The study of history is not a luxury ; it is a spiritual and intellectual necessity. Knowledge of past events constitutes a driving force in the lives of all of us. Indeed, history enables individuals, organizations, communities, and nations to grasp their relationship with the past and to chart in general their future course. It does more. From it people derive a sense of human fellowship and a knowledge of immortal good. The discerning Christian never fails to recognize in history an omniscient Providence.
Whether we are interested in the past, present, or future of an ideology or an institution, its historical investigation and interpretation are inescapable. Present-day medical science, which prides itself on the modernity of its corpus, must admit the antiquity of its lineage and recognize its gestational years in the womb of history. It is only rational then that a group of physicians, clergymen, and workers in allied fields, who are seeking a better understanding of the microcosmic fellowship of physical and spiritual forces, should turn to history as one source of light.
History, as most people know it, is a pageant of human affairs as seen through the eyes of politicians, statesmen, philosophers, priests, warriors, explorers, and economists. Such an interpretation emphasizes the interminable feuds of mankind but fails to adequately depict man's greatest and longest struggle—his war with the forces of nature.
Races of antiquity daily faced mysterious forces with which they were unable to contend. Destructive storms, blighting droughts, and devastating epidemics played leading roles in the rise and fall of tribes and races. Man faced malignant unseen powers with which he was powerless to cope. Thus an important aspect of his struggle for existence was his effort to survive the assault of disease.
Primitive peoples, whether of the ancient, medieval, or modern, have always reacted essentially in the same manner to these physical influences. Because they were unexplainable in terms of their simple experience, they attributed such manifestations to the action of spiritual forces. It further followed in this pattern of reasoning that since these experiences were unpleasant and even fatal at times, the spirits producing these phenomena were of necessity malevolent.
In an effort to placate the evil spirits man invoked the aid of deities and developed the art and craft of magic both therapeutically and prophylactically. The Physician, or medicine man, who was often the tribal priest also, based his action on an etiological concept. Customarily some malignant deity was associated with the illness. Sometimes the medicine man named an intermediary who was charged with bewitching the afflicted one. Such unfortunate souls paid heavily for their misfortune of having been selected by the priest-doctor.
Prognosis for the patient was a differential process, depending upon the interpretation of signs and omens. This procedure came to be a very important part of medical diagnosis throughout antiquity and even down to modem times. Treatment involved magic, incantations, punishment, gifts, or theurgic therapies designed to induce the exit of the offending spirit.
Since the physician of primitive society was both sorcerer and priest, he had access to, and was. custodian of, both magical and religious methods of treatment. His profession was a union, albeit crude and false, of two callings. 1
Students of the Scriptures can best appreciate the spiritual degeneracy resulting from such a religio-medical liaison by noting Paul's explanation of the moral deterioration and heathenism prevalent in his time. In writing to the Romans he submits his thesis in these few words:
"Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.
"Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness-through the lus-fs of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves : who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen."'
From this recitation one may conclude that under the benign influence of Roman law and Greek culture, which labeled Mediterranean civilization in the beginning of the Christian Era, the world was in as great spiritual darkness as it was centuries earlier before the appearance of known centers of civilization. Indeed, throughout the ancient world and the centuries which have followed, history generally records wretched or corrupt concepts of the fellowship of physical and spiritual forces.
In Babylon medicine was dominated by religion. Practitioners were priests and diviners whose few rational observations were bound up in astrological ritual. Theology was less dominant in the craft type of medicine that characterized the Nile Valley, but the Egyptian galaxy of gods placed an indelible stamp on the healing art.
Greece developed a concept of medicine which tended to separate it from theurgy, and identified it as one of the disciplines of philosophy. Perhaps this was the first cleavage in the ancient union of religion and medicine. The polytheism of the Greeks was not compatible with the scientific trend in Hippocratic medicine. Nevertheless, there was religious medicine in Greece ; it was embodied in the Aesculapian cult with its popular faith healings.
Under Roman rule Greek medicine, both religious and rational, spread to Alexandria, Rome, and other centers of culture. The Hippocratic writings were widely disseminated, but healing cults continued to thrive. When lay practitioners failed to heal their patients they resorted to religion and magic. Plutarch said that chronic sufferers who were not healed by the usual remedies and the customary diet, "turn to purifications and amulets and dreams." 3
From Mount Sinai onward Hebrews developed their own characteristic system of medicine. Belief in evil deities, omens, and incantations was foreign to the monotheistic concept of Jehovah. Had He not said to Moses, "Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people : for all the earth is Mine : and ye shall be unto Me. .. an holy nation." Ex. 19:5, 6.
The Jewish code of personal and public hygiene was unique in all antiquity. It embodied the best in Babylonian and Egyptian medicine, and much more. On one profession, the priesthood, was placed the responsibility for both the spiritual and the physical welfare of the nation. It is very reasonable to believe that had Israel consistently lived up to both their religious ideals and their physical code, there would have developed a race of men physically rugged, intellectually creative, and religiously powerful. Unfortunately, the Hebrews repeatedly indulged in apostasy during the first millennium of their national history, experiencing the spiritual and physical debauchery characteristic of the cults of their time.
Captivity, shame, and disgrace convinced Israel of its folly. During the generations between captivity and the advent of Jesus the character of the nation changed. Great emphasis was laid on the retributive judgment of God. Lawful existence according to a mass of laws and traditions, unbending piety, atonement through blood sacrifice, and long prayers were basic in the pitiless code of Judaism.
The damaging impact of this system on both the souls and bodies of men cannot be calculated. The mere fact that the religious leaders of the nation were unable to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, whose time and place of birth were prophetically announced, is significant. The student of mental hygiene does not wonder that Jesus, in the first public utterance of His ministry, quoted from Isaiah : "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He bath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor ; He hath sent Me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." Isa. 61:1.
It has been suggested by Bible students that the world of Jesus' day was providentially timed for His coming by being largely united under one flag. Thus, it is implied that the universality of Roman rule implemented the spread of the gospel. Was it not of much more moment that the times virtually demanded an interpreter of life? Israet had prostituted its stewardship, and the world was filled with pagan cults, none of which satisfied the longing of men's hearts to be healed physically and spiritually. In the words of the distinguished medical historian, Henry Sigerist, "The world was sick and in dire need of help."
Christianity soon found itself in competition with a host of healing cults. The new faith offered both physical and spiritual restoration—a manner of living, a code of life. Did not Jesus reassure Thomas with the words, "I am the way, the truth, and the life"? Christianity was further revolutionary in that it was available to all, both sinners and the pure in heart. In contrast to Christianity, at the entrance to the Aesculapian temple in Epidaurus was the inscription :
"Pure must be he who enters the fragrant temple; Purity means to think nothing but holy thought."
The legal-minded Romans, who were used to a system of religion which divided the realm of the spirit among an imposing array of contending major and minor deities, were shocked by the catholicity of the new Eastern cult. The doctrine of "whosoever will may come" gave to the early Christian church a tremendous appeal at a time when many millions of people lived in poverty, squalor, and disease. Thus the concept of Christian compassion was born at a time of universal need.
(Concluded next month)
1 A very scholarly discussion of medicine among primitive peoples may be found in ARTURO CASTIGLIONI, A History of Medicine, pp. 3-30,
2 Romans 1:21-25. Read also verses 18-2o.
3 L. Edelstein, "Greek Medicine in Its Relation to Religion and Magic," Bulletin of the Institute of the History of Medicine, 5:224, March, 1937.
4 Henry E. Sigerist, Medicine and Human Welfare,
5 Porphyrius, De abstinentia animae, II, 19; cited by Sigerist, /0C. Cit.
