People have souls. There is a difference in opinion as to when we get our souls. Most Muslims believe that God creates souls three months after conception. Some Jews and most conservative Christians believe that God creates our souls at the moment of conception. I have some people say that they think that babies do not have a soul until after they are born.
The teaching of the Orthodox Church is that we get our souls at the moment of conception. God told the Prophet Jeremiah:
Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth from the womb, I sanctified thee; I appointed thee a prophet to the nations. (Jer. 1:5, LXX)
God knew Jeremiah before He formed him in his mother's womb. Conception takes place in the Fallopian tube and not in the womb. That is where the sperm and egg join together. God does not create our souls before conception. That is the heretical teaching of Origen. The Fifth Ecumenical Council rejected that teaching as false.
If anyone asserts the fabulous pre-existence of souls, and shall assert the monstrous restoration which follows from it: let him be anathema. (First Anathema Against Origen, Second Council of Constantinople, 553 A.D., vol. 14, p. 318, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
So, it is at the moment of conception. In the Book of Judges, there is an account of how Samson was conceived in his mother's body.
2 And there was a man of Saraa, of the family of the kindred of Dan, and his name was Manoe, and his wife was barren, and bore not.
3 And an angel of the Lord appeared to the woman, and said to her, Behold, thou art barren and hast not born; yet thou shalt conceive a son.
4 And now be very cautious, and drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat no unclean thing;
5 for behold, thou art with child, and shalt bring forth a son; and there shall come no razor upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Phylistines. (Judges 13:2-5, LXX)
In verse 2 of this passage, it says that Manoe's wife was barren. She had never had any children before. In verse 3, an angel appears to her and tells her that she will become pregnant with a son. In verse 4, he tells to observe certain dietary restrictions. Finally, in verse 5, he tells her that she is pregnant with a child. She became pregnant while the angel was talking to her. Her husband's sperm united with her egg at that moment and God created a soul for her newly conceived child Samson. The angel called what she had just conceived "a child." It was a person with a soul. She had probably had marital relations with her husband sometime shortly before she spoke to the angel. A man's sperm can survive for up to 48 hours outside his body. (p. 17, From Conception to Birth)
This is a 3D image of an unborn human fetus. A fetus is a child with a soul that God can know just as He knew the Prophet Jeremiah before He formed him in his mother's womb. All human life is precious.
Lactantius wrote:
A question also may arise respecting this, whether the soul is produced from the father, or rather from the mother, or indeed from both. But I think that this judgment is to be formed as though in a doubtful matter. For nothing is true of these three opinions, because souls are produced neither from both nor from either. For a body may be produced from a body, since something is contributed from both; but a soul cannot be produced from souls, because nothing can depart from a slight and incomprehensible subject. Therefore the manner of the production of souls belongs entirely to God alone.
“In fine, we are all sprung from a heavenly seed, all all (sic) have that same Father.”
as Lucretius says. For nothing but what is mortal can be generated from mortals. Nor ought he to be deemed a father who in no way perceives that he has transmitted or breathed a soul from his own; nor, if he perceives it, comprehends in his mind when or in what manner that effect is produced.
From this it is evident that souls are not given by parents, but by one and the same God and Father of all, who alone has the law and method of their birth, since He alone produces them. For the part of the earthly parent is nothing more than with a sense of pleasure to emit the moisture of the body, in which is the material of birth, or to receive it; and to this work man’s power is limited, nor has he any further power. Therefore men wish for the birth of sons, because they do not themselves bring it about. Everything beyond this is the work of God, — namely, the conception itself, and the moulding of the body, and the breathing in of life, and the bringing forth in safety, and whatever afterwards contributes to the preservation of man: it is His gift that we breathe, that we live, and are vigorous. (On the Workmanship of God, chapter 19, by Lactantius, 260-330 A.D., vol. 7, pp. 298-299, Ante-Nicene Fathers)
Jesus went through all of the same stages of life that we do. He was made like us in all respects except He never sinned. (Heb. 2:17; II Cor. 5:21)
Several of the Church Fathers say that He had a human soul at the moment of conception. St. Gregory Dialogos wrote:
It was not that the flesh was first conceived in the womb of the Virgin, and the Divinity afterwards came into the flesh; but that as soon as the Word came into the womb, immediately the Word, retaining the excellence of His own nature, was made flesh. (Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great, Book XI, Letter LXVII, by St. Gregory Dialogos, 540-604 A.D., vol. 13, p. 83, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
St. John of Damascus said:
And accordingly the Lord did not become flesh without soul or mind, but man. He says, indeed, Himself, "Why seek ye to kill Me, a Man that hath told you the truth?" (St. John 8:40) He, therefore, assumed flesh animated with the spirit of reason and mind, a spirit that holds sway over the flesh but is itself under the dominion of the Divinity of the Word. (An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book III, chapter 18, by St. John of Damascus, 645-750 A.D., vol. 9, part 2, pp. 66-67, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
It is also the teaching of the Second Council of Constantinople (553 A.D.).
If anyone says or thinks that the soul of the Lord pre-existed and was united with God the Word before the Incarnation and Conception of the Virgin, let him be anathema. (The Second Anathema of the Emperor Justinian against Origen, Second Council of Constantinople, 553 A.D., vol. 14, p. 320, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
If anyone says or thinks that the body of our Lord Jesus Christ was first formed in the womb of the holy Virgin and that afterwards there was united with it God the Word and the pre-existing soul, let him be anathema. (The Third Anathema of the Emperor Justinian against Origen, Second Council of Constantinople, 553 A.D., vol. 14, p. 320, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
We have already seen in previous blogs that Jesus Christ is God and claimed to be God. The Person the Virgin Mary conceived in her Fallopian tube was God the Word made flesh. The Person she gave birth to in Bethlehem was God the Word. The Second Person of the Holy Trinity has a human mother from whom He assumed human flesh. Since she is this Person's mother, we call her the Mother of God or the Theotokos. Theotokos is a Greek word that means "Birth-Giver of God."
This is an icon of the Virgin Mary. It is called Our Lady of the Sign. It is one of the most evangelical icons in the Church. In this icon, Jesus Christ is depicted as being in her womb. The Virgin Mary is holding her arms out. She is saying that just as she received Christ, we should receive Him, too. She received Him in her womb. We receive Him in our hearts and in the Sacraments. This is also a very pro-life icon. Jesus was a Person with a human soul and developing human body while His mother was pregnant with Him.
Because we believe that God creates souls at the moment of conception, the Orthodox Church is against abortion and the destruction of human life at any stage of physiological development.
The woman who purposely destroys her unborn child is guilty of murder. With us there is no nice enquiry as to its being formed or unformed. In this case it is not only the being about to be born who is vindicated, but the woman in her attack upon herself; because in most cases women who make such attempts die. The destruction of the embryo is an additional crime, a second murder, at all events if we regard it as done with intent. The punishment, however, of these women should not be for life, but for the term of ten years. And let their treatment depend not on mere lapse of time, but on the character of their repentance. (Letter CLXXXVIII, Canon II, by St. Basil the Great, 329-379 A.D., vol. 8, p. 225, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)*
Those who give drugs for procuring abortion, and those who receive poisons to kill the foetus, are subjected to the penalty of murder. (Canon XCI, Quinisext Council, 692 A.D., vol. 14, p. 404, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
Steve
* The Canons of St. Basil were accepted by the Quinisext Council in its Second Canon in 692 A.D. (See vol. 14, p. 361, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series.)
Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Roberts, D.D. & James Donaldson, LL.D., volumes 1-10, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D. & Henry Wace, D.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts
From Conception to Birth: A Life Unfolds, by Alexander Tsiaras and Barry Werth, published by Doubleday, 1540 Broadway, New York, NY, 10036, copyright 2002 by Alexander Tsiaras
The teaching of the Orthodox Church is that we get our souls at the moment of conception. God told the Prophet Jeremiah:
Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth from the womb, I sanctified thee; I appointed thee a prophet to the nations. (Jer. 1:5, LXX)
God knew Jeremiah before He formed him in his mother's womb. Conception takes place in the Fallopian tube and not in the womb. That is where the sperm and egg join together. God does not create our souls before conception. That is the heretical teaching of Origen. The Fifth Ecumenical Council rejected that teaching as false.
If anyone asserts the fabulous pre-existence of souls, and shall assert the monstrous restoration which follows from it: let him be anathema. (First Anathema Against Origen, Second Council of Constantinople, 553 A.D., vol. 14, p. 318, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
So, it is at the moment of conception. In the Book of Judges, there is an account of how Samson was conceived in his mother's body.
2 And there was a man of Saraa, of the family of the kindred of Dan, and his name was Manoe, and his wife was barren, and bore not.
3 And an angel of the Lord appeared to the woman, and said to her, Behold, thou art barren and hast not born; yet thou shalt conceive a son.
4 And now be very cautious, and drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat no unclean thing;
5 for behold, thou art with child, and shalt bring forth a son; and there shall come no razor upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Phylistines. (Judges 13:2-5, LXX)
In verse 2 of this passage, it says that Manoe's wife was barren. She had never had any children before. In verse 3, an angel appears to her and tells her that she will become pregnant with a son. In verse 4, he tells to observe certain dietary restrictions. Finally, in verse 5, he tells her that she is pregnant with a child. She became pregnant while the angel was talking to her. Her husband's sperm united with her egg at that moment and God created a soul for her newly conceived child Samson. The angel called what she had just conceived "a child." It was a person with a soul. She had probably had marital relations with her husband sometime shortly before she spoke to the angel. A man's sperm can survive for up to 48 hours outside his body. (p. 17, From Conception to Birth)
This is a 3D image of an unborn human fetus. A fetus is a child with a soul that God can know just as He knew the Prophet Jeremiah before He formed him in his mother's womb. All human life is precious.
Lactantius wrote:
A question also may arise respecting this, whether the soul is produced from the father, or rather from the mother, or indeed from both. But I think that this judgment is to be formed as though in a doubtful matter. For nothing is true of these three opinions, because souls are produced neither from both nor from either. For a body may be produced from a body, since something is contributed from both; but a soul cannot be produced from souls, because nothing can depart from a slight and incomprehensible subject. Therefore the manner of the production of souls belongs entirely to God alone.
“In fine, we are all sprung from a heavenly seed, all all (sic) have that same Father.”
as Lucretius says. For nothing but what is mortal can be generated from mortals. Nor ought he to be deemed a father who in no way perceives that he has transmitted or breathed a soul from his own; nor, if he perceives it, comprehends in his mind when or in what manner that effect is produced.
From this it is evident that souls are not given by parents, but by one and the same God and Father of all, who alone has the law and method of their birth, since He alone produces them. For the part of the earthly parent is nothing more than with a sense of pleasure to emit the moisture of the body, in which is the material of birth, or to receive it; and to this work man’s power is limited, nor has he any further power. Therefore men wish for the birth of sons, because they do not themselves bring it about. Everything beyond this is the work of God, — namely, the conception itself, and the moulding of the body, and the breathing in of life, and the bringing forth in safety, and whatever afterwards contributes to the preservation of man: it is His gift that we breathe, that we live, and are vigorous. (On the Workmanship of God, chapter 19, by Lactantius, 260-330 A.D., vol. 7, pp. 298-299, Ante-Nicene Fathers)
Jesus went through all of the same stages of life that we do. He was made like us in all respects except He never sinned. (Heb. 2:17; II Cor. 5:21)
Several of the Church Fathers say that He had a human soul at the moment of conception. St. Gregory Dialogos wrote:
It was not that the flesh was first conceived in the womb of the Virgin, and the Divinity afterwards came into the flesh; but that as soon as the Word came into the womb, immediately the Word, retaining the excellence of His own nature, was made flesh. (Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great, Book XI, Letter LXVII, by St. Gregory Dialogos, 540-604 A.D., vol. 13, p. 83, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
St. John of Damascus said:
And accordingly the Lord did not become flesh without soul or mind, but man. He says, indeed, Himself, "Why seek ye to kill Me, a Man that hath told you the truth?" (St. John 8:40) He, therefore, assumed flesh animated with the spirit of reason and mind, a spirit that holds sway over the flesh but is itself under the dominion of the Divinity of the Word. (An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book III, chapter 18, by St. John of Damascus, 645-750 A.D., vol. 9, part 2, pp. 66-67, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
It is also the teaching of the Second Council of Constantinople (553 A.D.).
If anyone says or thinks that the soul of the Lord pre-existed and was united with God the Word before the Incarnation and Conception of the Virgin, let him be anathema. (The Second Anathema of the Emperor Justinian against Origen, Second Council of Constantinople, 553 A.D., vol. 14, p. 320, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
If anyone says or thinks that the body of our Lord Jesus Christ was first formed in the womb of the holy Virgin and that afterwards there was united with it God the Word and the pre-existing soul, let him be anathema. (The Third Anathema of the Emperor Justinian against Origen, Second Council of Constantinople, 553 A.D., vol. 14, p. 320, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
We have already seen in previous blogs that Jesus Christ is God and claimed to be God. The Person the Virgin Mary conceived in her Fallopian tube was God the Word made flesh. The Person she gave birth to in Bethlehem was God the Word. The Second Person of the Holy Trinity has a human mother from whom He assumed human flesh. Since she is this Person's mother, we call her the Mother of God or the Theotokos. Theotokos is a Greek word that means "Birth-Giver of God."
This is an icon of the Virgin Mary. It is called Our Lady of the Sign. It is one of the most evangelical icons in the Church. In this icon, Jesus Christ is depicted as being in her womb. The Virgin Mary is holding her arms out. She is saying that just as she received Christ, we should receive Him, too. She received Him in her womb. We receive Him in our hearts and in the Sacraments. This is also a very pro-life icon. Jesus was a Person with a human soul and developing human body while His mother was pregnant with Him.
Because we believe that God creates souls at the moment of conception, the Orthodox Church is against abortion and the destruction of human life at any stage of physiological development.
The woman who purposely destroys her unborn child is guilty of murder. With us there is no nice enquiry as to its being formed or unformed. In this case it is not only the being about to be born who is vindicated, but the woman in her attack upon herself; because in most cases women who make such attempts die. The destruction of the embryo is an additional crime, a second murder, at all events if we regard it as done with intent. The punishment, however, of these women should not be for life, but for the term of ten years. And let their treatment depend not on mere lapse of time, but on the character of their repentance. (Letter CLXXXVIII, Canon II, by St. Basil the Great, 329-379 A.D., vol. 8, p. 225, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)*
Those who give drugs for procuring abortion, and those who receive poisons to kill the foetus, are subjected to the penalty of murder. (Canon XCI, Quinisext Council, 692 A.D., vol. 14, p. 404, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
Steve
* The Canons of St. Basil were accepted by the Quinisext Council in its Second Canon in 692 A.D. (See vol. 14, p. 361, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series.)
Bibliography
Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Roberts, D.D. & James Donaldson, LL.D., volumes 1-10, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D. & Henry Wace, D.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts
From Conception to Birth: A Life Unfolds, by Alexander Tsiaras and Barry Werth, published by Doubleday, 1540 Broadway, New York, NY, 10036, copyright 2002 by Alexander Tsiaras
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