Human Life Begins With Conception

Our earlier discussion of the Plan B one-step contraceptive pill has surfaced yet again the ongoing debate about when human life begins. The moral question about whether one destroys such a life by taking this pill is before us, especially since Plan B not only prevents the union of egg and sperm (conception), but may also be able to prevent the zygote (fertilized ovum) from implantation. Does God in His Word teach us that human life begins with conception? Many have already answered the question positively with a variety of quotes from the Bible. You can easily find those answers yourself by doing a search on the internet, e.g. When does human life begin?

I want to add to the discussion by taking a deeper look at but one of the Bible verses:

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. - Psalm 51:5 ESV  

The word conceive (yakham in Hebrew) is interesting. It may be translated to be hot, to mate and then also to conceive. Here are some of its uses.

. . . lest the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he had not hated his neighbor in the past. - Deu 19:6 ESV

The verb for pursuing in hot anger (khamam) used in Deut. 19 shares a kindred root with yakham and refers to becoming aroused or inflamed, similar to becoming heated in the sex act. So we read that the patriarch Jacob watched sheep in heat and used that moment to his personal advantage. Without making judgments about his practice of selective breeding, we read:

Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks, - Gen 30:41 ESV

The Hebrew verb for breeding here is yakham. David used the same verb to describe his own beginning. He was brought forth in the heat of the mating act. The point made by David—and the Holy Spirit—is that in that heated and passionate act of sex David began to exist in his mother's body as the sinner who later committed adultery with Bathsheba in another heated sexual union (2 Samuel 11:2-27). Out of their immoral union was born a child that later died (2 Samuel 12:18).

Strangely, the NLT translates the parallel verb in this verse (khuwl in Hebrew) as I was born, as if to say David's birth was a done deal from the moment he was conceived in his mother's body. khuwl is usually translated as brought forth or shapen. The verb contains two basic ideas: 1) whirling around in circular motions and 2) writhing in labor pains. Thus:

1) And they commanded the people of Benjamin, saying, "Go and lie in ambush in the vineyards and watch. If the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards and snatch each man his wife from the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin." - Jdg 21:20-21 ESV

and

2) Woe to him who says to a father, 'What are you begetting?' or to a woman, 'With what are you in labor?'" - Isa 45:10 ESV

What we see in the Psalm 51 verse as well as others related to it (Matthew 1:18-20; Luke 1:30-44; Jeremiah 1:5, etc.) is the whole continuum of human beginnings. Like David, we begin with the heated act of sexual union as a man's sperm planted in a woman's body unites with her ovum. We are still uncovering the details of how this actually works out biologically. The sexual act and the actual birth are a continuum leading to a living, breathing human person secretly created by God in the depths of his or her mother's womb. David described that reality in another of his psalms:

My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. - Psa 139:15-16 ESV

We must conclude that human life begins with conception. This is God's doing. He is the Creator. We are His creations. Consequently we must do everything in our power as agents of the living God to protect that life as He calls upon us to protect human life and forbids us to murder. This is why we no choice but to oppose abortions however they may take place. And as we do so, we will ever remain most sensitive and compassionate to those involved, all in the name of the God who Himself was conceived in His mother's body and brought into the world in Mary's writhing birth labor in a stable in Bethlehem.