“Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues,

preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease

and sickness among the people.”  

Matthew 4:23 (NIV)

We all know that healing was one of the many ministries of our Lord – His miracles of healing paving the way for the reception of the good news of the kingdom of God, not to mention relieving human suffering.  There are over 175 verses in the Bible that have the word heal, healed, healing, health or healthy in them.  Some references are to spiritual health, to be sure, not that we ought to draw too big of a line between being spiritually healthy and physically healthy. But sometimes the Bible is aiming at what we’d call “our souls” rather than our liver or our foot.  “It is not the healthy who need a physician, but the sick” Jesus said in Matthew 9:12.  He was referring to the gospel that calls sinners to repentance. In this case it was the calling of Matthew the disciple from a life of being a tax collector to being an evangelist.

But beyond references to healing or health, the Bible alludes to medicine and doctors a fair number of times – not always in the most recognizable of passages, but they are there.  So kudos to our physicians, researchers, nurses and technicians for their healing ministries. They have a much longer history than what we might think when we say “modern medicine”. After all, medicine in the ancient world was - when it was practiced - “modern” for its time.    

Here are a few references to medicine and doctors you may not have come across, courtesy of a 2017 book entitled “The Dictionary of Daily Life in Biblical and Post Biblical Antiquity”. (Whew…there’s a title for you!)   

Did you know that…

• The Old Testament contains no references to a doctor or medicine healing the sick.
• The Jewish writings known as the Talmud (comprised of the Mishnah - collections of commentary on the Torah, or Law of Moses, and the Gemara - a sort of “catechism” on the Law) generally refer quite positively to physicians, save for a couple of entries in which they are listed as among “the trades of the robbers” and “the best among physicians is destined for Gehenna”.  Oh well, nobody can bat a thousand as they say! 😊  
• The Jewish Rabbis (not necessarily schooled in anatomy) counted in the human body 248 limbs and 365 “sinews”, corresponding to the 248 positive commandments in the oral legal code of Judaism and the 365 negative ones (for a total of 613)
• Paul rescues a bit the reputation of physicians, calling his colleague in ministry and author of the 3^rd Gospel, Luke, “the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14)  Who says Paul was a hard-nosed guy?
• Frankincense and Myrrh were among the most common medicines in Jesus’ day (good thing the Magi knew that, and helped our Lord’s family stock up, eh?)  
• Egypt had one of the most advanced medical systems in the ancient world, their writings referring to dentists, “doctors of the eyes”, “abdomen” and, uh…”rear end” 😊  But, the Egyptians didn’t care about studying or treating the brain – they thought of it as “merely stuffing for the head.”  (Well…then again…!)
• When Revelation’s preacher tells the church in Laodicea to “buy from me … salve to put on your eyes so you can see” (3:18) he was referring (likely) to that city’s famed ophthalmologists and eye ointments.
• Christians (and by extension the church) became very “pro-medicine” by the 200’s, as physicians were listed among those believers who’d been martyred, and those who treated others and “accepted no silver” were praised.  By the 300’s creating hospitals and supporting medicinal and physician assisted healing was an important part of a Christian leader’s work, much like founding monasteries.

Something to ponder as we serve “the Great Physician” Jesus Christ and, by our witness, bring his healing presence into the world much in need of it.

Because of a cross,

Pastor Ken Nelson