The Great Physician V: Completely Out of Sync With The Times

All of the Israelite Mosaic Laws stand in marked contrast to the medicine of Egyptians out of which Moses and the Israelites emerged. It seems to me that the real proof and evidence in God’s divine intervention into Jewish life lies right at this crossroad within the Law.  The Egyptian-raised author of the Pentateuch would have absorbed and been greatly influenced by the beliefs about medicine and healthcare held by the Egyptians. Ironically, this is clearly not the case. The archaeologist Dr. William F. Albright, late professor of Semitic Languages at Johns Hopkins University and former Director of the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem, pointed out:

“It is clear that the religion of Israel revolted against virtually every external aspect of Egyptian religion, including the complex and grotesque iconography, [and] the dominion of daily life in the Nineteenth Dynasty by magic.” (1)

Professor Neufeld from my previous post similarly noted that the Pentateuch’s laws on purification and disease prevention do not reflect the beliefs of surrounding cultures:

“They presuppose a fairly well-developed system of hygiene. None of the known rituals of the ancient Near East, as illustrated in mythological texts, incantations, and descriptions of festivals, can be compared to the vast scope of detailed topics, extent of knowledge, systematic elaboration, and clear identification of spiritual “purity” with community responsibility, as exemplified in the textual materials of the Bible.” (2)

Dr. M. R. DeHaan, who received his M.D. from the University of Illinois Medical School and was a practicing physician for many years before becoming an evangelical preacher, expands on this central point:

“We ask the question, since Moses was educated in all these [Egyptian] superstitions and primitive practices, how does it happen that he does not teach or recommend these remedies in his writings? Although he deals in detail and great length with diseases, the treatment of infections, leprosy, and running sores, yet the illusions, deceptions, gross errors, and superstitions concerning anatomy, physiology, pathology, and treatment of diseases as taught in the highest schools of learning in Egypt from which Moses was a graduate [Acts 7:22], are never taught or even suggested in the books of Moses. But instead the instructions Moses laid down for Israel were utterly at variance with the accepted practices of that day, and fully in harmony with modern-day scientific facts.” (3)

To me it is extremely surprising that such a small isolated nation like the Israelites/Hebrews, appearing out of the desert after forty years of obscurity, would have any better ideas of health and disease than the current settled civilizations like that of Egypt. It is even more amazing to find the Old Testament loaded with medical observations of disease so accurate that even by modern medical and sanitary standards it stands out as exceptional. The cleanliness / purity laws of the Old Testament stand out like a mountain jutting from a plain of ignorance. Ignorance that would be revisited in the Middle Ages/Dark Ages on the Jews themselves adhering to age old Mosaic law. They would again avoid death and disease during the The Black Death and Bubonic Plague and even be blamed for it via the accusations of 'poisoning the wells'. (4)

These facts go a long way in demonstrating that the Bible is not of human origin. If it were, the commands regarding health and hygiene found in the Mosaic Law would have been tainted by the biases, prejudices, and presuppositions of its author, who was born and raised in a superstitious pagan land. The Pentateuch contains scientific facts it concerning health/medicine so advanced and so completely out of sync with the times that Moses lived that only a single conclusion can be reached about its origin… that origin was and is Divine.

One last quote from a titan in the medical field. The late Dr. Howard A. Kelly who received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and served as associate professor of obstetrics at that same institution. Later he became chairman of gynecological surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medical School. and served as Emeritus Professor of Gynecological Surgery at that same institution. He once wrote that:

“I am sure that the Bible is the Word of God… The Bible appeals to me strongly as a physician, because it is such excellent medicine; it has never yet failed to cure a single patient if only he took his prescription honestly. Whatever there is in civilization that is worthwhile rests on the Bible’s precepts. … Everywhere and in all its teachings the Bible claims to be the authoritative Word of God, and as such I accept it. (5)

(1) William F. Albright, From the Stone Age to Christianity, 2nd ed. (Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1957), 270.

(2) Neufeld, op. cit., 172. [See previous post citation]

(3) M. R. DeHaan, M.D., Genesis and Evolution (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1962), 61.

(4) Walter Laqueur (2006) The Changing Face of Antisemitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-530429-2. p.62

(5) Howard A. Kelly, M.D., A Scientific Man and the Bible (Philadelphia: Sunday School Times Co., 1925), pp. 41, 54, 61.