A Christian Understanding of the Ordeal of Bitter Waters (Num 5:11–31): Did God Command the Ancient Israelites to Commit Abortion?

Abstract

In Numbers 5:11–31, if a husband suspects his wife of adultery but is unable to prove it, the Lord commands the ancient Israelites to conduct the ordeal of bitter waters, a ritual where the woman’s infidelity is revealed through a public miracle that causes her “thigh to fall” and her “belly to swell.” Abortion advocates claim that God commanded the ancient Israelites to commit abortion, arguing that “thigh to fall” was a Hebraic idiom for miscarriage and that the bitter waters were an abortifacient. Abortion advocates contend that modern Christians must support abortion to follow God’s commandments.

This pro-abortion interpretation is a modern innovation. Prior to the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in the United States, Christians never interpreted “thigh to fall” as a miscarriage and they never considered Numbers 5:11–31 as a divine commandment for abortion. Before the twentieth century, Christians had a long and consistent history of condemning abortion, going back to the apostles. To understand the meaning of Numbers 5:11–31, to investigate how ancient Christians interpreted this passage, and to determine how modern Christians should comprehend the ordeal of bitter waters, this research employs a threefold analysis:

1) Textual analysis of Numbers 5:11–31;

2) Lexicosemantic analysis of four Hebrew words in the Masoretic Text (yarek, nafal, beten, tsavah) and their Greek counterparts in the Septuagint (mēros, diaperaō, koilia/gastēr, prēthō);

3) Analysis of ancient Christian writings, including the implicit condemnation of abortifacients in the New Testament, the explicit condemnation of abortifacients and abortion in the Apostolic Fathers, and the role of the ordeal of bitter waters in the Protoevangelium of James.

This research concludes that “thigh to fall” was not a Hebraic idiom for miscarriage, that the bitter waters were not an abortifacient, that the purpose of the ordeal of bitter waters was not to terminate a pregnancy, and that God did not command the ancient Israelites to commit abortion. The apostles and ancient Christians would have condemned using Holy Scripture to justify abortion. Therefore, modern Christians must condemn using Numbers 5:11–31 to justify abortion.