion

It's funny how in the New International version, they change the part about the guys fighting so that they accidentally give the woman an abortion. Now, there is no intent. It is just an accident. Unfortunately, that is not what the original Hebrew says. If you are unsure, why not ask someone who knows how to speak Hebrew? Hmm. Turns out the Jews have a much different view of abortion than hillbilly fuckwits from Tennesee, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Florida.

The "New International Version." Ha. Now, there's a likely scenario. Two guys are out there fighting, and one guy takes a swing with a stick, loses his grip, and the stick goes flying over to where the woman is churning yak butter or whatever they had back then and the stick cracks her just right so she loses her pregnancy. No, I'm afraid any IDIOT knows that is not very likely to be the situation that fell within the ambit of the paassage. I think anybody but the sleaziest defense attorney would say the crime described in the Bible was one of intent, and the punishment was a fine for punative purposes and/or to repair the damage to the family with money including some punishment the husband would determine, and I would say, as a guy, that punishment would probably be repeated kicks in the nuts.

Abortion is a Property Crime in The Bible Only When There Is Intent

Now, let's assume that the person who owns the property asks the person to destroy it. I'm talking about a situation like if someone comes to knock your house down against your will, you can sue the hell out of them. However, if you ask them to come demolish a building, you wouldn't sue them, right? I'm talking about what it would look like if we took out the part about men striving. So lets turn things around and figure that the head of the household calls someone, like a doctor, and asks him to destroy the fetal property. It seems to me there would not even be a fine because there is no real harm done if all parties desired the outcome of ending the pregnancy, just like there is no harm done if the owners of a building have it demolished. Now, of course, either interpretation is ridiculous anyway because it leaves the woman out of the decision-making process altogether...

Which is another great reason not to base laws on the crazy old Bible! Talk Back / Discuss