Scripture teaches life begins with breath, a fetus is not yet a living person, and abortion is not murder.
In Judiasm and in Christianity, life is tied with breath. The overlapping Hebrew terms, Ruach (רוּחַ, breath, wind, spirit), Neshamah (נְשָׁמָה, soul, divine breath), and Nefesh (נֶפֶשׁ, living being, life-force), are not only poetic synonyms — they reflect an ancient understanding that breath is the visible sign of life — when breath leaves, life departs. Historically, the presence or absence of breath was what helped determine death in Jewish law, and in the Book of Ezekiel 37, the bones only live again when ruach (breath/spirit) enters them. It is with breath a human being is a living being.
And God said, “Let the waters bring forth creeping things of living beings, and flying birds upon the earth across the firmament of heaven.”
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth a living being according to its kind: four-footed animals and creeping things and wild beasts of the earth according to their kind.” And it was so.
And formed God the man, dust having taken from the earth, and breathed into his face breath of life and became the man into a living being.
God also distinguishes between a fetus and a living person in Exodus 21:22-25.
If someone struck a pregnant woman and caused her child to come out not fully formed — a miscarriage, and a fetus — the penalty was a fine, and in no tradition was harm to the fetus treated as harm to a living person.
וכי ינצו אנשים ונגפו אשה הרה ויצאו ילדיה ולא יהיה אסון ענוש יענש כאשר ישית עליו בעל האשה ונתן בפללים ואם אסון יהיה ונתתה נפש תחת נפש עין תחת עין שן תחת שן יד תחת יד רגל תחת רגל כויה תחת כויה פצע תחת פצע חבורה תחת חבורה
If men fight and they strike a pregnant woman, and her children come out, but no harm follows, he shall surely be fined, as the husband of the woman imposes, and he shall pay by order of the judges. But if harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
Jewish historian Josephus (37–100 CE) wrote:
He that kicks a woman with child, so that the woman miscarry, let him pay a fine in money, as the judges shall determine, as having diminished the multitude by the destruction of what was in her womb; and let money also be given the woman’s husband by him that kicked her; but if she die of the stroke, let him also be put to death, the law judging it equitable that life should go for life.
Notice Josephus attributes life should go for life only to the woman, and not to the fetus. Talmudic scholars who wrote shortly after Christ (c. 70–2nd century CE) also maintained “no harm follows” was not in regard to the fetus.
“ ‘And no harm follows’ — this refers to harm to the woman. From here they said: If the woman died, he is liable to the death penalty. If the fetus alone died, he pays monetary damages.” Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, Mishpatim 8, on Exod 21:222
“ ‘And no harm follows’ — meaning to the woman. If there was harm to the woman, ‘life for life.’ But for the fetus, he pays compensation.” Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, on Exod 21:223
The LXX tradition, written by seventy-two scribes during the Second Temple period prior to Christ’s incarnation, clarifies “no harm follows” applied to the premature birth of a fully formed child.
ἐὰν δὲ μάχωνται δύο ἄνδρες καὶ πατάξωσιν γυναῖκα ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχουσαν καὶ ἐξέλθῃ τὸ παιδίον αὐτῆς μὴ ἐξεικονισμένον ἐπιζήμιον ζημιωθήσεται καθότι ἂν ἐπιβάλῃ ὁ ἀνὴρ τῆς γυναικός δώσει μετὰ ἀξιώματος ἐὰν δὲ ἐξεικονισμένον ἦν δώσει ψυχὴν ἀντὶ ψυχῆς ὀφθαλμὸν ἀντὶ ὀφθαλμοῦ ὀδόντα ἀντὶ ὀδόντος χεῖρα ἀντὶ χειρός πόδα ἀντὶ ποδός καῦμα ἀντὶ καύματος τραῦμα ἀντὶ τραύματος μώλωπα ἀντὶ μώλωπος.
If two men fight and strike a woman who is with child, and her child comes out not fully formed, he shall surely be fined, according to what the husband of the woman imposes; and he shall give as the judges determine. If it was fully formed, he shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
Philo (20 BCE–40 CE), a Jewish philosopher in Alexandria who lived during the time of Christ, wrote:
And with respect to these matters the following law has been enacted with great beauty and propriety: “If while two men are fighting one should strike a woman who is great with child, and her child should come from her before it is completely formed, he shall be muleted in a fine, according to what the husband of the woman shall impose on him, and he shall pay the fine deservedly. But if the child be fully formed, he shall pay life for life.". For it was not the same thing, to destroy a perfect and an imperfect work . . . .
If causing the loss of another's fetus had been considered murder, it would have been treated as such here, incurring the death penalty (Exodus 21:12), In the MT tradition, “no harm follows” refers to the woman, and in the earlier LXX tradition, it referred to a fully formed child. In either tradition, causing the loss of another’s fetus resulted only in a fine, and in neither tradition was it associated with the penalties of having harmed a living person.
The Lord does not instruct us to treat a fetus as a living person, nor abortion as murder.