Old Testament Times.
Little has been said so far of the Hebrew miracles of healing which have always attracted, in Christian countries, more attention than any others because of the special significance that has been attached to them. We must give them the somewhat special treatment which they deserve and trace their connection with the miracles of both earlier and later times.
It is undoubtedly true that, living in the midst of a civilization permeated by the influence of magic and superstition, the Hebrews as a people were less given over to such practices than any other people of the time. The reason is to be found in the superiority of their religious ideals and the necessary modifications of primitive beliefs which their strict monotheism involved. But even here we may find many traces of primitive conceptions of disease and its cure. Indeed it is inconceivable that the Chaldean father of the race should not have retained some of the ideas so prevalent in that land from which he set out as a pilgrim.
Knowing what we do of the influence of surrounding nations upon the Hebrews in other particulars all through their history it would be hard to believe that they had exercised no influence upon them in this one respect. However this may have been, we are not left wholly to conjecture in the matter for whether through the influence of surrounding nations, which seems evident in many cases, or by an indigenous growth along lines normal to every human mind there is to be found abundant evidence that among the ancient Hebrews many primitive views prevailed.
To the orthodox Hebrew disease was of penal origin and might be inflicted by Satan, or by the agency of evil spirits when permitted, or by a direct visitation from God himself as a punishment for sin either personal or parental. In several instances in the Old Testament the prophets were instrumental in bringing leprosy, blindness, and even death upon the sinful by calling down the just judgment of God upon them. Under this conception God was the only physician of his people and his blessing and forgiveness were the effectual means of cure.
But not all Hebrews were orthodox, and the Bible, the Apocrypha, the Talmud, and Hebrew tradition bear witness to the fact that as idolatry lived and flourished in the very palace of the kings so the superstition and magic of Chaldea, Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, and "the peoples of the land" flourished among the Hebrew populace. Whether the crude ideas of disease and its cure which prevailed among them were borrowed from these surrounding nations, or developed indigenously, is a matter of much less importance than is the fact that in no one of their conceptions did they differ materially from other ancient or primitive peoples which we have studied.
It is true that we have little positive evidence from the Old Testament as to the general practice of the people in the cases of ordinary sickness except that it was continually impressed upon them that the Lord would heal all their diseases. The provisions of the Levitical law for leprosy and kindred diseases were hygienic rather than medical; the consultation was with the priest and was preceded or accompanied by offerings and ceremonial observances.
Most of the miraculous cures recorded in the Old Testament were performed through the power or intercession of the prophets. When David's child was at the point of death it was Nathan the Prophet whom he besought to save his life; when Jeroboam's son was sick he called for Ahijah the prophet; it was Elijah who raised the son of the widow of Zarephath to life; Elisha who restored the Shunammite's son; Isaiah who brought the answer to Hezekiah's prayer and directed the means for his recovery; it was Elisha's bones that restored the dead man to life; Moses's intercession which procured the cure of Miriam's leprosy; and it was the Man of God who restored Jeroboam's withered hand.
As these comprise most of the miracles of the Old Testament, it is evident that here, as with most other peoples, the office of priest, prophet, seer, and physician are closely related.
Miracles of Healing
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By Charles W. Waddle (1909)
Primitive Christian Worship
Hereditary genius
