beastie wrote:Much as I'd like to disagree with bcspace, beastie, I'm not sure that your summary captures what is in view in Ex. 21.22-23. Honestly, I don't know which interpretation is warranted, but bcspace's is not (I don't think) out in left field.
At any rate, this peculiar passage is the subject of much debate. To get something of a flavor of the various understandings, I'd recommend checking out this brief discussion in James Davis's Lex Talionis in Early Judaism and the Exhortation of Jesus in Matthew 5.38
Even if this is the correct interpretation (and I think it strains the text), the cited passage differentiates between the fetus being fully formed and NOT fully formed. IE, fully formed = life for life, NOT fully formed = fine. This is in accordance with my argument on this thread, which is that early term abortions (not fully formed) are not the equivalent of taking a human life. It is not in accordance with BC's argument.
Frankly, again, I don't know what the "correct interpretation" is. I believe it is possible, from the Hebrew, to argue that the phrase "no harm" (not, importantly, "
further mischief," as in KJV) refers to the
death ("mortal accident") of the prematurely-born infant. I'm not convinced that miscarriage is definitely in view here. BUT. I won't attempt to argue that. My Hebrew is, sadly, fairly basic and limited to wooden (attempted) word-for-word translations into English. LXX offers
some limited insight, but absolutely nothing determinative, to my mind.
I'd never thought about this passage with regard to abortion.
It's quite the intricate pancake. (If only the Israelites themselves had written in
Greek....)
I have ZERO critical commentaries on Exodus in my library and don't particularly invest Web-based exegetical arguments with any particular weight (unless they're from recognized journals or books).
I'd love to have access to Davis's bibliography, but certainly can't afford the price of admittance: $156 for 192 pages!
Chris