The Great Physician XV: A Lack of Life

[A continuation or my medical posts from a few weeks ago...]

As a point of reference and illustrative example I will mention in this post a compendium of known medicine diagnosis, terminology and usage of medicinal ideas/terms at the time of authorship of Scripture. The Scripture writers knew and could identify either through their own volition or by divine inspiration to following. Death being medical in my mind is included.

Thanatology-Death Observed

Old age is the most common recorded cause of death in the Bible. Other than the pre- antediluvian patriarch’s longevity a, few causes of death are recorded. 2 Chronicles 21:15 probably describes Jehoram’s demise as a form of cancerous dysentery, colorectal carcinoma, Crohn’s disease or an amoebic form known to be prevalent in the Near East.

Uzziah’s death 2 Chronicles 26:21 mention previously as leprosy was from Hansen’s Disease which is an infection caused by slow-growing bacteria called Mycobacterium leprae. It can affect the nerves, skin, eyes, and lining of the nose (nasal mucosa). ... However, if left untreated, the nerve damage can result in crippling of hands and feet, paralysis, and blindness.

Sterility/Barrenness

This was an important consideration in ancient Israel where childlessness was considered a major social stigma. The Hebrew adjective for ‘barren’ is עקר (Greek στείρος from which we get the word sterile) and derives from עקר meaning to uproot. The reason uproot is the Israelites understood that childbirth was a form of seeding and to not be able to have seed that can reproduce was to uproot or keep that that life from existing. Hence the agrarian references to the ‘seed’ Abraham. The seed of Abraham is mentioned in Genesis 12:7 and Galatians 3:16.

Galatians is quoting Genesis. What is the word used in Galatians in Greek? Sperma / σπέρμα from which we obviously get the word sperm from. And what is a seed produced from usually? Fruit. Seeds are an overflow of an abundance of life. So much life that it overflows to produce more life. Secondarily, sterility also reflects the state of uprooting of one’s life by being denied of part of it (children) and misfortune visited upon those not blessed with progeny.Ancient Israelite society was a very tribalistic and materialistic society where the presence of numerous male children and kinsmen was perceived as a measure of prosperity both present and future. A specific duty of children was to be present to perform the funeral rites of their parents and without children these rites could not be fulfilled adequately, and souls there ended up being a completeness and wholeness of life.

There are several stories in the Bible of barren women who eventually bear children as the result of divine providence. No medical cause of infertility was ever mentioned or contemplated: Barrenness and its reversal were entirely at the sovereignty of God.

Whether we're dealing with death or sterility we're dealing with a lack of life. Either the inability to create it by procreation or inability to maintain it. Hence their combination here.