1 The recipe contains the following instructions: Therewith a pregnant women lost her embryo: multi-coloured lizard of a wall, semen of the “single plant”, ankinudi-plant, azupirāna-plant (and) nabruqqu-plant, root of the businnu-plant … of the brewer. These eight drugs you shall mix together, give it to her in wine, on an empty stomach. Then her embryo will be aborted. – German translation by Barbara Böck, TUAT.NF 5, Gütersloh 2010, 110.

2 J.M. Riddle, Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance, Cambridge / London 1992, 69.

3 It is helpful to compare the translation used by Riddle with the hieroglyphic text in transcription: ḥʿ m pḫr.t jr.t n ḥm.t rdj.t bw s.t jwr rnp.t 1 rnp.t 2 rnp.t 3; pEbers 783, for the hieroglyphic transcription cf. W. Wreszinski, Der Papyrus Ebers. Umschrift, Übersetzung und Kommentar, I. Teil: Umschrift, Leipzig 1913. The Translation by J.M. Riddle, Contraception (s.n. 2), 69f.189, is based on a communication between himself and the Egyptologist Robert Rittner. According to Rittner, Riddle here argues that the expression rnp.t can be translated as “season”. However, a clear proof for this interpretation does not exist. Beyond that, a lexical reference for the use of rnp.t is not stated in Wörterbuch der Ägyptischen Sprache, s. Wörterbuch II, p. 429–434. The deliberation by P. Ghalioungui is remarkable, The Ebers Papyrus. A New English Translation, Commentaries and Glossaries, Cairo 1987, p. 200: The period of one, two, or three years, mentioned in pEbers 783, could be understood as an appropriate period between two births. From the text of a contract from Egypt, written in Greek, we know that the time, in which the child was breasted by a wet nurse, was exactly determined; s. E. Feucht, Art. Childhood, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Vol. 1, Oxford 2001, S. 261–264, 261f. On this precondition pEbers 783 could be interpreted as a recipe, by which a pregnancy should be avoided and not aborted prematurely. Within the Hebrew Bible a vague hint exists that in Israel breastfeeding was seen as a preventative measure to reduce the chances of another immediate pregnancy. Hos 1,8 points out that the mother has weaned (ותגמל) her daughter Lo-Ruḥama and after this she became pregnant with Lo-Ami. In a syntactical point of view two statements are possible: A) The mother becomes pregnant after the regular time of breastfeeding; as an example for this interpretation, cf. W. Rudolph, Hosea, KAT XIII,1, Gütersloh 1966, 54. B). The mother weans her daughter early with the aim to procreate a further child. If the phrase and she weans Lo-Ruḥama is an “implication of performance” (T.D. Finlay, The Birth Report Genre in the Hebrew Bible, FAT 2. Reihe, 12, Tübingen 2005, 188), the sequence of weaning, pregnancy and birth should not be seen in a formal way. Precisely because Hosea announces the near judgement, the weaning should be seen within this context. The announcement of the near judgement by YHWH necessitated a quick sequence of the birth of the three non-children of YHWH.

4 k.t n.t r-dj.t dj.t s.t r-t3; pEbers 797. P. Ghalioungui, The pEbers (s. n.3), 203, refers to the fact that the expression “to give to the earth” is used in later texts for a “normal delivery”. However, Ghalioungui mentions the possibility that pEbers 797 contains a recipe to cause an abortion. The following recipe is easier to understand: k.t n.t r-dj.t h3j n.t nb.t m h.t n.t s.t p3q.t n.t hnw… (“Another recipe to cause to come down all that is in the womb of a woman: sherds of a new henw-jar; ground in oil/fat; warmed; introduced into her vagina.”; English translation by P. Ghalioungui, The Ebers Papyrus; s. n. 3), 203, was probably used to “expel the afterbirth”.

5 The situation is completely different, if the issue is discussed with regard to the Greek and Roman literature. There is no lack of proof that the practice of abortion was widespread. Let me just give one example: In his ‘Politica’ Aristotle demands that new-born disabled children should be killed. To avoid a large number of children in a family and also to avoid the practice of abandoning new-born children, the couples shall avoid pregnancy. If a foetus is, nevertheless, procreated, an abortion should be made, before the child has consciousness and awareness; Aristotle, Politica, 1335b.

6 Very rare voices in rabbinical sources give at least a hint of a practice of contraception. The Tosephtah Niddah mentions a tampon (מוך), by which pregnancy could be avoided in the special case of under-age girls; tNid 2,6,642; cf. also bNid 31a; bYeb 34b. Two further sources refer to the use of pharmacological elixirs. The so-called כוס טל עקרים, in Aramaic דעקרתא, was used by prostitutes and, in special cases, after the experience of a painful birth of siblings; bYeb 65b; BerRab 23,3. Unlike the rabbinic tradition with its silence about the abortion, Greek sources speak in a very clear way about this practice: Aristotle, Politica, 1335b, notes that the number of the children per family is limited. All the procreated children beyond the defined number should be aborted, as long as they have no consciousness (αίσθησίς) and no life (ζωή). Whereas at this point the practice of abortion and the knowledge about corresponding methods is clearly proven, an often discussed passage appears in the Hippocratic Oath: ομοίως δέ ουδέ γυναίκί πεσσόν φθόρίον δωσω; text according to C. Schubert/U. Huttner, Frauenmedizin in der Antike. Griechisch-Lateinisch-Deutsch, Düsseldorf – Zürich 1999, 62. It is an open question, if the Hippocratic Oath contains a reference to a general prohibition of abortion, or if it prohibits only the use of elixirs which were inserted into the vagina. Although according to rabbinic law abortion is not legitimated anywhere (but is not characterized as murder; s. M. Elon, Art. Abortion, EJ 2, 98–101), even the Talmud contains proof for the knowledge about drugs, which can be used as an abortive agent: ורבנן סמא דנפצא אטיקנהו ור' יטמעאל איכה גופא דלא מקבל סמא אמר להם ור' יטמעאל מעטה בקלפטרא מלכת יוונית טנתחייבו טפחותיה הריגה למלכות ובדקן ומצאן זכר לארבעים אחד ונקבה לפ״א (bNid 30b) The Rabbanan: They give her [i.e. to the pregnant woman] to drink a “scattering drug (which destroys the semen in the womb)” (M. Jastrow, Dictionary of the Targum, the Talmud, Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature, Jerusalem 1971, 925); Rabbi Yishmael: There are certain bodies, which are not affected by the drug. Rabbi Yishmael said to them: An Example of the Greek queen Cleopatra: Upon her female slaves the death penalty was executed by the government. As they [i.e. their corpses] were examined, they found male foetuses of 41 days and female foetuses of 81 days. bNid 30b refers to Lev 12,1–5,. After the birth of a male child the mother is “unclean” for one week, afterwards she shall remain at home for the next 33 days. In the case of the birth of a girl the mother is “unclean” for two weeks, afterwards she shall stay at home for 66 days. With the 41th or the 81th day the woman receives her normal status back. At the same time the development of the foetus is completed. It is remarkable that the passage presupposes the use of an (sometimes ineffective) abortive drug.

7 J. Wiesehöfer, Art. Kind, Kindheit, Der Neue Pauly. Enzyklopädie der Antike, Vol. 6, Stuttgart – Weimar 1999, 464–466. For Israel in biblical times it is hardly possible to determine the rate of infant mortality or the overall mortality rate. Even though the living conditions in Ancient Israel and Egypt were different, it is helpful to refer to the results of archaeological investigations. The palaeodemographic analysis of the tombs in the Aswan area has demonstrated, that the average life expectancy was between 25–29 years; F.W. Rösing, Qunnet el Hawa und Elephantine. Zur Bevölkerungsgeschichte von Ägypten, Stuttgart – New York 1990, 113. In other words: More than half of the population, which lived along the Nile did not reach the age of 30.

8 For Egypt cf. J. Kraus, Die Demographie des Alten Ägyptens. Eine Phänomenologie anhand altägyptischer Quellen, Diss. Göttingen 2004, 203ff.; http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/diss/2004/kraus/kraus.pdf, 207f. (21.09.2011).

9 The Roman writer Columella mentions that he granted his female slaves a release from work after the birth of three children. After the birth of more than three children, the woman was released from slavery; Colum., re rust. I 8,19; cf. also E. Herrmann-Otto, Die Reproduktion der Sklaverei auf dem Wege der Aufzucht im römischen Kaiserreich, in: O. Kraus (Hg.), Regulation, Manipulation und Explosion der Bevölkerungsdichte. Vorträge gehalten auf der Tagung der Joachim Jungius-Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften Hamburg, am 15. und 16. November 1985, Veröffentlichungen der Joachim Jungius-Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften 55, Göttingen 1986, p. 88–107, 92. According to other sources from the Greco-Roman world, the practices of contraception, abortion and child abandonment were widespread; s. E. Eyben, Family Planning in Graeco-Roman Antiquity, in: AncSoc 11/12 (1980/81), 5–82. The practice of the members of the Roman upper class to rear not more than one or two children is criticized by Polybius; Historia, XXXVI 17,5f.

10 Gen 12,7; 13,5 and many others.

11 Deut 22,2; 28,3; Hag 2,19.

12 Lev 15,16.17.18.22. The idea that sperm should be seen as the material which is identical with the later embryo appears explicitly in the medical Greco-Roman sources. The Corpus Hippocraticum reports the case of a hetaera who pays attention that all the sperm excretes after the coitus. Only by this practice a pregnancy can be avoided; Hipp. De nat. pueri 13, VII, cf. also D. Nickel, Untersuchungen zur Embryologie Galens. SGKA 27, Berlin 1989, 50f. It has often been mentioned that the Greeks have known theories about the origins and character of sperm. Apart from the idea that also the woman reproduces (male and female) semen, the concept also appears, that the right testicle produces male semen, whereas in the left one the female semen has its origin; s. A. Thivel, Die Zeugungslehren bei Hyppokrates und den Vorsokratikern, in: R. Wittern/P. Pellegrien (ed.), Hippokratische Medizin und antike Philosophie. Verhandlungen des VIII. Internationalen Hippokrates-Kolloquiums des Klosters Banz/Staffelstein vom 23. bis 28. September 1993, Medizin der Antike 1, Hildesheim – Zürich – New York 1996, 3–13,10f. The idea that the right male testicle contains male semen, whereas the left one produces the female offspring, should be seen as an explanation and background for the method, mentioned in the Corpus Hippocraticum, how the gender of the procreated child can be manipulated: If the procreation of a female child is aimed at – the man shall ligature his right testicle, if the procreation of a male child is desired the left testicle shall be ligatured; Corpus Hippocraticum, De superfetatione 31.

13 The story of the two daughters of Lot has been interpreted in very different ways: Whereas a great number of commentators have argued that this narration is an incest story, declaring the Ammonites and Moabites as a result of an illegal intercourse, others have argued in a different manner: The two daughters should be seen as female heroes, who did the only right thing in a hopeless situation. However, for the support of the second interpretation it should be noted that nowhere in the Genesis either one of these nations is blamed or shamed. From a grammatical point of view, the daughters act as subjects and protagonists, זרע plays the role of the object; the father is not more than a reservoir of זרע. He is portrayed as old (אבינו זקן; Gen 19,31). In other words: It is not narrated, whether he is unable to procreate a child or generally unable of sexual intercourse. Against interpretations, which have described the acting of the daughters as immoral and lecherous (A. Dillmann, Die Genesis, KEH 11, Leipzig 31875, 287; cf. also C.F. Keil, Genesis und Exodus, BC I/1, Leipzig 1861, 167, who argues that Judah's negative experiences with Ammon and Moab are helpful to understand the negative character of the daughters), H. Gunkel has pointed out that the original setting of the saga was an oral tradition of Ammon and Moab. In this context the daughters were not portrayed in a negative way. Also the story itself describes the action of the daughters not as a sexual offense but as heroic; H. Gunkel. Genesis, übersetzt und erklärt, HK I/1, Göttingen 41917, 218. It would be a mistake to believe that the historical reader has understood the “attack on the origins of the Moabites and the Ammonites, suggesting that they originated from sexual depravity” (S.K. Kunin, The Logic of Incest. A Structuralist Analysis of Hebrew Mythology, JSOT.S 185, 192). The last two sentences that the Moabites and the Ammonites are descendants from Lot and his two daughters are completed with the formula עד היום. Nowhere in Genesis this formula appears in a negative context; cf. Gen 26,33; 31,48; 32,33; 35,20; 47,26; 48,15.

14 Lev 11,37; Deut 21,4; 29,22. In other passages the verb appears with a metaphorical background.

15 G. Burkard, Die Lehre des Ptahhotep, in: TUAT III/2, Gütersloh 1991, 195–221, 196. The idea that the future human being is prefigured and present in the sperm of the male part of the parents appears also one and a half millennium later in the drama “The Eumenides” by the Greek author Aischylos. The background of the following argumentation has a long prehistory. Orestes, the son of Klytaimnestra and Agamemnon, has killed his own mother in revenge for her killing of Agamemnon. The case of Orestes is discussed in a divine court: The defence lawyer of Orestes argues successfully that a human being belongs more to his father than to his mother: The mother is not the creator of the procreated one. The nurse of the new-sown sprout (is she). Only the husband has procreated, she – the hostess – guards the sprout, if not, a God will harm it. Οὐκ ἔστɩ μήτηρ ἡ κεκλημένου τέκνου τοκεύς, τροφὸς δέ κύματος νεοσπόρου. τίκτεɩ δ’ ὁ θρώσκων, ἡ δ’ ἅπερ ξένω ξένη ἔσωσεν ἔρνος, οισɩ μὴ βλάψη θεος. (Aischylos, The Eumenides, 658–661).

16 Adolf Ermann and Hermann Grapow, Wörterbuch der Ägyptischen Sprache. Bd. II, Berlin 1971, 169.

17 Christian Leitz, Zwischen Zauber und Vernunft. Der Beginn des Lebens im Alten Ägypten; in: Axel Karenberg/Christian Leitz (Hg.), Heilkunde und Hochkultur I. Geburt, Seuche und Traumdeutung in den antiken Zivilisationen des Mittelmeerraumes, Naturwissenschaft – Philosophie – Geschichte 14, Hamburg – London 2000, 133–150, 133.

18 Georg Fohrer, Das Buch Hiob, KAT XVI, Gütersloh 1963, 308. Fohrer argues that the בני בטני are the brothers of Job. This interpretation disregards that the brothers of Job have already been mentioned in v. 13. The בני בטני in Job 19,17 were interpreted in very different ways. The LXX translated the expression: “The sons of my concubines (υίους παλλακίδων μου)”. This translation seems rather far-fetched. Nowhere in the Hebrew Bible בטן has the meaning concubine (פילגש). Job 19:17 is often used, to analyze the relationship between the prologue and the dialogues of the entire book. The argument that the brothers of Job, according to Job 1,18, are already dead, and this is why the mentioning of the brothers in Job 19,17 is problematic, bases on two misunderstandings: Firstly, the difference between Job 1,18 and 19,17 is only a “challenge to those who would read [the text of the entire book] cohesively”; E.L. Greenstein, Features of Language in the Poetry of Job; in: T. Krüger/M. Oeming/K. Schmid (Hg.), Das Buch Hiob und seine Interpretationen, AThANT 88, Zürich 2007, 81–96, 85. Secondly, the identification of the פרי בטני as the brothers of Job is problematic. In the Hebrew Bible בטן nowhere refers, eo ipso, to the womb of the mother. The conclusion by D.N. Freedman/J. Lundboom, Art. בטן, ThWAT I, 1973, 616–620 is correct: “Ein Mann kann auch von den aus seinem בטן stammenden Kindern reden.” Job 19,17 should not be seen as “too obscure” (Y. Hoffman, Prologue and Speech-Cycles in Job, VT 31, 1981, 160–170, 163. Remarkable is the result of the analysis of Job 19,17 by M.D. Coogan, Job's children, in: Lingering Over Words. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Literature in Honor of William L. Moran, HSS 37, Atlanta 1990, 135–147, 141f.: Job speaks here about his “visible semen” (142), i.e. about his own children.

19 Cf. also Deut 7,13; 28,18, 51. In Deut 7,14 an interesting addition occurs: You will be blessed more than all other peoples; there will not be a sterile male (עקר) or female (עקרה) among you, and the same with your livestock (ובהמתך). Deut 7,14 is the only passage in the Hebrew Bible which makes male sterility the subject of discussion; E. Nielsen, Deuteronomium, HAT I/6, Tübingen 1995, 100. The passage does not say, if male sterility is caused by impotentia generandi or impotentia ceundi. According to the medieval commentator Ibn Ezra (1089–1164) the term עקר refers to a male person, who has no fertile semen/sperm (מוליד שאין זרעו), Ibn Ezra, חמישה חומשי תורה .ספר דברים תורת חיים, Jerusalem 1993, 71.

20 Cf. TUAT III,2, 208, Ptahhotep, line 325–330. Another possibility is to translate line 325 is: “If you have made your fortune and you have raised your household.”

21 It is possible that the wording 3ḥ.t pw 3ḫ.t constitutes a pun. Even though the two expressions 3ḥ.t (fertile ground) and 3ḫ.t (useful) have different semantic roots, their phonetic sound is identical.

22 Translation by David D. Wright, Inventing God's Law. How the Covenant Code of the Bible Used and Revised the Laws of Hammurabi, New York at. al., 2009, 177.

23 Although the Biblical Hebrew (with the exception of Ps 139,16; see next note) does not know a technical term for the foetus, it clearly distinguishes between the perfectly and the imperfectly developed prenatal child. In the well known story of the twins, who are struggling together in their mothers womb, these are described as בנים; Gen 25,22. Equally Hos 13,13 speaks about a בן in the womb of his mother. This בן is characterized as disobedient and refractory. He refuses to leave the womb at the right time. At this point the human being within the mother is denoted as a completely developed infant, as בן. Recently, G. Kessler, Conceiving Israel. The Foetus in Rabbinic Narratives, Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion, Philadelphia 2009, 144, has pointed out that the designation of the prenatal children as ילדים must be distinguished from the term פרי הבטן (Gen 30,2; Deut 7,13; 28,4,18). Indeed, the expression הבטןפרי is used to focus on the initialisation of a pregnancy, as well as on its consequences – the offspring.

24 The foetus/embryo/imperfectly formed child is described in Biblical Hebrew as גולם. Even if the expression occurs only once in the Hebrew Bible, it refers to a human being that cannot be characterized yet as ילד. In Ps 139,16 the fictive speaker calls himself גלמי. Before he started to exist as גולם, he was seen by the eyes of YHWH. In the same breath, he mentions that YHWH took notice of him before he got his bones (עצמי; v. 15). In other words: The prenatal human being has bones and is called a גולם. It seems that גולם refers to an imperfectly shaped being which cannot be characterized as ילד yet. C. Cohen has pointed out that the juridical literature of the Ancient Near East contains fifteen examples for the special case that a blow against a pregnant womb causes a miscarriage; C. Cohen, The ancient critical misunderstanding of Exodus 21,22–25 and its implications for the current debate, in: N.S. Fox/D.A. Glatt-Gilad/M.J. William (eds.), Mishneh Todah. Studies in Deuteronomy and its cultural environment in honour of Jeffrey H. Tigay, Winona Lake 2009, 437–458. However, in all the examples mentioned by Cohen the expression foetus (in English translation) is used. The essential problem is that Cohen also translates the expression ידליה with foetus. By this means he creates an artificial identity of Ex 21,22f. and the comparable Ancient Near Eastern texts.

25 Cf. Gen 25,25, 26; 38,29, 30; Jer 1,5; 20,18; Job 1,21; 3,11; 10,18; 38,8; Qoh 5,14. Even Job's polemic question in Job 3,11 implies that he wishes his birth (יצאתי) had never happened.

26 In the Hebrew Bible the motif of a woman who dies as a result of a birth occurs several times. In none of the occurrences of this motif the wording יצא and ילד is used. Rather, within the stories about a birth with fatal consequences, the dangerous situation is clearly described. Rachel dies immediately after the birth of Benjamin. The author characterizes the birth as a hard labour (ותקש בלדתה) and then again as a hard labour (ויהי בהקשתה בלדתה, Gen 35,16, 17). In the same detailed way, birth with fatal results is described in 1Sam 4,19: After Eli's daughter-in-law hears that her husband is dead, she gets a shock, breaks down (ותכרע) and gives birth immediately, because the labour pain overwhelmed her (ותלד כי־נהפכו עליה צריה). Like in Gen 35,16,17 a period of time passes between the birth of the child and the death of the mother. In view of Ex 21,22f. it should be assumed that the death of the mother during, or immediately after birth is not intended. The death of the mother, caused by the violently initiated birth, can happen some time after. Likewise, the death of the child can happen some time after the birth.

27 P. Joüon and T. Muraoka, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew, Subsidia Biblica 14, Roma 1993, 503; § 136j.

28 The Plural ילדיה (her children) was often criticized. Against C.E. Keil, Commentary on the Old Testament: Pentateuch (Grand Rapids, 1978, [1864]) 135, who simply notes that a plural should be interpreted as a plural, J.M. Sprinkle, The Interpretation of Ex 21,22–25 (Lex Talionis) and Abortion, WThJ 55 (1993), 233–255, argued that such an interpretation “seems farfetched”. The argumentation that the אסון refers only to the death of the mother, assumes that the foetus will die in any case; as an example for such an interpretation cf. C. Houtman, Eine schwangere Frau als Opfer eines Handgemenges (Exodus 21,22–25). Ein Fall von stellvertretender Talion im Bundesbuch, in: M. Vervenne (ed.), Studies in the Book of Exodus. Redaction – Reception – Interpretation, BEThL CXXVI, Leuven 1996, 381–397, 384f: “Der Fötus ist tot.” Towards the plural ילדיה, A. Schenker argued that a permanent damage for the mother is in the focus of the text. Whereas the death of the child could be compensated by a later birth of another child, a permanent infertility of the mother (as result of the blow against her womb) would be an irreparable damage; A. Schenker, Drei Mosaiksteinchen. “Königreich von Priestern”, “Und ihre Kinder gehen weg”, “Wir tun und wir hören” (Exodus 19,6; 21,22; 24,7), in: M. Vervenne (ed.), Studies in the Book of Exodus. Redaction – Reception – Interpretation, BEThL CXXVI, Leuven 1996, 366–380, 374–376. Schenker's interpretation that the expression refers to the abortion of an imperfectly and nonviable foetus overlooks that ויצאו ילדיה is not used with the meaning of “foetus” anywhere else. Y. Osumi, Die Kompositionsgeschichte des Bundesbuches Exodus 20,22b–23,33, OBO 105, Freiburg – Göttingen, 114, has argued that the Ancient Near Eastern law never distinguishes between a premature birth and a stillbirth. I would not deny that this argument is right. But Ex 21,22 speaks about ילדים, in other words: Ex 21,22 speaks about the initiation of a delivery by a blow against the woman with an open outcome. The untimely delivery due to external violence cannot be interpreted as a premature birth.

29 Cf. tShab 15,7.