Some stories in the Bible were meant to be history, others fiction. But modernity has obscured the original distinction between the two kinds of biblical writing, depriving readers of the depth of the text. One way to understand the difference between history and fiction in the Bible is through the Old Testament’s natural division into…
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Many people point to Luke 1:41 (“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb.”) as evidence that, in the view of the Bible, a fetus is a child. But these people have misinterpreted the verse. On one hand, the reasoning behind the flawed claim is straightforward: If it was a “child” that…
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Perhaps most relevant to the Bible’s view on abortion is Exodus 21:22, which is in fact relevant for two reasons. According to the NRSV the text proclaims: When people who are fighting injure a pregnant woman so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no further harm follows, the one responsible shall be fined what…
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I’ve received a lot of feedback on my recent piece, “What Does the Bible Really Say about Abortion,” in which I make the claim that even though the Bible shouts the importance of knowing when life beings, it doesn’t offer much specific guidance, and, in particular, doesn’t tell us if a fetus is a human.…
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Rick Warren tweeted: To see consumerism on steroids, come here to Tokyo. “Life is not measured by how much one owns.” Luke 12:15 But neither Luke nor Jesus said that. Rick Warren did. (To be fair, so did the New Century Version translation.) The original Greek reads, “life is not estin…,” and estin just means…
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