Tot de jaren dertig van de vorige eeuw veroordeelden alle godvrezende en bijbelgetrouwe christenen het gebruik van anticonceptie. We zien hoe seksuele moraliteit sinds die tijd gekelderd is.
De kerk heeft ons 1900 jaar lang consequent gewaarschuwt tegen de ernstige zondes van anticonceptie en abortus. Deze zondes zijn geen nieuw fenomeen, maar bestaan al sinds het begin der beschavingen onder de heidenvolken.
Er is niks nieuws onder de zon. Er is dan ook geen excuus dat dominees kiezen om hierin mee te gaan met de heidenen terwijl de Bijbel en de Kerk dit altijd hebben verworpen.
"8 Toen zeide Juda tot Onan: Ga in tot uws broeders huisvrouw, en trouw haar in uws broeders naam, en verwek uw broeder zaad.
9 Doch Onan, wetende, dat dit zaad voor hem niet zoude zijn, zo geschiedde het, als hij tot zijns broeders huisvrouw inging, dat hij het verdierf tegen de aarde, om zijn broeder geen zaad te geven.
10 En het was kwaad in des HEEREN ogen, wat hij deed; daarom doodde Hij hem ook."
~ Genesis 38:8-10
"En het was kwaad in de oogen des Heeren. Minder net spreken de Joden over deze schandelijke zaak. Ik zal mij tevreden stellen met kortelijks dit aan te stippen zoover het schaamtegevoel dit toelaat te bespreken.
Eene afschuwelijke zaak is het, om vrijwillig zaad uit te storten buiten de gemeenschap van man en vrouw. Aan de geslachtsgemeenschap zich met opzet te onttrekken, zoodat het zaad op de aarde valt is dubbel afschuwelijk. Want dit beteekent dat men
de hoop van zijn geslacht uitbluscht, en den zoon, die kon verwacht worden, doodt voordat hij is geboren. Deze goddeloosheid nu wordt thans zoo sterk mogelijk door den Geest bij monde van Mozes veroordeeld, dat Onan als 't ware door eene gewelddadige,
ontijdige geboorte het zaad zijns broeders uit den moederschaat heeft weggerukt, en even wreed als schandelijk op de aarde heeft geworpen. Bovendien heeft hij aldus, zooveel in zijn vermogen was, getracht een deel van het menschelijk geslacht te verdelgen.
Zoo eene vrouw op de eene of andere manier door hulpmiddelen het zaad uit de moederschoot verdrijft, wordt dit als eene onverzoenlijke misdaad beschouwd en terecht. Aan soorgelijke misdaad heeft Onan zich schuldig gemaakt, door de aarde met zijn zaad te bezoedelen, opdat
Tamar geen toekomstigen erfgenaam zou ontvangen."
~ Johannes Calvijn, Genesis. Uitlegging van Johannes Calvijn (op 38:10), deel 2, W. A. De Groot - Goudriaan, blz. 288, 289
De bronnen voor onderstaande citaten worden onder ieder citaat vermeld. Een onvolledige lijst van literatuur die gebruikt is bij het zoeken en vinden van citaten bestaat o.a. uit de volgende boeken:
1. Timothy L. Fan. (2014). Divine Heartbeat: Listening to God's Heartbeat for Preborn Children.
2. Bryan C. Hodge. (2010). The Christian Case against Contraception.
3. John T. Noonan. (1986). Contraception
4. Charles D. Provan. (1989). The Bible and Birthcontrol
5. Roy Flechner. (2019). The Hibernensis: Volume 2
6. Giulio Silano. (2007). Peter Lombard, The Sentences
7. Jaroslav Pelikan. (1965). Luther's Works: Volume 7
8. Philip Schaff. Ante-Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers
De meeste van deze citaten zijn niet te vinden in de Nederlandse taal, wel zijn veel van deze uit hun oorspronkelijke taal vertaald naar het Engels door de loop der jaren. Zo zijn er talloze betrouwbare vertalingen openbaar beschikbaar op o.a. CCEL en NewAdvent in het Engels. Omdat de meeste lezers Engels kunnen is er gekozen om deze, wanneer mogelijk, in de betrouwbare vertalingen te laten staan.
"For He knew that for the sake of children she wished to company with Jacob, and not for lust of pleasure."
~ Didache 5.2 (1st century)
https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf08/anf08.iii.vii.html#fnf_iii.vii-p6.1
“who know not Him that made them, who are murderers of children, destroyers of the workmanship of God;”
~ Barnabas 20 (70 – 135)
https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01/anf01.vi.ii.xx.html
"But whether we marry, it is only that we may bring up children; or whether we decline marriage, we live continently."
~ Justin Martyr (90 - 165), The First Apology, Chap. 24. (ANF 1.172)
"Aliter autem coire, quam ad liberorum procreationem, est facere injuriam naturæ; qua quidem oportetmagistra, quas prudenter introducit temporis commoditates, diligenter observare, senectutem, inquam, et puerilem ætatem."
"Matrimonium autem est filiorum procreationis appetitio, non inordinata seminis excretio, quæ est et præter leges et a ratione aliena.”
Vertaald naar het Nederlands:
"Maar anderszins gemeenschap te hebben dan tot voortbrenging van kinderen, is de natuur onrecht aandoen; welke wij nochtans als leermeesteres behoren te volgen, en de gelegenheden des tijds die zij wijselijk invoert, naarstig te betrachten, namelijk de ouderdom, zeg ik, en de kinderlijke leeftijd.
Het huwelijk is echter het verlangen naar de voortplanting van kinderen, niet de wanordelijke uitstorting van zaad, die zowel tegen de wetten als in strijd met de rede is.”
Translated to English:
“But to engage in sexual union for any purpose other than the procreation of children is to do injury to nature; for one ought carefully to observe nature as a teacher, who wisely introduces the proper opportunities of time — I mean, both old age and childhood.
Marriage, moreover, is a desire for the procreation of children, not a disordered emission of seed, which is both contrary to law and alien to reason.”
~ Clement of Alexandria (150 - 215), Paedagogus, Book 2, Chap 10. (ANF 2.262)
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/02092.htm
"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. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed."
~ Tertullian (155 - 220), Apology, 9, (ANF 3.25)
“For even also he permitted females, if they were unwedded,1013 and burned with passion at an age at all events unbecoming, or if they were not disposed to overturn their own dignity through a legal marriage, that they might have whomsoever they would choose as a bedfellow, whether a slave or free, and that a woman, though not legally married, might consider such a companion as a husband. Whence women, reputed believers, began to resort to drugs1014 for producing sterility, and to gird themselves round, so to expel what was being conceived on account of their not wishing to have a child either by a slave or by any paltry fellow, for the sake of their family and excessive wealth.1015 Behold, into how great impiety that lawless one has proceeded, by inculcating adultery and murder at the same time! And withal, after such audacious acts, they, lost to all shame, attempt to call themselves a Catholic Church!”
1013 This passage, of which there are different readings, has been variously interpreted. The rendering followed above does probably less violence to the text than others proposed. The variety of meaning generally turns on the word ἐναξία in Miller’s text. Bunsen alters it into ἐν ἀξίᾳ…ἡλικίᾳ, i.e., were inflamed at a proper age. Dr. Wordsworth reads ἡλικιώτῃ…ἀναξίῳ, i.e., an unworthy comrade. Roeper reads ἡλικίᾳ…ἀναξίου, i.e., in the bloom of youth were enamoured with one undeserving of their choice.
1014 Dr. Wordsworth places περιδεσμεῖσθαι in the first sentence, and translates thus: “women began to venture to bandage themselves with ligaments to produce abortion, and to deal with drugs in order to destroy what was conceived.”
~ Hippolytus (170 - 235), The refutation of all heresies, 9:7, (ANF 5.131)
“There are some women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their very bowels, and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth.”
~ Minucius Felix (died 250), Octavius, Chap. 30.
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0410.htm
“There would be no adulteries, and debaucheries, and prostitution of women, if it were known to all, that whatever is sought beyond the desire of procreation is condemned by God.”
~ Lectantius (255 - 320) The Divine Institutes. 5.8; (ANF 7:143).
https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf07/anf07.iii.ii.v.viii.html
“[The Manichees are those that] contemptuously vituperate the procreation of children and desire that there be bodily intercourse without procreation.”
~ Titus of Bostra (361–372), Against the Manichees, 2.33.
“But let those also be of good cheer, who being married use marriage lawfully; who make a marriage according to God’s ordinance, and not of wantonness for the sake of unbounded license; who recognise seasons of abstinence, that they may give themselves unto prayer725; who in our assemblies bring clean bodies as well as clean garments into the Church; who have entered upon matrimony for the procreation of children, but not for indulgence.”
~ Cyril of Jerusalem (313-386), Catecheses, 4.25; (NPNF2 7:25).
https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf207/npnf207.ii.viii.html
“5,2 But although they [the Gnostics] have sex with each other they renounce procreation. 26 It is for enjoyment, not procreation, that they eagerly pursue seduction, since the devil is mocking people like these, and making fun of the creature fashioned by God. (3) They come to climax but absorb the seeds of their dirt, not by implanting them for procreation, but by eating the dirty stuff themselves.
5,4 But even though one of them should accidentally implant the seed of his natural emission prematurely and the woman becomes pregnant, listen to a more dreadful thing that such people venture to do. (5) They extract the fetus at the stage which is appropriate for their enterprise, take this aborted infant, and cut it up in a trough with a pestle. And they mix honey, pepper, and certain other perfumes and spices with it to keep from getting sick, and then all the revellers in this < herd > of swine and dogs assemble, and each eats a piece of the child with his fingers. 27 (6) And now, after this cannibalism, they pray to God and say, “We were not mocked by the archon of lust, but have gathered the brother’s blunder up!” And this, if you please, is their idea of the “perfect Passover.”
(3) Moreover in the Epistle to Timothy he says of them, “In the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of pleasure”; 90 and again, “forbidding to marry, having their consciences seared with an hot iron.” 91 (4) For they forbid chaste wedlock and procreation, but are seared in their consciences since they have sex and pollute themselves, and yet hinder procreation.
19,2 The like of this fornication and licentiousness may be seen in the extremely dreadful snake the ancients called the pangless viper.” (3) For the nature of such a viper is similar to the wickedness of these people. In performing their filthy act either with men or with women they forbear insemination, rendering impossible the procreation God has given his creatures—as the apostle says, “receiving in themselves the recompense of their error which was meet,” and so on.”
~ Epiphanius of Salamis (310 – 403) – The Panarion Book I (Sects 1-46) - pp. 94, 95, 105, 106, 108 - Against Gnostics, or Borborites, Number six, but twenty-six of the series (26.5.2-4, 26.16.3-4, 26.19.2-3)
"Wherefore I beseech you flee fornication, and the mother of it, drunkenness. Why sow where reaping is impossible, or rather even if thou dost reap, the fruit brings thee great shame? For even if a child be born, it at once disgraces thyself, and has itself had injustice done it in being born through thee illegitimate and base. And if thou leave it never so much money, both the son of an harlot, and that of a servant-maid, is disreputable at home, disreputable in the city, disreputable in a court of law: disreputable too wilt thou be also, both in thy lifetime, and when dead. For if thou have departed even, the memorials of thy unseemliness abide. Why then bring disgrace upon all these? Why sow where the ground makes it its care to destroy the fruit? where there are many efforts at abortion? where there is murder before the birth? for even the harlot thou dost not let continue a mere harlot, but makest her a murderess also. You see how drunkenness leads to whoredom, whoredom to adultery, adultery to murder; or rather to a something even worse than murder. For I have no name to give it, since it does not take off the thing born, but prevent its being born.1583 Why then dost thou abuse the gift of God, and fight with His laws, and follow after what is a curse as if a blessing, and make the chamber of procreation a chamber for murder, and arm the woman that was given for childbearing unto slaughter?"
~ John Chrysostom (347 - 407), Homilies on the Epistle to the Romans, 24, (NPNF1 11.520)
"and that which is sweet, and universally desirable, the having children, they esteem grievous and unwelcome: many at least with this view have even paid money to be childless, and have maimed their nature, not only by slaying their children after birth, but by not suffering them even to be born at all. 6. Marvel not, therefore, if we have thus sketched the covetous man (for in truth he is far worse than what we have said); but let us consider how we shall deliver him from the demon."
~ John Chrysostom (347 - 407), Homilies on Matthew, 28, (NPNF 10.190)
“You may see many women widows before wedded, who try to conceal their miserable fall by a lying garb. Unless they are betrayed by swelling wombs or by the crying of their infants, they walk abroad with tripping feet and heads in the air. Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when (as often happens) they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder.”
~ Jerome (342 - 420), Letter 22:13. To Eustochium, (NPNF 6:27).
"It is, however, one thing for married persons to have intercourse only for the wish to beget children, which is not sinful: it is another thing for them to desire carnal pleasure in cohabitation, but with the spouse only, which involves venial sin. For although propagation of offspring is not the motive of the intercourse, there is still no attempt to prevent such propagation, either by wrong desire or evil appliance. They who resort to these, although called by the name of spouses, are really not such; they retain no vestige of true matrimony, but pretend the honourable designation as a cloak for criminal conduct. Having also proceeded so far, they are betrayed into exposing their children, which are born against their will. They hate to nourish and retain those whom they were afraid they would beget. This infliction of cruelty on their offspring so reluctantly begotten, unmasks the sin which they had practised in darkness, and drags it clearly into the light of day. The open cruelty reproves the concealed sin. Sometimes, indeed, this lustful cruelty, or, if you please, cruel lust, resorts to such extravagant methods as to use poisonous drugs to secure barrenness; or else, if unsuccessful in this, to destroy the conceived seed by some means previous to birth, preferring that its offspring should rather perish than receive vitality; or if it was advancing to life within the womb, should be slain before it was born. Well, if both parties alike are so flagitious, they are not husband and wife; and if such were their character from the beginning, they have not come together by wedlock but by debauchery. But if the two are not alike in such sin, I boldly declare either that the woman is, so to say, the husband’s harlot; or the man the wife’s adulterer."
~ Augustine (354 - 430), On Marriage and Concupiscence, 1:17, (NPNF1 5.270-71)
“Why then doth the Apostle not say, if she be lacking in children, then let her marry? Because in this era of abstaining from embracing, it is not absolutely necessarily for everyone to beget children. But then why doth he say, if she be lacking in continence, let her marry ? Truly so as to prevent her, through her incontinency, from committing fornication. If she can live continently, let her neither marry nor bring forth children, but if she cannot, then let her lawfully marry ( lest she bring forth children unlawfully, or far worse, carnally copulate but bring forth no children at all ). This what I mentioned last, the use of carnal copulation while preventing the generation of children, be sometimes employed even by those lawfully married as well. And yet a man lieth with his lawful wife unlawfully & dishonestly, where the conceiving of a child is prevented. Onan the son of Judas did this, & God killed him for it. Therefore, the generation of children is the first & natural cause of marriage, & for that cause they who marry by reason of incontinence, ought not so restrain their itch as to banish the resulting glory of marriage, namely, children.”
~ Augustine (354 - 430), Adulterous marriages, Book 2, Objection: Barrenness.
https://www.anglican.net/works/augustine-concerning-adulterous-marriages-to-pollentius-1550/
“Lastly, there is the symbol of the breast, in which your very questionable chastity consists. For though you do not forbid sexual intercourse, you, as the apostle long ago said, forbid marriage in the proper sense, although this is the only good excuse for such intercourse. No doubt you will exclaim against this, and will make it a reproach against us that you highly esteem and approve perfect chastity, but do not forbid marriage, because your followers—that is, those in the second grade among you—are allowed to have wives. After you have said this with great noise and heat, I will quietly ask, Is it not you who hold that begetting children, by which souls are confined in flesh, is a greater sin than cohabitation? Is it not you who used to counsel us to observe as much as possible the time when a woman, after her purification, is most likely to conceive, and to abstain from cohabitation at that time, lest the soul should be entangled in flesh? This proves that you approve of having a wife, not for the procreation of children, but for the gratification of passion. In marriage, as the marriage law declares, the man and woman come together for the procreation of children. Therefore whoever makes the procreation of children a greater sin than copulation, forbids marriage, and makes the woman not a wife, but a mistress, who for some gifts presented to her is joined to the man to gratify his passion. Where there is a wife there must be marriage. But there is no marriage where motherhood is not in view; therefore neither is there a wife. In this way you forbid marriage. Nor can you defend yourselves successfully from this charge, long ago brought against you prophetically by the Holy Spirit.”
~ Augustine (354 - 430), On the morals of the Manicaeans, Chap 18.65. (NPNF 4.86, 87)
https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf104.iv.v.xx.html#iv.v.xx-p65
“For what food is unto the conservation of the man, this sexual intercourse is unto the conservation of the race: and both are not without carnal delight: which yet being modified, and by restraint of temperance reduced unto the use after nature, cannot be lust. But what unlawful food is in the supporting of life, this sexual intercourse of fornication or adultery is in the seeking of a family. And what unlawful food is in luxury of belly and throat, this unlawful intercourse is in lust that seeks not a family.”
~ Augustine (354 - 430), On the good of marriage, Chap 18. (NPNF1 3.407)
https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf103/npnf103.v.ii.xix.html
“Who is he who cannot give the warning that no woman is to take a potion for the purpose of rendering her incapable of conceiving or imprison within herself the nature which God willed to be productive. As often as she could have conceived or given birth, of that many homicides she will be held guilty, and unless she undergoes suitable penance, she will be damned by eternal death in hell.”
~ Caesarius, of Arles (470 - 542), Sermons 1.12, The humble advice of a sinner addressed in general to all saints and priests
https://archive.org/details/sermons0031caes/page/12/mode/2up
“If any woman has fornicated and has killed the infant thence born or has desired to commit an abortion and kill what she has conceived, or to take steps so that she may not conceive, either in adultery or in legitimate marriage, the earlier canons decreed that such women might receive communion at death; we, however, in mercy judge that such women, or other women who are accomplices of their crimes, should do penance for 10 years.”
(Chapters from the Synods of the Eastern Fathers 77, in Martin, Opera, p. 142).
~ Martin Braga (579), translated by John Noonan in Contraception; a history of its treatment by the Catholic theologians and canonists, p. 149
https://archive.org/details/contraceptionhis0000noon/page/148/mode/2up
“Husbands and wives are to be admonished to remember that they are joined together for the sake of producing offspring; and, when, giving themselves to immoderate intercourse, they transfer the occasion of procreation to the service of pleasure, to consider that, though they go not outside wedlock yet in wedlock itself they exceed the just dues of wedlock. Whence it is needful that by frequent supplications they do away their having fouled with the admixture of pleasure the fair form of conjugal union.”
~ Gregory the Great (540 - 604), Pastoral Rule, Part 3, Chap. 27. (NPNF2 12.57b)
https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf212/npnf212.iii.iv.iv.xxviii.html
“44.3 Concerning false virgins and their behaviour Jerome: One blushes to say it, for the wickedness of it [and] sadly, it is true. Some walk around with upright necks and playful feet, but others drink sterilising potions, and slay an unborn person. And some, when they736 Hibernensis 44.1 sense they are pregnant, contemplate the potions of the offence of abortion, and they frequently also perish, and they are led to the underworld, guilty of three offences: of slaying themselves and Christ, and adultery, and murder of an unborn child.
44.4 Concerning women killing their unborn children Jerome in his letters: Any woman soever who has performed this act of abomination is considered doubly guilty, both for her soul and for murdering her child. We therefore decree that she should do fourteen years penance. Augustine said in the homilies: A woman who either destroys her foetus or her child has committed homicide.479 A woman or man who consented to her in this sin, should do seven years of severe penance. Likewise: Let no woman receive a potion, nor kill her children, either conceived or born. For any woman who does this should know that she will render her account with homicides before Christ’s tribunal. Likewise: Women ought not accept any diabolical potions, by means of which they are then unable to conceive. But any woman who has done this, however many times she ought to have conceived or given birth, she shall acknowledge that she is guilty of as many homicides. 44.5 Concerning penance for women killing their unborn children The synod of Ancyra: Concerning women who fornicate and kill their offspring, or do things to drive out their unborn children in their womb, there is indeed an ancient decision to remove them from the church until their death. However, we rule more charitably, that a period of fourteen years be given to them, according to the established grades of penance.”
~ Hibernensis (725), 44.3-5, Translation by Roy Flechner, Book 2, The Catholic University of America Press
“If someone [Si aliquis] to satisfy his lust or in deliberate hatred does something to a man or woman so that no children be born of him or her, or gives them to drink, so that he cannot generate or she conceive, let it be held as homicide."
(Churchly Disciplines and the Christian Religion 2.89, PL 132:301)
~ Regino of Prum (died 915), translated by John Noonan in Contraception; a history of its treatment by the Catholic theologians and canonists, p. 168
“Have you done what some women are accustomed to do when they fornicate and wish to kill their offspring, act with their maleficia and their herbs so that they kill or cut out the embryo, or, if they have not yet conceived, contrive that they do not conceive? If you have done so, or consented to this, or taught it, you must do penance for ten years on legal feriae. But an. ancient determination removed such from the Church till the end of their lives. For as often as she impeded a conception, so many homicides was a woman guilty of. But it makes a big difference whether she is a poor little woman and acted on account of the difficulty of feeding, or whether she acted to conceal a crime of fornication.”
(Decretum 19, PL 140:972)
~ Burchard of Worms (965 - 1025), Decretum, translated by John Noonan in Contraception; a history of its treatment by the Catholic theologians and canonists, p. 160
"The evil of adultery is worse than fornication, but incest is still worse. It is worse to sleep with one's mother than to sleep with another's wife. But what is done against nature is the worst of all, as when a man makes use of a woman's member that is not meant for this purpose."
~ Decretum Gratiani (1140), 2.32.7.11. translated by John T. Noonan, Jr.
http://legalhistorysources.com/Canon%20Law/MARRIAGELAW.htm
“C. 7. Those who use contraceptives are not spouses but fornicators.
Sometimes lustful cruelty, or better cruel lust, leads one to take contraceptive drugs, and, if they do not work, kill the living infant in the womb. Or they abort it before it is born, because they would rather have the child die in the uterus than live. If both spouses subsequently agreed to this they are not really husband and wife.
If they intended this from the start, their union was not marriage but debauchery. If only one intended this, I dare say that she or he was merely her husband's whore or his wife's paramour.”
~ Decretum Gratiani (1140), 2.32.2.7. translated by John T. Noonan, Jr.
http://legalhistorysources.com/Canon%20Law/MARRIAGELAW.htm
“Chapter 3 (184) CONCERNING THOSE WHO PROCURE POISONS [TO INDUCE] STERILITY. As for those who procure poisons [to induce] sterility, they are not mar-riage partners, but fornicators——AUGUSTINE, IN THE BOOK ON Mar-RIAGE AND CONCUPISCENCE…. WHEN THOSE WHO PROCURE AN ABORTION ARE MURDERERS. Here it is usual to ask about those who procure an abortion, when are they judged to be murderers or not. An unborn child is the object of homicide at that time when it is formed and has a soul, as Augustine asserts on Exodus: “But the Law was unwilling that a formless pregnancy, where there is not yet a living soul, fall within the ambit of homicide.”'—AUGUSTINE, IN THE BOOK ON QUESTIONS OF THE NEW AND OLD TESTAMENT. Augustine also says that “an unformed unborn child does not have a soul: and so there is a money fine, but there is no rendering of a soul for a soul.’ But a soul is given to the already formed body; it is not born with the conception of the body, as if derived with the seed. Indeed, if it were derived with the seed, then soul has its existence from soul, and many souls perish everyday, since spilled seed does not advance to birth. It is necessary that the house first be put together, and then its dweller be brought in. And so when the features have not yet been formed, where will be the soul?” JEROME, TO ALGASIA. Also Jerome: “The seeds are gradually formed in the womb, and so it is not held to be murder, until the ele- ments have been formed and receive their features and members.”—From these words, it is clear that those who procure an abortion are guilty of murder, when the unborn child is formed and ensouled.”
~ Peter Lombard (1096 - 1160), Sentences 4.31.3,4. Translated by Guilio Silano pp. 180, 181
“I answer that, As stated above (Articles 6 and 9) wherever there occurs a special kind of deformity whereby the venereal act is rendered unbecoming, there is a determinate species of lust. This may occur in two ways: First, through being contrary to right reason, and this is common to all lustful vices; secondly, because, in addition, it is contrary to the natural order of the venereal act as becoming to the human race: and this is called "the unnatural vice." This may happen in several ways. First, by procuring pollution, without any copulation, for the sake of venereal pleasure: this pertains to the sin of "uncleanness" which some call "effeminacy." Secondly, by copulation with a thing of undue species, and this is called "bestiality." Thirdly, by copulation with an undue sex, male with male, or female with female, as the Apostle states (Romans 1:27): and this is called the "vice of sodomy." Fourthly, by not observing the natural manner of copulation, either as to undue means, or as to other monstrous and bestial manners of copulation.
...
Reply to Objection 3. The lustful man intends not human generation but venereal pleasures. It is possible to have this without those acts from which human generation follows: and it is that which is sought in the unnatural vice.”
~ Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274), Summa Theologica 2–2.154.11
https://www.newadvent.org/summa/3154.htm
“Also when man disturbs conception of a child, and makes a woman either barren by drinking venomous herbs through which she can not conceive, or slays a child by drinks willfully, or else puts certain material things in her secret places to slay the child, or else does unnatural sin, by which man or woman sheds their nature in manner or in place where a child can not be conceived (commits sodomy), or else if a woman have conceived, and hurts herself and slays the child, yet is it homicide. What say we also of women that murder their children for fear of worldly shame? Certainly, an horrible homicide. Homicide is also if a man approaches to a woman by desire of lechery, through which the child is killed, or else smites a woman wittingly, through which she loses their child. All these are homicides and horrible deadly sins.”
~ Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 – 1400), The Canterbury Tales, The Parson's Tale, Par. 38
http://www.librarius.com/canttran/parstrfs.htm
“And I say this to women who are the cause that the children that they have conceived are destroyed; worse, who also are among those who arrange that they cannot conceive; and if they have conceived, they destroy them in the body. You (to who this touches, I speak) are more evil than murderers. . . . O cursed by God, when will you repent? Do you not see that you, like the Sodomite, are cause for the shrinking of the world; between you and him there is no difference.”
~ Bernardino of Siena (1380 - 1444), As quoted in Herlihy and Klapische-Zuber, Tuscans and Their Families, pp. 251.
“Onan must have been a malicious and incorrigible scoundrel. This is a most disgraceful sin. It is far more atrocious than incest and adultery. We call it unchastity, yes, a Sodomitic sin. For Onan goes in to her; that is, he lies with her and copulates, and when it comes to the point of insemination, spills the semen, lest the woman conceive. Surely at such a time the order of nature established by God in procreation should be followed. Accordingly, it was a most disgraceful
crime to produce semen and excite the woman, and to frustrate her at that very moment. He was inflamed with the basest spite and hatred. Therefore he did not allow himself to be compelled to bear that intolerable slavery. Consequently, he deserved to be killed by God. He committed an evil deed. Therefore God punished him. ...Accordingly, this law includes the most ardent love. That worthless fellow refused to exercise it. He preferred polluting himself with a most disgraceful sin to raising up offspring for his brother.”
~ Martin Luther (1483 - 1546), Luther’s Works, vol. 7, 20–21.
"Moreover in this age and at this day, you may find many who wish that they had no children at all born to them. And this far more than barbarous inhumanity and enormity is found more particularly among princes and nobles, who frequently abstain from marriage for the sole reason that they may have no posterity. Still more base is the practice found in those princes, who suffer themselves to be counseled and persuaded not to marry, lest their families should become too large for civil purposes. Such men are indeed worthy of having their names blotted out from the land of the living, as the punishment of their contempt of the laws and intents of God. Who is there that would not execrate such swine-like monsters as these? These inhuman beings however still further manifest in many base particulars the nature and depth of original sin. Were it not for the consequences of this mighty sin, we should all admire the fulfillment of the law of God in generation, as one of the highest acts of the obedience and worship of God. And we should extol it as one of the greatest gifts of God with its due praise and admiration."
~ Martin Luther (1483 - 1546), Commentary on Genesis, J. N. Lenker, Chap. 2, Part 5, Verse 18.
“10. And the thing which he did displeased the LORD. Less neatly the Jews speak about this matter. I will contend myself with briefly mentioning this, as far as the sense of shame allows to discuss it. It is a horrible thing to pour out seed besides the intercourse of man and woman. Deliberately avoiding the intercourse, so that the seed drops on the ground, is double horrible. For this means that one quenches the hope of his family, and kills the son, which could be expected, before he is born. This wickedness is now as severely as is possible condemned by the Spirit, through Moses, that Onan, as it were, through a violent and untimely birth, tore away the seed of his brother out the womb, and as cruel as shamefully has thrown on the earth. Moreover he thus has, as much as was in his power, tried to destroy a part of the human race. When a woman in some way drives away the seed out the womb, through aids, then this is rightly seen as an unforgivable crime. Onan was guilty of a similar crime, by defiling the earth with his seed, so that Tamar would not receive a future inheritor.”
~ John Calvin (1509 - 1564), Commentary on Genesis, 38:10
https://ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom02/calcom02.xvi.i.html
“Christ says, Matt. 19:11: All men cannot receive this saying, where He teaches that not all men are fit to lead a single life; for God created man for procreation, Gen. 1:28.”
~ Jakob Andreae and Martin Chemnitz, Book of Concord (1580), Chap 23.5
https://bookofconcord.org/augsburg-confession/of-marriage-of-priests/#ac-xxiii-0005
“10. Das gefiel dem Herrn übel, das er tat, und tötete ihn auch.
Tat: Welches ein abscheuliches Dinge war, und ärger als ein Ehebruch. [Denn solche Übeltat widerstrebt der Natur, und die solches tun, werden das Reich Gottes nicht besitzen{1Kor 6v9 v10}. Und je heiliger der Ehestand ist, je weniger werden diejenigen ungestraft bleiben, welche ungebührlich und ärgerlich darin leben, dass sie ihre heimlichen Bubenstücke daneben treiben.”
“Which was an abominable thing, and worse than adultery. [For such wickedness opposes nature, and those who do it will not inherit the kingdom of God{1Cor 6:9v10}.] And the holier the state of marriage is, the less will those go unpunished who live in it improperly and scandalously, practicing their secret villainies on the side.” ~ Translated by Perplexity.ai
~ Lukas Osiander (1534 - 1604), commentary on Genesis 38
https://www.evangeliums.net/bibel/tatb1mos.php
“[T]his was even as much, as if he had (in a manner) pulled forth the fruit out of the mothers womb, and destroyed it.”
~ The Dutch Annotations (1619) upon the Whole Statenvertaling, translated by Theodore Haak, Genesis 38:9
https://archive.org/details/dutch-annotations/page/n37/mode/2up
“God, for the respect he bears to his own institution of marriage, is pleased to bear with, cover, and not impute many frailties, follies, vanities, wickednesses that are found between man and wife. Howbeit, there is required of such a holy care and conscience, to preserve between themselves, by a conjugal chastity, the marriage bed undefiled; taking heed of an intemperate or intempestive use of it: which by divines, Intemperans in coniugio, uxoris suae adulter est. - Aug. In uxorem alienam omnis amor turpis est, in suam vero nimius. - Hieron. both ancient and modern, is deemed no better than plain adultery before God. Qui cum uxore sua, quasi eum aliena, concumbit, adulter est, saith that heathen. Seneca. Onan’s sin here was self-pollution, aggravated much by his envy that moved him to it, expressed in these words, "lest he should give seed to his deceased brother." And the more sinful was this sin of his in spilling his seed; because it should have served for the propagation of the Messiah; therefore the Lord slew him: as also, because he was not warned by his brother’s punishment. Hebraei inquiunt perinde ut homicidam, reum esse qui temere semen profundit. - Mercer., in loc.”
~ John Trapp (1601 – 1669), Commentary on Genesis 38:9
https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/jtc/genesis-38.html
“From this state and use of marriage, the means appointed of God for the preservation of the purity and chastity of our persons, the argument is cogent unto diligence in our duty therein, and the aggravation great of the contrary sins. For whereas God hath provided such a way and means, for the satisfaction of natural inclination, the procreation of children, and comfort of life in mutual society, as are honourable, and as such approved by himself, so as no way to defile the body or mind, or to leave any trouble on the conscience; who can express the detestable wickedness that is in the forsaking of them, in a contempt of the authority and wisdom of God, by men's seeking the satisfaction of their lusts in ways prohibited of God, injurious to others, debasing and defiling to themselves, disturbing the whole order of nature, and drowning themselves in everlasting perdition, which the apostle declares in the next words?”
~ John Owen (1616 – 1683), Commentary on Hebrews 13:4
“V. 9. on the ground] The lewdnesse of this fact was com∣posed of lust, of envie, and murther; the first appeares, in that he went rashly upon it, it seemes he stayed not till night, for the time of privacie for such a purpose, else the bed might have been named, as well as the ground; the second is plaine by the Text, he envyed at the honour of his dead brother, and there∣fore would not be father of any child, that should be reputed his, and not his own; the third, in that there is a seminall vitall vertue which perisheth if the seed be spilt; and to doe this to hinder the begetting of a living child, is the first degree of mur∣der, that can be committed, and the next unto it is the marring of conception, when it is made, and causing of abortion: now such acts are noted in the Scripture as horrible crimes, because otherwise many might commit them and not know the evill of them; It is conceived that his brother Er before was his bro∣ther in evill thus farre, that both of them satisfied their sensua∣litie against the order of nature, and therefore the Lord cut them off both alike with sudden vengeance; which may be for terrour to those Popish Onanites who condemne marriage, and live in Sodomiticall impuritie, and to those, who in marriage care not for the increase of children (which is the principall use of the conjugall estate) but for the satisfying of their concu∣piscence.”
~ (ad 1645), Annotations upon all the books of the Old and New Testament wherein the text is explained, doubts resolved, Scriptures parallelled and various readings observed / by the joynt-labour of certain learned divines, thereunto appointed, and therein employed, as is expressed in the preface. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections, Genesis 38:9.
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A36467.0001.001/1:5.39?rgn=div2;view=fulltext
“The sin itself, which is here particularly described by the Holy Ghost, that men might be instructed concerning the nature and the great evil of this sin of self-pollution, which is such that it brought upon the actor of it the extraordinary vengeance of God, and which is condemned not only by Scripture, but even by the light of nature, and the judgment of heathens, who have expressly censured it as a great sin, and as a kind of murder. Of which see my Latin Synopsis. Whereby we may sufficiently understand how wicked and abominable a practice this is amongst Christians, and in the light of the gospel, which lays greater and stricter obligations upon us to purity, and severely forbids all pollution both of flesh and spirit.”
~ Matthew Poole (1624 – 1679), Commentary on Genesis 38:9
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/poole/genesis/38.htm
“Onan, though he consented to marry the widow, yet, to the great abuse of his own body, of the wife that he had married, and of the memory of his brother that was gone, he refused to raise up seed unto his brother, as he was in duty bound. This was so much the worse because the Messiah was to descend from Judah, and, had he not been guilty of this wickedness, he might have had the honour of being one of his ancestors. Note, Those sins that dishonour the body and defile it are very displeasing to God and evidences of vile affections.”
~ Matthew Henry (1662 - 1714), Commentary on Genesis 38:7
https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/matthew-henry-complete/genesis/38.html
“[T]hat he spilled it on the ground, lest he should give his seed to his brother: lest his brother's wife he had married should conceive by him, and bear a son that should be called his brother's, and inherit his estate; and this is the sin, which from him is called Onania, a sin condemned by the light of nature, as well as by the word of God, and very prejudicial to mankind, as well as displeasing to God.”
~ John Gill (1697 - 1771), Commentary on Genesis 38:9
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/gill/genesis/38.htm
“Onan, though he consented to marry the widow, yet to the great abuse of his own body, of the wife he had married, and the memory of his brother that was gone, he refused to raise up seed unto his brother. Those sins that dishonour the body are very displeasing to God, and the evidence of vile actions. Observe, the thing which he did displeased the Lord - And it is to be feared, thousands, especially of single persons, by this very thing, still displeased the Lord, and destroy their own souls.”
~ John Wesley (1703 - 1791), Commentary on Genesis 38:7
https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/wesleys-explanatory-notes/genesis/genesis-38.html
“We do not believe in what is termed "birth control,” but we do earnestly urge self-control, especially by the husband, "But whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” This is a most solemn warning against unfaithfulness: those who live
and die impenitently in these sins will eternally perish (Eph. 5:5).”
~ A. W. Pink (1886 - 1952), Commentary on Hebrews 13:4
https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/awp/hebrews-13.html