Early Christian Beliefs About Infanticide and the Sanctity of Life
Early Christians spoke clearly against abortion, infant exposure, and child murder. Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Tertullian, Lactantius, and Minucius Felix all connect these acts with murder and guilt before God. Bible passages about innocent blood and slain children help explain why they took this stand. The witness is broad and direct across the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
137 early-church witnesses · 210 source quotations · compared with Scripture
What did early Christians believe about infanticide and the Sanctity of Life?
Early Christian writers clearly treated abortion, infant exposure, and child murder as grave sins that violated God’s law. Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Tertullian, Lactantius, Minucius Felix, and others all speak against killing children before or after birth, often calling it murder or child-murder. The teaching is broad across the 2nd and 3rd centuries and is reinforced by Bible passages about innocent blood and the killing of children.
Some cards are only background or typology, but the main witness is direct and consistent. Many more early Christian quotations, Bible passages, and source links are gathered below so you can study the evidence for yourself.
Key Takeaways
- Early Christian writers said it was wrong to kill unborn children, newborns, or exposed infants.
- Justin Martyr and Athenagoras both call infant exposure or abortion murder.
- Tertullian and Lactantius argue that life in the womb and at birth must be protected.
- The Bible passages most often used are about innocent blood, child killing, and God’s care for the young.
Questions Answered by the Sources
Did early Christians condemn abortion and infant exposure?
These sources say Christians must not expose newborns, use drugs to cause abortion, or destroy life before birth. They explicitly describe such acts as murder or child-murder.
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Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians Direct teaching
And when we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder?
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Justin Martyr, The First Apology Direct teaching
But as for us, we have been taught that to expose newly-born children is the part of wicked men;
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Tertullian, Apology Direct teaching
...ldren? And as for the method of killing, it is certainly the crueler way to kill by drowning, or by exposure to cold, hunger, and dogs. A more mature age has always preferred death by the sword. But in our case, since murder is forbidden once for all, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while the human being is still drawing blood from the other parts of the body for nourishment. To prevent a birth is only a quicker man-killing. It does not matter whether you take away a life that has been born, or destroy one that is coming to birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you already have the fruit in its seed. As for meals of blood and such tragic dishes, read, I am not sure where it is told, though I think it is in Herodotus, how among some nations blood drawn from the arms and tasted by both parties has served as the bond of a treaty. I am not sure what it was that was tasted in the time of Catiline. They also say that among some Scythian tribes the dead are eaten by their friends. But I am going too far from home. Even today among ourselves, blood dedicated to Bellona, drawn from a pierced thigh and then consumed, seals initiation into the rites of that goddess.
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Tertullian, Apology Supporting witness
In our case, murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fœtus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from other parts of the body for its sustenance.
Did early Christians believe unborn children were already human life?
Some writers argue that the fetus is already a created being or a human being in formation, so it should not be destroyed. They ground that claim in the belief that God is already caring for life in the womb.
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Justin Martyr, The First Apology Supporting witness
And again [we fear to expose children], lest some of them be not picked up, but die, and we become murderers.
How did early Christians speak about children and innocent blood?
These sources associate violence against children with innocent blood and divine judgment. They also present the protection of infants and children as part of Christian consistency and mercy.
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Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians Direct teaching
For it does not belong to the same person to regard the very fœtus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God's care, and when it has passed into life, to kill it;
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Psalms 106:38 Background
And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood.
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Jeremiah 19:4 Background
“Because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents
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Matthew 23:35 Background
so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
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Deuteronomy 19:10 Background
That innocent blood be not shed in thy land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and so blood be upon thee.
What did early Christians say about killing children?
They strongly rejected killing children. Lactantius calls strangling newborn children the greatest impiety, Minucius Felix condemns killing little children as horrible murder, and Cyprian speaks of innocent infancy being put to death. Bible passages about innocent blood and slain children fit the same moral view.
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Direct teaching
Therefore, let no one think that even this is allowed: to strangle newborn children. This is the greatest impiety. For God breathes life into their souls, not death. But men, so that there may be no crime by which they do not stain their hands, take away the light from souls that are still innocent and simple, though they themselves did not give that light. Can anyone expect that such people would keep themselves from the blood of others, when they do not keep themselves even from their own blood? These people are plainly wicked and unjust. And what about those whom a false piety drives to expose their children? Can those be considered innocent who expose their own offspring as prey to dogs, and, as far as it depends on them, kill them in a more cruel way than if they had strangled them? Who can doubt that a man is impious when he gives others a reason to pity his child? For although what he wanted to happen to the child was that it should be raised, he has still handed over his own offspring either to slavery or to the brothel. And who does not understand, or who is ignorant of, what may happen, or what usually does happen, to either sex, even by mistake? This is shown by the exam
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Minucius Felix, Octavius Direct teaching
...nk it can be possible for so tender, so little a body to receive those deadly wounds, for anyone to shed, pour forth, and drain that fresh blood of a little child, of a human being scarcely come into existence? No one can believe this, except one who would dare to do it. And I see that you at one time expose your begotten children to wild beasts and birds. At another, you crush them, strangled in a miserable kind of death. There are some women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their very wombs, and thus commit parricide before they bring forth. And these things surely come down from the teaching of your gods. For Saturn did not expose his children, but devoured them. With reason, infants were sacrificed to him by their parents in some parts of Africa, caresses and kisses repressing their crying, so that a weeping victim might not be sacrificed. Moreover, among the Tauri of Pontus, and to the Egyptian Busiris, it was a sacred rite to sacrifice their guests, and for the Galli to slaughter to Mercury human, or rather inhuman, sacrifices. The Roman sacrificers buried alive a Greek man and a Greek woman, a Gallic man and a Gallic woman.
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness
since, without any regard to parental affection, they destroyed tender and innocent lives, at an age which is especially pleasing to parents, and surpassed in brutality the savageness of all beasts, which — savage as they are — still love their offspring!
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness
Can they be considered innocent who expose their own offspring as a prey to dogs, and as far as it depends upon themselves, kill them in a more cruel manner than if they had strangled them?
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Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness
And that nothing might be wanting to aggravate the crime, infants also, in the arms of their parents, either carried or conducted, lost, while yet little ones, what in the very first beginning of their nativity they had gained.
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Tertullian, Apology Background
...an obstinate refusal to offer sacrifices, he found in their religious services nothing but meetings early in the morning for singing hymns to Christ and God, and sealing their way of life by a united pledge to remain faithful to their religion, forbidding murder, adultery, dishonesty, and other crimes. In reply, Trajan wrote back that Christians were by no means to be sought out. But if they were brought before him, they should be punished. O miserable deliverance. Under the necessities of the case, it is a self-contradiction. It forbids them to be sought out, as innocent, and it commands them to be punished, as guilty. It is at once merciful and cruel. It passes by, and it punishes. Why do you play this game of evasion with yourself, O Judgment? If you condemn, why do you not also inquire? If you do not inquire, why do you not also absolve? Military stations are set throughout all the provinces for tracking robbers. Against traitors and public enemies every man is a soldier. Search is made even for their confederates and accessories. The Christian alone must not be sought, though he may be brought and accused before the judge, as if a search had any other end than that! And so
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Matthew 2:16 Background
Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.
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2 Kings 24:4 Background
and also for the innocent blood that he had shed. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD would not pardon.
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Jeremiah 2:34 Background
Also on your skirts is found The blood of the lives of the poor innocents. I have not found it by secret search, But plainly on all these things.
Common Questions
Did the early Christians oppose abortion?
Yes. Justin Martyr and Athenagoras say that exposing children or using drugs to end pregnancy is murder.
Did early Christians think newborn babies had value?
Yes. Writers like Lactantius, Minucius Felix, and Cyprian speak of newborns as innocent and worth protecting.
Did early Christians accept infant exposure?
No. Several writers condemn exposing infants and treat it as child-murder.
Source Index for Infanticide and the Sanctity of Life
The guided sections above show the strongest quotations. This compact index highlights 153 ranked source links from 210 compiled sources for deeper study.
Source index 153 ranked links shown
Early Christian Writings 80 shown of 137
Primary-source quotations from early Christian writers and church documents.
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Didache, Connection to Exodus 20:13-14
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Unknown, Unknown Work
Bible Passages 73 included
Related Bible passages saved for comparison with the early Christian quotations.
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Book 79 1:62
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Book 79 1:46