I have been recently asked to prove the statement that life begins at conception Biblically, as opposed to the philosophy that life doesn't begin until birth. That is especially of interest with the forthcoming Sanctity of Life Sunday on May 24th 2020.
I offer up the following references from Scripture [ESV - English Standard Version].
(Please note this is not an exhaustive list.)
God knew us BEFORE we were born
Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother's breasts. On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God. Psalm 22:9-10
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Psalm 51:5
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139:13-16
Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen. Isaiah 44:2
Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, Isaiah 44:24
cf. Isaiah 49:1, Isaiah 49:5
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations. Jeremiah 1:5
Reactions of prenatal children
The foetal twins Jacob and Esau struggling in utero:
The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.” ...
Jacob was born grasping Esau's heel:
When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau. Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel, so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them. Genesis 25:22-23, 24-26
The foetus of John the Baptist physically responded to the presence of the foetal Christ, moved by the Holy Spirit:
And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit ...
For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Luke 1:41, 44
