Source text for "life begins at conception" doctrine?

Question

I am aware of biblical verses that support a view that an ensouled human being exists before birth, but not of anything that logically requires that to apply at conception -- a traditional interpretation, that these refer to the fetus after the quickening, seems to be a natural reading of these verses.

But current Christian thinking -- at least for Catholicism and many U.S. Christian churches -- has moved away from that view, and now teaches that human life, with soul, begins at conception.

Is there unambiguous textual support in the Christian bible for this view? NOTE: verses referring to the physical assembly of the body do not count, as the distinction I am interested in is precisely between the doctrines (1) that God created the body from conception, and ensouled it at some later point, and (2) that God created a fully ensouled body at conception.

Again, I am specifically asking about the *soul at conception* part of the doctrine, not the *during pregnancy* part.

Sprite - that text simply acknowledges that God knows things that are hidden to the rest of us, and at most acknowledges that God creates/constructs/assembles the fetus. Attributing things to God is unremarkable in this context. The question is about whether any text supports that a "human life" exists at conception.

The Christian pro-life movement seems extremely confident of this particular doctrine, so much so that it seems there must be some direct scriptural support. That's what I'm looking for.

Toadaly and alikij-- I know that, but felt it important to make a distinction between physical construction of the fetus and the start of "human life", and the sould concept seems the easiest way to explain that.

If there were a verse that says, "and from the first moment you formed me in the womb, you breathed life [nefesh] into me", I would certainly count that as squarely answering the question.

But, "you formed my kidneys" is very much exactly not an answer, because it squarely comes down on the other side of the distinction.

crazy!! -- that's a fine point, but what I'm curious about here is doctrine not politics.

L'chaim -- (a) that applies only to Adam, or at least only to people formed outside of any uterus (and probably formed as a full adult), and (b) even if it is interpreted the way you have done, it would would imply that life begins at birth, when the first breath is taken.

Jessky - Can I take it from your answer that there is in fact no explicit textual support for this position?

Well, since no one offered anything at all that addresses the question, I can't pick a best answer. I guess I'll leave it for voting.

Answer 1

Religious doctrine should not be used as a point in the abortion debate, because of the separation of church and state. Most people aren't religious, thus it is a poor argument.

I am pro-life, but my opinions are based on my knowledge of fetal development. I took anatomy and physiology at a public secular college, and my professor presented facts on fetal development. I was absolutely amazed at how quickly the products of conception develop in to a human being. By the time a woman has missed her period, the heart is already beating and, a neural cord that will become the spine is already there. How is destroying this little life with a heartbeat not murder?

Its wrong even before you take the soul in to account. No one other than God himself can know when the soul enters the body, regardless of how much you speculate about what was meant by particular sections of the Bible.

Answer 2

Ok, let's follow some logic... if the soul exists during pregnancy, then when during that pregnancy does it begin to exist?
It is at some random time?
When a man gets a woman pregnant, or a woman uses a turkey baster or whatever, the sperm goes into the woman and then swims(literaly) up to the eggs, when it gets there it does it's little dance with the eggs and fertilizes the eggs.
Once it has fertilized the egg they are one, together and alive, because from that point on they are growing...
The cells of the fertilized egg (zygote) begin to multiply, staying clustered together in a ball. This ball of cells, called a blastocyst, slowly makes its way down to the uterus (three or four days after ovulation) and burrows into the uterine wall (five to seven days after ovulation), a process known as implantation. Even before the placenta and umbilical cord are formed, the cells of the developing embryo start getting their nourishment from the mother-to-be's uterine wall.
http://www.drspock.com/article/0,1510,5049,00.html

This is very important right here:
To make all of this even more astonishing, all of this growing, shaping, and sculpting takes place in the first 20 weeks or so following conception. From 24 weeks of pregnancy on, everything gets bigger. But the main transformations are already past.
http://www.drspock.com/article/0,1510,4551,00.html
All you need to do is read up on how conception works and you will see the obvious answer to when the child is "alive" and therefor has a spirit and counts and murdering someone, if you kill it.

Jessica

Answer 3

Genesis 2:7: The God Eternal fashioned the man -- dust from the soil -- and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, so that the man became a living being. The Hebrew word for "living being" is nefesh chai (soul).

In other words, life begins when God breathes the soul into the body with its first breath.

An English equivalent to the Hebrew might be: God fashioned a soul from the soil.
.

Answer 4

The soul is life itself, not some separate thing that gets installed. Humans are described several places in the Bible as living souls, not as having souls. It's a rather common belief to think that a soul is a separate thing. It's just another way that so many people are being misled.

Answer 5

It turns out to me (my possess memories), that earlier than the 1980 election, such a lot Protestant Christians disagreed or had been uncertain as to precisely whilst lifestyles started. Before 1980 the quality majority of the anti-abortion motion was once Roman Catholic. In the 1980 election, the abortion challenge was once 'designed' via the Republican Party to cozy the fundamentalist Christian vote for Ronald Reagan. In the earlier election, fundamentalists had voted for Carter when you consider that he was once a honest Christian (normally the final one we now have had within the White House) and his sister was once a popular evangelist. So the GOP took a powerful professional-lifestyles stand, and so they corrupted televangelists like Jerry Falwell to paintings for them, to combine a political message with their non secular one. It's handiest considering that point that Christians suppose it's their Christian obligation to vote Republican. It was once the abortion challenge that did that. In order to force a stake into the bottom for Christians to rally round, any one made the selection that lifestyles starts at notion, whilst the sperm hits the egg. This is NOT a Biblical proposal--persons in Biblical instances might have had no proposal of the life of sperm and eggs. It isn't a technical selection both considering there are lots of aspects alongside the best way wherein you might say lifestyles starts--for example, such a lot fertilized eggs do not connect to the uterine wall to start establishing, they move proper by way of and are available out within the lady's interval earlier than she ever is aware of she was once 'pregnant'. The selection is utterly a POLITICAL one. It was once no longer made via a health care provider or ethicist, it was once made via a political hack for political functions. It is a man-made and arbitrary selection, no longer the Law of God. Now once more, I am no longer talking right here from authority. I are not able to factor to a ebook or journal article or whatever to turn out this situation, however that is how I bear in mind it. The Roe v. Wade selection was once in 1973 but it surely was once no longer an challenge within the 1976 election. I do not suppose presidents Nixon or Ford ever sought to make use of the challenge politically as Reagan's crusade did. Whenever I speak approximately this I invite others to turn out me incorrect however up to now no one has even disagreed with me. Also do not you uncover it fascinating that the Republicans have certainly not honestly even particularly attempted to prohibit abortion? They are maintaining it alive as an challenge for highest political mileage. Since Reagan we've got had seven Republican appointments to the Supreme Court, and each and every this sort of was once promised to be the swing vote that might overturn RvW, however they have certainly not even taken it on. (Only six of those stay considering Sandra Day O'Connor retired). The truly time table of the GOP has not anything to do with Christian values. As for the Bible, I have a record someplace of Old Testament references making use of 'breath' as an analogy for 'lifestyles', which means of direction that a child is not regarded a person till honestly being born. I understand Jews commonly have used the 'quickening' as a general, however I do not suppose that's Biblical both, handiest conventional.

Answer 6

I shall laud you because in a fear-inspiring way I am wonderfully made.
Your works are wonderful,
As my soul is very well aware.
For you yourself produced my kidneys;
You kept me screened off in the belly of my mother
My bones were not hidden from you
When I was made in secret,
When I was woven in the lowest parts of the earth
Your eyes saw even the embryo of me,
And in your book all its parts were down in writing,
As regards the days when they were formed
And there was not yet one among them.
So, to me how precious your thoughts are!
O God, how much does the grand sum of them amount to!
Were I to try to count them, they are more than even the grains of sand

Answer 7

There is nothing in the Bible that discusses 'ensoulment' at all. However, the word 'soul' is literally the word 'breath' in Hebrew, if that helps.