MORE FROM "EVE'S HERBS"

Prof. John M. Riddle gives us a little more insight into Exodus 21:22, from page 72 of his history:

Some modern scholars have advanced the idea that because the blow (in Exodus 21:22) did not injure the baby (though it arrived prematurely), the harm was not great.³⁴ This interpretation is entirely modern and contrary to ancient practices throughout the Mediterranean world. Nothing in the Hebrew language or mores leads us to assume that a premature but healthy birth was implied. A passage in the Mish­nah Oholoth (7:6) deals with dismemberment of a fetus during in a breech birth; it permits the procedure provided the fetus has not overhalf emerged and disallows the procedure if it has.³⁵ The fetus was recognized as being protected for its sake at birth, not prior to it, in a fairly precise way. In a number of places the Talmud refers to the fetus as ubar yerekh imo ("part of the mother"), in the same meaning as the Latin pars viscerum matris.³⁶