Barnabus Quotes
You shall not kill either the fetus by abortion or the new born.
Barnabus, like most Christians at the time, was also Jewish and was reflecting the Jewish view on abortion and infanticide in that part of the world. However, the Christians tended to be more forgiving than traditional Judaism was and made much greater provision for repentance and forgiveness. See {620149} .
Barnabus, First Century, Christian Saint, ~125
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The Synod was held in Ankara, the current capitol of modern Turkey, and at the time, the provincial Roman capitol of Galatia, The Church leaders wanted to make the punishment more lenient than the lifetime of penance that had previously been required. Abortion was very frequent at the time. Note that the penalty was a religious one that did not curtail the civil freedom of the offending woman. When abortion has been outlawed by law in the last century, the penalties have been much harsher than 10 years of penance.
This was the traditional Jewish view of abortion and infanticide. It is the view of the Orthodox Jews of today, but the larger body of Reform Jews, like many Protestant sects, do not equate abortion to murder or infanticide.
One of the extreme religious fundamentalists in the Congress, Brownback was referring to Federally funded medical research which uses embryonic stem cells. The cells are generated from in vitro fertilization procedures and potentially if implanted in the womb of a woman could produce a child. Several cells are produced by the fertilization process but typically only one or two is needed. So some religious extremists believe that just because the cell has the potential for human life, it is human life. This is the same logic which opposes birth control on the grounds that sperm and egg cells are incipient life forms. It was as late as 1973 that bans on birth control devices were declared unconstitutional be the Supreme Court.
Reacting to the public and media outrage at Oliver North shredding documents in the Iran-contra scandal:
Barnabas (/ˈbɑːrnəbəs/; Aramaic: ܒܪ ܐܒܐ; Greek: Βαρνάβας), born Joseph, was according to tradition an early Christian, one of the prominent Christian disciples in Jerusalem. According to Acts 4:36, Barnabas was a Cypriot Jew. Named an apostle in Acts 14:14, he and Paul the Apostle undertook missionary journeys together and defended Gentile converts against the Judaizers. They traveled together making more converts (c. 45–47), and participated in the Council of Jerusalem (c. 50). Barnabas and Paul successfully evangelized among the "God-fearing" Gentiles who attended synagogues in various Hellenized cities of Anatolia.
