BBL 450 New Testament Backgrounds CLASS IX: Healing and Healthcare in the Ancient World Dr. Esa Autero.

BBL 450 New Testament Backgrounds

CLASS IX: Healing and Healthcare in the Ancient World

Dr. Esa Autero

Healing and Healthcare in the Ancient World

1.1 Introduction What happened when people got sick in the ancient world?

Doctors & healthcare Medicine and remedies Religious cures and health

How did people perceive health, healing, and wellness?

Absence of physical malady? Absence of demons and evil? Wellness and prosperity?

health, healing, and healthcare system tied to worldview & culture

Healing and Healthcare in the Ancient World

Healthcare system – some assumptions for a framework Etiology of illnesses [origins/cause] Acceptable/unacceptable treatment options Access to care

Classification of sickness and healing* [not air-tight compartments] Disease account

Focus on the individual & bodily functions and organs Illness accounts

Patients embedded in social environments; not just bodily functions Disorder account

Cosmic dimension [“imbalance of the cosmic forces”]

cure, interventions, and health/wellness differ dramatically

Healing and Healthcare in the Ancient World

Western medicine – disease account Biblical view more illness & disorder type

“Leprosy” – a variety of skin diseases (Mark 1:42; Lev 13-14; 2 Chr 26:20) Biblical leprosy not modern infectious Hansen’s disease (i.e. leprosy)

Biblical leprosy related to ritual impurity – socio-religious disease

See also Gerasene demoniac (Luke 8:26-39) Social isolation & ritual impurity (in the “tombs”) Violent and “odd” behavior healing/salvation restoration into community (“sane and fully dressed”)

Healing and Healthcare in the Ancient World

Causes and remedies – Second Temple Judaism* Causes of illness

God (discipline/punishment; purpose known only to God) Divine intermediaries (angels, God’s Word etc.) Evil spirits Astrological phenomena Natural factors Sin

Remedy/healing Faith & prayer Virtuous living (esp. for preventative purposes) Exorcism Doctors (professionals or folk healers) Magical and quasi-magical means (amulets, magic bands etc.)

Healing and Healthcare in the Ancient World

God the ultimate healer - Jewish belief (Ex 15:26; cf. Isa 38:21; 57:19) Healing practices centered in home (2Sam12:15-23) – except leprosy (Lev 13-14)

Doctors rare in the Bible – often seen negatively as alternatives to God 2 Chr 16:12; Jer 8:22-9:6; Job 13:4; Mark 5:26 Exclusion of magic & sorcery (Lev 19:26-28; Deut 18:10-14; Ezek 13:17-18) Jesus knew of doctors and used it as a metaphor (Mark 2:17; cf. 4:23)

Some elite Romans also rejected “medicine” – bias against Greeks*

Later Hellenistic influence – Jews accept physicians Medicine does not exclude God as the healer (cf. Ex 15:25-26) Doctors as God’s “instruments” (Sir 38:1-15; Philo, Leg. 3.178; Life 404; Ant. 4.277)

Healing potential of plants (War 7.181-85; cf. Ex 15:25-26; Isa 38:21)

Healing and Healthcare in the Ancient World

1] Honor the physician with the honor due him, according to your need of him, for the Lord created him; [2] for healing comes from the Most High, and he will receive a gift from the king. [3] The skill of the physician lifts up his head, and in the presence of great men he is admired. [4] The Lord created medicines from the earth, and a sensible man will not despise them. [5] Was not water made sweet with a tree in order that his power might be known? [6] And he gave skill to men that he might be glorified in his marvelous works. [7] By them he heals and takes away pain; [8] the pharmacist makes of them a compound. His works will never be finished; and from him health is upon the face of the earth. [9] My son, when you are sick do not be negligent, but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you. [10] Give up your faults and direct your hands aright, and cleanse your heart from all sin. [11] Offer a sweet-smelling sacrifice, and a memorial portion of fine flour, and pour oil on your offering, as much as you can afford. [12] And give the physician his place, for the Lord created him; let him not leave you, for there is need of him. [13] There is a time when success lies in the hands of physicians, [14] for they too will pray to the Lord that he should grant them success in diagnosis and in healing, for the sake of preserving life. (Sir 38:1-15)

Healing and Healthcare in the Ancient World

(178) On this account I think it is that God gives men pure good health, which is not preceded by any disease in the body, by himself alone, but that health which is an escape from disease he gives through the medium of skill and medical science, attributing it to science, and to him who can apply it skilfully, though in truth, it is God himself who heals both by these means, and without these means. And the same is the case with regard to the soul, the good things, namely food, he gives to men by his power alone; but those which contain in them a deliverance from evil, he gives by means of his angels and his word. (Philo, Leg. 3.178)

Healing and Healthcare in the Ancient World

Hellenistic medicine (not modern bio-medicine) Knowledge of anatomy and bodily functions Innovative – only in urban centers & practiced by the elite Healing medicine from the plants & herbs (Pliny, Nat. Hist. 22-32; cf. 1 Tim 5:23) Rural “medicine” – folk remedies and magic formulas

Greek & Roman gods as sources of healing Gk. “salvation” terms sozo, soter, soteria – healing*, rescue, salvation Physician as soter (savior) Most common healing deities – healings, exorcisms; even raising of dead

Hercules (Hero turned god; (Aristides, Her. 40.12; Apollodorus, Lib. 1.9.15) Asclepius – son of a god Apollo (international reputation for healing)** Isis (queen of the universe; giver of life; Diodorus Siculus, Lib. Hist. 1.25.4-5)

Hygieia (personified Health)

Healing and Healthcare in the Ancient World

The leaves and shoots of the vine, employed with polenta, allay head-ache and reduce inflammations: the leaves, too, applied by themselves with cold water, are good for burning pains in the stomach; and, used with barley-meal, are excellent applications for diseases of the joints. The shoots, beaten up and applied, have the property of drying up all kinds of running tumours, and the juice extracted from them is used as an injection for the cure of dysentery. The tears of the vine, which would appear to be a sort of gum, will heal leprous sores, lichens, and itch-scabs, if treated first with nitre: used with oil, and applied frequently to superfluous hairs, they act as a depilatory, those more particularly which exude from the vine when burnt in a green state: this last liquid has the effect, too, of removing warts. An infusion of the shoots in water, taken in drink, is good for persons troubled with spitting of blood, and for the fainting fits which sometimes ensue upon conception. (Pliny, Nat.Hist. 23.3)

Healing and Healthcare in the Ancient World

The blind man saw a dream. It seemed to him that thegod [Asclepius] came up to him and with his fingers opened his eyes, and that he first saw the tress in the sanctuary. At daybreak he walked out sound.(IG 4.1.121-22.18; 3rd cent. BC)

Cephisias…with the foot. He laughed at the cures of Asclepius and said: “If the god says he has healed lame people he is lying; for, if he had the power to do so, why has he not healed Hephaestus?” But the god did not conceal that he was inflicting penalty for the insolence. For Cephisias, when riding, was stricken by a bullheaded horse that had been tickled in the seat, so that instantly his foot crippled and on a stretcher he was carried into the temple. Later on, after he had entreated him earnestly, the god made him well. (IG 4. 1.121-22.36; 3rd cent. BC)

Healing and Healthcare in the Ancient World

Most well-known healers Pythagoras (5th century BC) mathematician and philosopher Apollonius of Tyana (AD 15-100; reported by Philostratus c. AD 212) Roman Emperors – esp. Vespasian (Tacitus Hist. 4.81)

Jewish healers Hanina ben Dosa (mBerakoth 5:5; bBer. 34b)It was related of Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa that he used to prayfor the sick and say, “This one will live, that one will die.” They said tohim: “How do you know?” He replied: “If my prayer emerges fluently, I knowthat it is accepted, but if not, then I know that it is rejected.” (mBer. 5.5) How common were Jewish healers?

Healing and Healthcare in the Ancient World

Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 3.39.1-10

Healing and Healthcare in the Ancient World

Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 4.45

Healing and Healthcare in the Ancient WorldIn the months during which Vespasian was waiting at Alexandria for the periodical return of the summer gales and settled weather at sea, many wonders occurred which seemed to point him out as the object of the favour of heaven and of the partiality of the Gods. One of the com- mon people of Alexandria, well-known for his blindness, threw himself at the Emperor's knees, and implored him with groans to heal his infirmity. This he did by the advice of the God Serapis, whom this nation, devoted as it is to many superstitions, worships more than any other divinity. He begged Vespasian that he would deign to moisten his cheeks and eye-balls with his spittle. Another with a diseased hand, at the counsel of the same God, prayed that the limb might feel the print of a Cæsar's foot. At first Vespasian ridiculed and repulsed them. They persisted; and he, though on the one hand he feared the scandal of a fruitless attempt, yet, on the other, was induced by the entreaties of the men and by the language of his flatterers to hope for success. At last he ordered that the opinion of physicians should be taken, as to whether such blindness and infirmity were within the reach of human skill. They discussed the matter from different points of view. "In the one case," they said, "the faculty of sight was not wholly destroyed, and might return, if the obstacles were removed; in the other case, the limb, which had fallen into a diseased condition might be restored, if a healing influence were applied; such, perhaps, might be the pleasure of the Gods, and the Emperor might be chosen to be the minister of the divine will; at any rate, all the glory of a successful remedy would be Cæsar's, while the ridicule of failure would fall on the sufferers." And so Vespasian, supposing that all things were possible to his good fortune, and that nothing was any longer past belief, with a joyful countenance, amid the intense expectation of the multitude of bystanders, accomplished what was required. The hand was instantly restored to its use, and the light of day again shone upon the blind. Persons actually present attest both facts, even now when nothing is to be gained by falsehood. (Tacitus, Hist. 4.81)

Healing and Healthcare in the Ancient World

What should one think of the multitude of healing accounts? Dating of pagan accounts – eyewitness accounts or reliable tradition?

Apollonius of Tyana – Philostratus completed c. AD 222* [<100rs. later] Some miracle accounts clearly legendary

Pythagoras & Empedocles (hundreds of yrs. after the fact) Love magic; 57-yr. nap; transformation into an animal; mythology*** Political/ideological propaganda? (Tacitus, Hist. 4.81; cf. Suet. Vesp. 7) Rival miracle accounts on the 3rd century (cf. Vit.Apol. 4.45 & Mk 5:41-42**)

Distinctive manner of healing (esp. Asclepius) Visiting healing sanctuary; dream; person emerge healed Blending of miraculous and “physical” healing (Pliny, Nat. Hist. 20.100.264 )

Jewish accounts – mostly later rabbinic sources (cf. Ant.) Few if any healing miracles – mostly about national deliverance

Healing and Healthcare in the Ancient World

Jesus’ miracles multiple attested (Gospels; Paul; Ant. 18.63) Gospels offer a biography of a miracle worker Unparalleled closeness to the events (Meier 1994: 624)

Apostles & believers (2Cor 12:12; Rom 15:18-19; 1 Cor 12:9-10, 28-30; Gal 3:5)

Luke the physician (Col 4:14) Biblical accounts of pagan miracles (Ex 7:22; 8:7, 18-19; Mk 9:38; Acts 8:9-11; 19:13-20)

Worldview of miraculous – also inauguration of the Kingdom as focus How does this help you understand NT miracle and healing accounts?

Mk 2:1-12; 5:1-43; 18:22-26; John 5:1-9; 9:1-7 Acts 5:15-16; 19:11-12 Ex 7:22; 8:7, 18-19; Mk 9:38; Acts 8:9-11; 19:13-20 Phil 2:25-27; Jam 5:13-16 1 Tim 5:23; Col 4:14; Acts 16:33http://youtu.be/lE6sDPPQ7WA?list=PLC900F8EEB62AE426