Good post by Fred Clark at the Slacktivist entitled Mischief follows in partisan Bible translations.
He takes a look at Exodus 21:22-25. Here is the passage from the New American Standard Bible’s 1977 revision:
And if men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she has a miscarriage, yet there is not further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him; and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
He notes the lesser penalty for miscarriage (a fine) than for injury to the woman herself. But then, Clark highlights the 1995 version:
If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
The translators have changed “miscarriage” to “premature birth.” He looks at about 15 earlier translations and they’re pretty clear that the fine is imposed when the child dies. The change to a baby that’s not necessarily dead for this passage happens in the 70s and after. Explaining the change, Clark suggests:
But something changed between 1977 and 1995 — something that had nothing to do with scholarship, language, accuracy, fidelity or readability.
American politics had changed between 1977 and 1995. It had polarized and radicalized millions of American Protestants, rallying them around a single issue and thus, as intended, rallying them behind a single political party.
In 1977, the sort of American Protestants who purchased most Bibles couldn’t be summed up in a single word. But by 1995, they could be: “abortion.”
And for anti-abortion American evangelicals, Exodus 21:12-27 was unacceptable. It suggested that striking and killing an unborn fetus was in a separate category from striking and killing a “person.” Strike and kill a free person, you get the death penalty. Strike and kill an unborn fetus, you get a fine.
Nobody ever said remaining inerrant wasn’t hard work.
Always interesting to read when men decide what the “holy word” really says. Wonder who really wrote the basic materials, then find it interesting what men decided was worthy of putting into the “holy bible”, then as time goes by men adjusting the words and thus the meaning to fit a new set of thinking. An the emphasis is on “men”. It has been said before that if one selective reads the “holy bible” one can find whatever they are looking for to justify their thinking.