He said, “At this season, when the time comes around, you will embrace a son.” She said, “No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your servant.” The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season, when the time came around, as Elisha had said to her.
A post-menopausal woman spontaneously became pregnant and delivered a healthy baby boy.
Biology
59
passages in this field
Show this passage in
The cited passage
What current science says
Menopause typically occurs between ages 45 and 55, after which the ovaries stop releasing eggs and pregnancy becomes naturally impossible. Without viable eggs, there's nothing to fertilize. Even with modern IVF technology, post-menopausal pregnancies require donor eggs and hormone therapy — and even then they carry serious medical risks. A spontaneous pregnancy after menopause would require the reproductive system to un-retire itself, which doesn't happen.
What the text says
This comes from 2 Kings 4:16-17. The prophet Elisha promised an elderly woman she would have a son, and sure enough she conceived and gave birth — yet another miraculous geriatric pregnancy in the text.
Three honest ways to read this passage
-
As history
The text records how its authors understood the world with the knowledge they had. Read this way, a difference from modern science is a window into the ancient mind, not a failure.
-
As accommodation
The text speaks to its first audience in their own terms, to make a point that isn't mainly about physics or biology. Read this way, the scientific detail is the vehicle, not the cargo.
-
As contradiction
The text makes a claim about the physical world that modern findings dispute. Read this way, the difference is a genuine factual disagreement worth naming.
GEBible doesn't pick one of these for you. Each entry shows the passage, what it says, and what current science says — nothing more.