The original meaning came from one who bandaged wounds. In the Old Testament there is very little said about the physician, for the priest was also the healer and, with the midwife (Ex. 1:15-16), was responsible for community health. Midwives were competent people who could handle difficult births with skill. Consider the midwife who turned the baby during the breech birth of twins in Gen. 38:27-30. Disease in the Hebrew tradition was not fought by magic abut was regarded as a result of a person’s relationship with God. There were strong laws concerning community health. God was the healer (Ex. 15:26) and the physician was literally the one who sewed together and bandaged. The earliest surgery was circumcision in Abraham’s time. Flints were used as scalpels.
In the Apocrypha there is a great description of a foreign-trained physician at work (Eccles 38:1-15).
In the New Testament Jesus quoted proverbs that complimented the healer’s skill (Matt. 9:12). He was seen as the Great Physician. The word Saviour means both the saviour from sin and the healer of the body. The power of Jesus over sickness was a description of His power over sin. Faith was integral to healing (Luke 7:50; Mark 5:34).
Luke, “The Beloved Physician” (Col. 4:14) showed by his use of medical terms both in the Gospel and in Acts that he was well educated in the Greek medical skills, possibly a Graduate of the famous Medical School of Tarsus, the home of Paul. Some expositors, however, show that Luke’s use of medical terms was not beyond that of a highly educated non-medical Greek of his day.
In the Apostolic church healers were part of the team ministry (1 Cor. 12:28). James (5:13-16) outlines the procedures for anointing the sick.
FOR TODAY
Mark’s sideways comment (not found in Luke or on AMA publications!) that the haemorrhaging woman “had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all she had, and was no better but rather somewhat worse” is a statement of fact, a common depreciation of the fine work done by physicians on people with impossible illnesses. It is also a reminder that in this day, when belief in the magic bullet of a pill equals that of primitive superstition, that the physician is not omnipotent.
Galen, the gifted second century physician to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus, who healed mental illness with the first application of shock therapy, also spoke of the task of all physicians: “I bind his wounds but God heals him.”
Many of the words that people use of illness today e.g. affliction, blow, plague, scourge, show how strong the traditional belief still is that suffering is a divine punishment. Both medicos and ministers have a task to educate people in an understanding of suffering. The magnificent Hippocratic Oath, a basis for medical ethics, should also be taken by pastors as a basis for their pastoral care. Ministers, please note and inwardly digest.
The missionary field is an outstanding illustration of the great work done by the physicians who have gone in the name of the Great Physician. We pay tribute to these doctors and nurses who, on the frontiers of the faith, have brought health and salvation.
There is still an urgent need for the priest-healer. Many illnesses have mental, emotional and spiritual causes that are not eradicated by the scalpel or a prescription. The word “salvation” means healing and it implies a healthy and integrated person, physically, mentally, socially and spiritually. The work of salvation is making men whole.
REV THE HON DR GORDON MOYES AC MLC