Perhaps this commentary from the NRSV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible can help to explain the passage in Exodus you quoted (Exodus 21:22-25)
Hello again Bekkilyn, I don't have the time to properly reply to you right now, but I will make a point or two for now (until I'm able to get back to you about the rest). Just so we'll have it to refer to, here is the commentary that you posited for us from the NRSV Study Bible.
There are two possible understandings of this verse, both having to do with who sustains serious injury—the fetus or the mother. Ancient Near Eastern parallels to this law suggest the mother is in view. Four other law codes address the issue of a man’s striking a pregnant woman and
causing her to miscarry.
All stipulate monetary penalties that the assailant must pay in order to compensate the family for the loss of the child. Three of these codes go on to consider what to do if the woman is killed by the blow. In two, the man who struck the blow is to be killed. In another, the daughter of the man is killed, since the law assumes that he struck the pregnant daughter of another man. Only once is the death of the fetus linked to a death penalty: If the husband of the victimized woman has no sons and the fetus is male, the perpetrator is to be killed. In light of the provisions in these other codes, it seems likely that this law in Exodus follows their general pattern. The law calls for a fine in this verse, probably as compensation for the fetus. It then addresses possible “serious injury” to the woman. If she dies, the perpetrator dies—“life for life” (v.
23). Otherwise, the perpetrator will suffer a punishment similar to that inflicted on the woman (vv.
24–25).
The RSV/NRSV are guilty of a "miscarriage of translation" (pun definitely intended
) in Exodus 21:22, because the death of the child is assumed by their (what I believe to be errant) translation of "
yatsaʾ" (
וְיָצְאוּ) as "miscarriage" (which would be handy indeed from the pro-abortion POV because it would change the meaning of the rest of the passage to favor that position).
As for the other four law codes that were mentioned, I wish the NRSV Study Bible told us which ones they were referring to (though I do not doubt that what they say is true of them .. I suspect, for instance, that one of the four is the Babylonian Talmud which does speak of financial compensation for the death of an unborn child). Of course, man-made codes or law, while often interesting and informative, are not what we use to determine the meaning of a passage from the Bible
More tomorrow, hopefully and Dv (I will have to see how much time is left after we take our granddaughter back home).
God bless you!
--David
p.s. - as long as we are going with non-Biblical works, here's something that is interesting from a 1st Century Christian source, just FYI.
2. "Thou shalt do no murder; thou shalt not commit adultery"; thou shalt not commit sodomy; thou shalt not commit fornication; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not use magic; thou shalt not use philtres; thou shalt not procure abortion, nor commit infanticide; "thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods". ~The Didache (AD 70) "The Lord's teaching to the heathen by the Twelve Apostles", Section II/Part 2.
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