title: [Disease and treatment in the Old Testament].
abstract: Throughout the Ancient Near East, supernatural forces were considered the cause of illness, and treatments were based on a collaboration between seers, doctors and exorcists. On the other hand, the health care system reflected in the Old Testament is remarkable different - replacing the various mystics with a single doctor, often a Levitical singer who also prayed for the sick. This development is rooted in the fundamental monotheism postulated in Deuteronomy, and the prohibition of every kind of mantic or magic practice other than Jahwistic prophecy. The Old Testament reflects a change in the basic conceptualization of illness: rather than an expression of divine wrath, it is seen as the outcome of human sin. Certain theological problems arose from this ideology, including the need to explain the infant and child mortality that was so common during this period. Such questions were partly answered centuries later, by the Hellenistic belief in an after-life. Yet the Greek period brought with it another set of questions, such as whether a patient should consult a doctor or only pray to the Lord. In the early part of the second century, Ben Sira offered an answer which has been normative for religious people up to the present day - to consult the one without neglecting the other.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kaiser
mesh_terms: D001633:Bible; D004194:Disease; D049690:History, Ancient; D007585:Jews / Q000266:history*; D008877:Middle East; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D013812:Therapeutics / Q000266:history*