Wherever “doctor” or “physician’ is used in the Bible it
usually implies a teacher of God’s law, and never a “physician” — commonly
known as a “doctor” today. This would include Luke the author of the Gospel and
Acts. The Greek word for physician means, “to heal.” The Italian word for
doctor is "medico,” from which we have “medicine.” In the Old Testament
physicians were Egyptian embalmers (Genesis 50:2), who knew of a wonderful
process of embalming dead bodies preserving them, thereby, from decay. In
essence, learned men that were more akin to sages, nurse or morticians than
actual modern-day physicians.
In our time physicians attend only to the living unless they
conduct a postmortem to ascertain the cause of death. There is evidence,
however, that at an early date in Egypt and Babylon there were those having medical
and surgical knowledge. Egypt had its god of healing. Some 700 years after
Joseph’s embalming by the physicians Homer could write, “Such cunning drugs had
Helen, drugs of healing virtues, which Polydamna gave, the wife of Thon in
Egypt, where the fruitful soil yields drugs of every kind. There, in that time
everyone is a physician, skillful beyond humankind.” With the founding of the
Grecian School at Alexandria, Egypt became a center of medical education and
research.
Among the Jews there were those capable of dealing with
various physical maladies (Exodus 21:19; II Kings 8:29; 9:15; Isaiah 1:6; 3:7;
Jeremiah 8:22; 33:6; Ezekiel 30:21). During the ministry of the prophets,
healings are recorded as miracles. To the devout Jew, God was the Healer
(Deuteronomy 32:39), and it was of greater value to trust in Him than to
consult physicians who, although they had skill in dealing with the dead, did
not know very well how to treat the living.
Interestingly, most terribly afflicted man in the Bible was Job whose body was so loathsome that friends would not go near him. No one suggested that he should see a physician. Had he sent for one, it might have been said of him that he was acting in lack of faith as King Asa later would. In other words what we see in this verse is Asa’s failure to seek divine assistance during his illness and rely on men. Had Job done this the whole narrative of Job’s dilemma off faith would’ve unraveled theologically so he didn’t seek a physician.
2 Chronicles 16:12 ~ "In the thirty-ninth year of his
reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet even in
his disease he did not seek the Lord but sought help from physicians."
As it turns out King Solomon in his God given wisdom
evidently had a certain amount of scientific and medical knowledge and under
the Spirit’s inspiration used symbolic language of medical facts (Ecclesiastes
12:6). “The silver cord” is the spinal marrow, white and precious as silver,
attached to the brain which is “the golden bowl” says Jamieson. “This fountain”
may mean the right ventricle of the heart, the “cistern” the left; “the
pitcher” the veins, the “wheel” the aorta or great artery. The “wheel” however
may mean life in its rapid motion, as in James 3:6 “the wheel of nature. The
circulation of the blood is apparently expressed.”
As we enter the New Testament, we know that there has never
been a Physician like Jesus who, arose upon this sin-sick world of ours with
healing. Egyptian physicians preserved dead bodies. Jesus brought the dead back
to life. To the sick before Him, He offered no medicines, and for the
physically handicapped He had no surgical instruments to relieve them. “He
spoke, and it was done.” Years ago, healing was by magic, but Jesus used no
magic. Before His omnipotent word, sickness, disease, blindness and death fled.
He lived in the days of the Roman Empire when physicians were numerous in
Palestine. In Nazareth, Jesus quoted the proverb, “Physician, heal thyself”
(Luke 4:23); and the physicians of Galilee would understand His saying, “They
that are whole have no need of a Physician” (Matthew 9:12; Mark 2:17; Luke
5:31).
In Mark’s story about the woman with an issue of blood, “who
suffered many things of many physicians, and spent all that she had and was
nothing better, but rather grew worse.” (Mark 5:28; Luke 8:43). Job, irritated
by the platitudes of his friends, called them “physicians of no value” (13:4).
Among the “many things” that were tried to cure this woman of her infirmity
were these — she was set in a place where two ways met, with a cup of wine in
her hand. Then someone came up behind and frightened her and said, “Arise from your
flux!” Another method of healing practiced was to fasten several strips of rag
to a tree - bits of the clothing of sick persons - the belief being that
through the fluttering strip the disease would pass into the tree and the
health of the living tree would pass into the patient’s body like a wick. But
all the woman had to do was to touch the seamless robe of Christ, and instantly
she was healed.
What must not be forgotten is that it was Christ’s interest
in the sick that created hospitals. Through the centuries His healing ministry
has inspired an unnumbered host of physicians and nurses. Calvary gave the name
of Red Cross to the greatest healing organization in the world (although of
late it has been derailed by greedy plans). The most talented physicians know
that their skill and medicines are only means and that all life is in the hands
of Jehovah Jireh, The Lord the Healer.
The only named physician in the Bible is Luke the companion
of Paul whom he called “the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14). Origen reckoned
that this renowned physician was the unnamed brother whose praise in the Gospel
is spread through all the churches (2 Corinthians 8:18). There may be something
in the suggestion that Luke first became acquainted with Paul at Antioch or at
Troas when the apostle was sick and needed medical attention, and that Luke
gave up his practice to accompany Paul and guard his health. Toward the end of
his life, Paul wrote to Timothy, “Only Luke is with me.” In the two books Luke
wrote, the third gospel and the Acts, there are evidences of his medical
knowledge in the language he used.
The Talmud has references to physicians at the temple to
care for the priests, and that to practice, physicians were required to have a
license from the local authorities. Limited praise for their skill was given
them in the Apocrypha, “There is a time when success lies in the hands of
physicians… He who sins before his Maker may he fall into the care of a
physician” (Ecclesiasticus 38:13, 15).
As to the medicines and means of healing employed, Scripture has much to say. Apart from magical rites and exorcisms, there was the use of natural remedies. That the Jews knew the virtues of certain plants and of many substances of animal and mineral origin is evident from their use of them. The myrtle, for instance, was much sought after, not only for its scent, but because its leaves and berries were used in medicine since they contained an aromatic, volatile oil (See Revelation 22:2). In the time of Moses there were midwives and regular physicians (Exodus 21:19), and from Egypt the Israelites took with them some knowledge of medicine received from the renowned Egyptian physicians.
Albert E. Bailey says that Egyptian “materia medica” included
powders and decoctions made from sycamore figs, dates and other fruits, the
pith of certain trees, salt, oil, magnesia, honey and sweet beer; often mixed
with such unpleasant ingredients as rancid fat, bone dust and tile droppings of
animals.” In the Bible we read of oil lotions (Isaiah 1:6), anointing of balm
(Jeremiah 8:22) Gilead was a place resorted to for the medical treatment), fig
poultices (II Kings 20:7; Isaiah 38:21), eye-salves (II Kings 9: 30; Jeremiah,
Revelation 3:18;) not only to improve eyesight but to beautify the eyes.
The Bible recognizes the close connection moral health. “A cheerful heart is a good medicine says Solomon, “but a downcast spirit dries up the bones’’ (Proverbs 17:22). Israel’s general exemption from epidemics and remarkable healthiness to the healthful climate of Israel but also to the washings, cleanliness of the camp, restriction in diet of clean animals, the prohibition of pork, separation of lepers and laws of marriage (Leviticus 15; Deuteronomy 23:12- 14). One of the oldest names of God in the Bible is Jehopah-rophi, the Lord that heals, and He-made it clear to His people that He was among, them as One able to heal them.
Among, the five subjects of praise
for which David called upon his soul to bless God for, the second was “who
forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases” (Psalm 103:3). There is not
a disease of the soul or of the body with which He is not acquainted, and for
which He has not a specific remedy (Matthew 8:16,17, Philippians 3:21). “As for
me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!”
(Psalm 41:4). Often a sick person’s first need is not medicine but mercy. The
cause of their physical malady is sin, and once this is dealt with by the Great
Physician, physical health follows “Your faith has made you whole,” and
holiness is just wholeness and health. It is comforting to know that, the
Physician now here is the sympathizing Jesus.
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