Not So Long Ago the Bible Said Life Began at Birth, Not at Conception

Within my lifetime, the prevailing view within conservative Protestantism was that life began at birth, not at conception.

Until perhaps the 1970's, the most powerful voice in Protestant Christianity was a magazine called Christianity Today. It was in our house when I was growing up and in my early years of marriage. In 1968 it hosted a conference on reproduction which included prominent Protestant theologians of the time. They issued a joint statement at the end reflecting , "the conservative or evangelical position within Protestantism."  The statement read, "From the moment of birth the infant is a human being with all the rights which Scripture accords all human beings." It continued, "God does not regard the fetus as a soul no matter how far gestation has progressed."

The largest Protestant denomination, Southern Baptist Convention, issued a statement in 1971 urging liberalization of abortion laws. A former President interpreted the SBC's position , "...Genesis 2:7 as a statement that the soul is formed at breath, not with conception."

In time all these Protestant institutions switched Scriptures. They moved from Genesis 2:7 to Exodus 1:22-23. The latter discusses killing a fetus. The history of this bit of Scripture, however, has a checkered history. In the Latin version of Exodus from the 400's CE, this was referred to as a miscarriage.  Step by step over the centuries new Bibles referred to it differently. By the 1950's killing the fetus became killing "a life."

When Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg referred to the Christian view that human life begins with the first breath he was correctly quoting the Bible. When a storm of criticism came down on him they, also, were quoting the Bible but another passage with questionable origin.

I've been asked many times, "When do you think human life begins?" I don't answer because it is the wrong question. The right question is, "Is there one definition of the beginning of human life that will work in all cases at all times in history?"

The answer to that is no.