{"id":48963,"date":"2025-06-19T07:00:35","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T11:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/?p=48963"},"modified":"2025-06-18T13:24:47","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T17:24:47","slug":"what-does-the-bible-say-about-infertility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/daily\/biblical-topics\/bible-interpretation\/what-does-the-bible-say-about-infertility\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does the Bible Say About Infertility?"},"content":{"rendered":"

What does the Bible say about infertility?<\/p>\n

In the very first chapter of the first book of the Bible, the command is given to humankind to \u201cbe fruitful and multiply.\u201d Genesis 1:28 reads: \u201cGod blessed them, and God said to them, \u2018Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet despite this blessing, there are numerous instances of barrenness in the Bible\u2014from the matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca and Rachel to Michal (Saul\u2019s daughter and David\u2019s wife). Joel S. Baden of Yale Divinity School and Candida R. Moss of the University of Notre Dame analyze the Biblical portrayal of infertility in the Biblical Views column \u201cReevaluating Biblical Infertility<\/a>,\u201d<\/strong> published in the September\/October 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"What<\/a>

\u201cBe Fruitful and Multiply.\u201d<\/strong> This illustration shows Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, where God gave them the command to \u201cbe fruitful and multiply\u201d (Genesis 1:28). Photo: From Charles Foster,<\/em> The Story of the Bible (1897).<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Many of the women in the Bible described as being barren, such as Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Hannah (Samuel\u2019s mother), Samson<\/a>\u2019s mother and Elizabeth (John the Baptist<\/a>\u2019s mother), later conceive. However, there are other Biblical women, including Michal (David<\/a>\u2019s wife), who remain barren for their entire lives. For still others, like Dinah, Miriam and Deborah, the Bible records no offspring<\/a>, which suggests they may have been barren.<\/p>\n

According to the Bible, is infertility a punishment for sin?<\/p>\n

Short answer: no.<\/p>\n

Baden and Moss clarify that although \u201csome ancient interpreters tried to identify some rationale for these women\u2019s infertility, the Bible itself attributes no faults to them. They are, simply, barren\u2014and blameless.\u201d Some may argue that Michal\u2019s infertility was a result of her contempt for King David (2 Samuel 6:16\u201323), but by that point in the narrative, she had already been married\u2014first to David, then to Patiel, and then returned to David\u2014for more than a decade. There is not an inherent causality between her reproach and her barrenness.<\/p>\n

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