Anonymous Asks (293)

“Is the sanctity of human life a biblical concept?”

Scripture is clear throughout that human life has intrinsic value. God made man in his own image and after his own likeness, a statement made about no other created beings in the universe.

That alone should make us cautious about taking the life of another.

Judged to Die

If you believe Google’s Ngram viewer (an online search engine of printed sources published between 1500 and 2019), the “sanctity of human life” is an expression coined around 1830. Its usage peaked (so far at least) in 2003. The phrase does not come from the Bible itself, but occurs in both Catholic and Protestant moral theology. The idea is that human life is precious or sacred, with which scripture would agree. Some conclude this means human life is never to be taken under any circumstance, with which scripture would firmly disagree.

The phrase “deserving of death” [in Hebrew, literally “judged to die”] occurs many times in the Old Testament, not merely quoted from the mouths of men but from God himself. The first occurrence is in Deuteronomy 17, where God commands Israel to stone convicted idolaters. Those responsible were to make diligent inquiry to ascertain the facts of the case. If found guilty on the evidence of two or three witnesses, the sinner was to be stoned in order to “purge the evil from your midst”. God values human life, but evidently that value does not transcend all other considerations. Under certain circumstances, whatever right to life human beings may be said to have became forfeit. Other offenses deserving of death under the Law of Moses include murder, kidnapping, child sacrifice, rape, witchcraft, blasphemy, false prophecy, profaning the Sabbath, violence against father or mother, adultery, bestiality, homosexuality and perjury.

Getting What We Deserve

The same phrase occurs in the New Testament only once, in the book of Romans, where Paul writes about the actions of people who have debased minds, and lists their acts: envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossip, slander, hatred of God, insolence, arrogance, pride, disobedience and so on. He goes on to say God’s righteous decree is that “those who practice such things deserve to die”. Literally, death “befits” them. You may notice the list of potential death-worthy offenses has gotten a lot longer than under the Law of Moses. The Lord does not expect or require modern societies to enforce all these things (how would human beings police bad attitudes?), but again, they lead to spiritual death and eternal separation from God. Apart from the work of Christ, every one of us could and should be declared death-worthy. Thankfully, he has made provision through faith in his Son so that we do not all get what we deserve.

So then, the unqualified, unlimited sanctity of human life is not a biblical concept.