Health and Healing in the New Testament

By Kris D'Atri

Introduction

Illness and healing are among humankind’s most fundamental concerns. Sacred
texts, beliefs and practices regarding health are naturally prominent in world religions,
and Christianity is no exception. The New Testament (hereafter NT) represents a diverse
collection of twenty-seven works written and circulated during Christianity’s first several
centuries. The stories, themes and attitudes regarding health found in the NT reflect ideas
and concerns germane not only to the first and second-century Christians who recorded
them, but to Christians throughout the intervening centuries up to the present. This essay
provides descriptions and summaries of these NT accounts of healing, with all biblical
citations taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. It is only a brief
overview and does not offer theological opinions or interpretations. Hopefully, it will
encourage the reader to do further reflection about his or her understanding of health and
healing in the context of one's own spiritual beliefs and community life.

Several categories of NT writings are rich sources for Christian beliefs,

interpretations and practices regarding illness, health and healing, especially the Gospels
and Epistles. (Acts is thematically a continuation of the Gospels and Revelation does not
discuss healing). The Gospels contain the stories of Jesus’ healing ministry, including
the commissioning of the apostles to continue the ministry that is described in Acts. The
Epistles contain fewer discussions and references to healing or healing miracles, but
expand on issues such as the nature and purpose of adversity and suffering. This paper
will not attempt to be exhaustive, but rather give an overview of the main stories and
themes regarding sickness and healing in the NT.

Before examining these NT texts, however, it is useful to look at the overarching

worldview that shaped these particular beliefs. The NT writings are framed by the
writings comprising the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament (hereafter OT), as well as by
ancient near eastern cultural beliefs and Hellenistic ideas that circulated during the inter-
testamental period. For example, the association between sin and sickness has roots both
in Hebrew religion and other ancient near eastern religions. Ideas about demons such
as those presented in the synoptic Gospels were found in nearly all ancient religions,
although demons in Jewish religion were not associated with the Satan figure that became
so prominent in Christian beliefs. Exorcism was practiced in various ancient near eastern
religions by means of specialized techniques and practices, although somewhat different
from Jesus’ healing by word or touch. All of these points will be discussed in greater
depth below.

Although the theological lenses through which sickness and healing have been
regarded in Christianity have varied across time and among denominations, there are two
general views of spiritual causes of illness that consistently run through Christian thought
and belief. The first is the idea that sickness and affliction can be caused by forces or
spirits opposed to God. The cause of illness, according to this view, is Satan, demons,
unclean spirits or other malevolent powers that sicken a hapless individual--often an
innocent victim. Healing in these cases involves seeking the intervention of divine
powers to face down and defeat the spirits or demons. This is the view that predominates
in the Gospels. The second view is that trials, including sickness, are caused by
God. God may effect sickness for different purposes--as punishment for sin or as
impetus for spiritual growth and development. Sickness and other trials in this view are
means by which God teaches people or tempers their lives and experiences in order that
they may become examples of faith and righteousness for others. Healing in this type of
case involves the individual’s accepting that he or she has in some way deserved the
illness or that there is some divine reason for it. The person seeks to understand God’s
purpose in bringing on the condition, and strives to grow spiritually and/or alter the
nature of his or her life. This perspective is more prevalent in the Epistles and is the
fundamental orientation around which most Christians have come to regard illness and
health. Although these two perspectives seem to be oppositional, we will see that the NT
contains many examples of both perspectives.

Overview: OT beliefs regarding health and healing

Although this study primarily covers healing in the NT, a brief overview of the
OT will help establish the context for Jesus’ healing ministry and the elaboration of early
Christian thought represented in the Epistles. The predominant (though not the only)
viewpoint of the OT relates to the basic terms of the covenant between Yahweh and
God's people: “If you obey the commandments of the LORD2 your God…then you shall
live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you…” (Deuteronomy
30:16). This covenant is directly expressed in terms of affliction and healing in
Deuteronomy 32:3: “I kill and make alive; I wound and heal....” Indeed, the examples of
God bringing affliction or sickness, or healing and health, upon the Hebrews or their
enemies are almost too numerous to count.3 Job 5:17-18 states, “How happy is the one
whom God reproves; therefore do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For he
wounds, but he binds up; he smites, but his hands heal.” In Leviticus 26:16 and 25,
Yahweh specifies the particular punishments, including diseases and physical afflictions
that God will bring down upon thepeople if they break the covenant. Psalms that discuss
the wretchedness of sickness and plead for deliverance include Psalms 6, 22, 38, 39, 88
and 102.

Concomitant to the many examples in the OT of sin or disobedience as causes of

sickness and affliction, there are some verses in which forgiveness of sin is linked to
healing. Psalms 103:2-4 is a reminder of Yahweh’s beneficence: “The LORD…who
forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the
Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.” Psalms 107:17-20 illustrates both:
“Some were sick through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquity endured
affliction . . . then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their
distress; he sent out his word and healed them and delivered them from
destruction.” Psalms 91 talks about Yahweh’s protection from pestilence and
destruction. Numerous examples of Yahweh’s direct or indirect interventions for the
health of the Hebrews (and even some non-Jews) are found in the Deuteronomistic
histories, including 1 Samuel 19-20, 2 Kings 4:16-37, 1 Kings 17:17-23, 2 Kings 13:21, 1
Samuel 6:4-5, and 2 Samuel 24:10-25.

These examples give a general sense of the theological background of the Jewish
community into which Jesus was born. Israelite religion from the time of Abraham was
very strictly monotheistic and did not allow for the existence of an evil being concomitant
to God. This explains Yahweh’s traditional dual role as creator and destroyer, healer and
smiter. During the intertestamental period (roughly 3rd century BCE to 1st or 2ndcentury
CE), however, Israelite religion gradually came to be influenced by dualistic notions of
good and evil found in both Hellenistic thought and Persian religion. The idea of an evil
force or figure apart from God slowly became tenable theologically, and indeed the Dead
Sea Scrolls are evidence of the rise of dualistic views among Jews even before Jesus and
Christianity came onto the scene.

Healings and Sickness in the Gospels

Jesus apparently had a strong affinity for people suffering from sickness or
affliction. As he said in Matthew 9:12, “Those who are well have no need of a physician,
but those that are sick.” This section discusses healing miracles as a category, the types
of diseases and conditions found in the healing stories in the Gospels, how the healings
took place and were described, and the broader context and purpose of these healings.

Jesus’ healings are part of the broader miracle category. Jesus performed a
variety of miracles from stilling a storm (Mark 4:35-41, Matthew 8:23-27, Luke 8:22-25),
to walking on the sea (Mark 6:45-52, Matthew 14:22-33, John 6:15-21). Healings are the
most numerous type of miracle, and healing was a central activity of Jesus in the
Gospels. In fact, Morton Kelsey counted 41 healing stories, many that are repeated in
more than one Gospel.4 Matthew’s Gospel contains the most examples of healings, with
Mark and Luke close behind. The Gospel of John contains the fewest. Jesus healed
people almost everywhere he went. People were very attracted to him as a healer. The
Gospels describe him as a charismatic, impressive person, and he also seems to have
quickly developed a reputation as healer that brought large numbers of people to
him. The Gospel of Luke in particular mentions in several places that Jesus had a
“power:” “They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who
were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch
him, for power came out from him and healed all of them” (Luke 6:18-19).

The typical form of the healing miracle is: a) the sickness or affliction is named
or described, b) the sick person encounters Jesus, c) Jesus heals the person using word,
touch, or technique, d) a cure occurs suddenly and visibly, and e) onlookers express
amazement and wonder. The healing of Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5:22-43, Matthew 9:18-
25 and Luke 8:41-56), and of the paralyzed man (Mark 2:3-12, Matthew 9:2-8 and Luke
5:17-26) are good examples.
 Although many of Jesus’ healings are described individually, there are a number
of Gospel verses that describe healings of many people. A typical description of Jesus
casting out demons and curing the sick is found in Mark 1:32-34: “That evening…they
brought to him all who were sick or possessed by demons…And he cured many who
were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons…” A similar summary
statement is found in Matthew 15:30: “Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the
lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute and many others. They put them at his feet and he
cured them.

What did Jesus heal?

The types of illnesses and afflictions that Jesus cured fall into three main
etiological categories: organic, unexplained, and demon possession. The first category
included sicknesses such as blindness, skin disease, paralysis, hemorrhage, withered or
non-functioning limb, fever, lameness, and edema. The cause of this illness or condition
was not usually given, although details such as duration or the inability of doctors to help
were occasionally given. This is in keeping with the Gospel writers’ general tendency to
highlight the miraculous healing event, not the cause of the original problem. In a
number of cases (category 2), the illness was not identified; the person or people were
simply described as “sick.” This was true in many of the verses that talked generally
about the healings of large numbers of people.

The third category, demon possession, warrants some discussion. The idea of
demons causing illness may be difficult for many contemporary people to grasp, but it
was a widely accepted view in the ancient world. The Jewish and Gentile populations of
the near east at the beginning of the common era were similar to their Egyptian, Persian,
Greek and other neighbors in believing in various types of evil or unclean spirits that
could cause illness and misfortune. As discussed above, the Jewish religion during the
last centuries before the common era had gradually been working toward the conception
of a world in which evil beings existed along with the good. According to popular belief,
thousands of demons dwelled around every person, constantly ready to enter the person
and cause illness and trouble.5 Not surprisingly, then, there are a large number of
illnesses and afflictions described in the Gospels that were said to be caused by demons,
also called unclean spirits. Mark, Matthew and Luke each contain about ten descriptions
of demon possessions and other mentions of demons. Interestingly, the Gospel of John
contains no mention of demons at all.

Various afflictions were ascribed to evil or unclean spirits or demons in the

Gospels. They caused violent or insane behavior (Mark 5:1-5 and Matthew 8:28),
blindness (Matthew 12:22), inability to speak (Matthew 9:32) or hear (Mark 9:25),
epilepsy-like symptoms (Luke 9:39) and self-destructive tendencies (Matthew
17:15). Some Biblical scholars and interpreters of the Bible such as Morton Kelsey
(1995) believe that demon-possession cases in the NT constitute what the modern world
calls mental illness. While this view is popular, it is not unanimously held by scholars; it
is simply not possible to make modern medical diagnoses based on the limited
descriptions found in the Bible.

Demon-caused conditions were sometimes included in the summary statements

that talked about mass gatherings of the sick and possessed and their healings by Jesus
(for example, Matthew 4:24, Mark 1:32, Luke 7:21). No Gospel author explicitly
explained the relationship between demonization and sickness, although the two
categories could be separated by the authors using nuances of language. For example, in
Greek, sickness was usually “cured” or “healed,” while demons were “cast out.” Mark,
more than Matthew and Luke, was careful to separate demonization and sickness by only
using the Greek verb “to heal” (therapeuo) with regard to the non-demonized
sick. Matthew, on the other hand, sometimes used the word therapeuo to describe
healings in exorcism cases. Further, an analysis of the Greek in Matthew 10:1 indicates
that the disciples’ healing of sickness and casting out of demons both derived from the
same “authority over unclean spirits.”6 Finally, the fact that the form of the exorcism
miracle generally follows that of the healing miracle indicates that the line between
“natural” sickness and possession was not a hard one. See, for example, the man with the
unclean spirit in Mark 1:21-28 and Luke 4:33-37, or the story of the possessed man of
Gerasene in Mark 5:1-20, Matthew 8:28-34, and Luke 8:26-39.

How did Jesus heal?

The Gospel accounts indicate that Jesus’ healings involved a collection of actions-
-words such as statements (Luke 13:12, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment”),
commands (Mark 3:5, “stretch out your hand”), and rebukes (generally addressed to
unclean spirits, as in Luke 9:42); or physical contact such as touching the person (Mark
1:31, the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law) or laying on hands (Luke 13:13, “he laid his
hands on her” and she was healed); “magical” techniques such as putting the mud of
saliva and dirt on blind persons’ eyes (Mark 8:23, John 9:6); and combinations of the
above. In the case of words and touch, it is noteworthy that not only those of Jesus, but
also those of the person being healed were apparently involved in the action of
healing. For example, there are cases in which a person’s statements of faith seem to
play a part in the healing (such as the leper in Mark 1:40-41 and blind man in Mark
10:46), and in which the faithful receive healing through reaching out and touching Jesus,
not vice versa (such as the hemorrhaging woman described in Matthew 9:18-26 and
elsewhere). The term magic is used to describe healings that seem to employ established
techniques, such as the aforementioned application of mud to the eyes of the blind, a
practice also found in Greek healing accounts,7 and Jesus’ use of foreign words: talitha
cum in Mark 5:41 and ephphatha in Mark 7:34.

Jesus responded in various ways to the people that he healed. He was not a
medical technician; he did not first diagnose a condition or attempt to understand its
cause or condition in a technical way. His healings primarily consisted of touching the
sick and/or saying words to them. There are very few mentions of physicians in the
Gospels (Luke 8:43, Mark 5:26, Luke 4:23, and Matthew 9:13).

According to the Gospels, Jesus healed people spontaneously as he encountered

them in his daily ministry and travels. He did not ask them questions about their pasts or
specifics about the nature of the illness. The healing of Peter’s mother-in-law is a good
example. “When Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with
a fever; he touched her hand, and the fever left her . . . ” (Matthew 8:14-15; also Mark
1:30, Luke 4:38). Another example takes place just before the feeding of the five
thousand: “ . . . he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their
sick.” (Matthew 14:13-14).

There is a great deal of variety in the healing stories, among Jesus’ healing
approaches or techniques, the contexts of the scenes, and the meanings associated with
them. In general, however, two primary themes are faith and compassion. Less common
are examples that link sickness with sin or healing with forgiveness. The faith of the
person being healed, or the faith of that person’s friends or family, was very prominent in
healing stories, especially in the Gospel of Matthew.8 A good example is the healing of
two blind men in Matthew 9:27-30. Jesus first asked the blind men, “Do you believe I
am able to do this?” They replied yes, and he touched their eyes and said, “According to
your faith let it be done to you,” whereupon their eyes were opened. Statements such as
“your faith has made you well” and exclamations by Jesus that believers’ extraordinary
faith had enabled healing are found in the stories of the Centurion’s servant in Matthew
8:5-13 and Luke 7:2-10, the hemorrhaging woman who touched Jesus from behind in
Matthew 9:18-26 and elsewhere, and in Blind Bartimaeus who regained his sight in Mark
10:46-52. It is even recorded in Mark 6:56 that some people were healed simply by
touching Jesus’ clothing: “And wherever he went…they laid the sick in the
marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all
who touched him were healed.”

In addition to examples of the prominent faith of those who received healings,

there are several cases of the faith of friends or family of a sick person leading to the
person’s healing. This is the case of the boy in Mark 9:14-29 who was possessed by a
spirit that caused epileptic-type symptoms, whose father cried out to Jesus, “I believe;
help my unbelief!” Jesus then rebuked the unclean spirit and it came out. Another
example is the paralyzed man, brought to Jesus on a stretcher and lowered through the
roof by his friends. Jesus healed him after seeing his friends’ faith (Mark 2:3-12,
Matthew 9:2-8 and Luke 5:17-26). In the case of the Centurion’s servant in Matthew 8:5-
13 and Luke 7:2-10, and the father of a dying boy in John 4:47-54, the healing took place
at the supplicant’s request when the sick person is not even present.

There are also examples in the Gospels where Jesus is said to have healed out of
compassion. In Luke 7:11-17, Jesus was moved by compassion to raise up the dead son
of a widow.9 In Matthew 14:14, Jesus saw a large crowd, “had compassion for them and
cured their sick.” Later that evening, he fed them all with five loaves and two fish. In
Matthew 20:30-34, Jesus was “moved with compassion” and gave sight to two
blind men who had shouted “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” from the side of the road
as he passed them. In Mark 1:40-42, Jesus was “moved with pity” by a leper’s request
for cleansing, and healed him. John, Chapter 11, recounts how Jesus raised Lazarus from
the dead, both out of love and as an incentive for the disciples to belief in Jesus.

There are only a few examples of healings that have direct associations with sin
and forgiveness of sin. One is Mark 2:5-12 (also Matthew 9:2 and Luke 5:20), the story
of the paralyzed man who was brought to Jesus on a stretcher by his friends. Jesus saw
the friends’ faith and told the man ‘Son, your sins are forgiven,” and the man was able to
get up and leave (verse 5). Jesus carried out this healing in order to demonstrate his
authority to forgive sins (verse 10). Another example is the story of the paralyzed man at
the pool of Bethzatha told in John 5. Jesus first asked the man if he wanted to be made
well (verse 6), and then told him to stand up, take his mat and walk (verse 8). A
controversy surrounding working on the Sabbath followed. Afterward, Jesus saw the
man again in the temple and said, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more,
so that nothing worse happens to you” (verse 14). Another example involves the woman
who had sinned, Mary Magdalene. Though not a physical healing, Jesus’ forgiveness of
Mary Magdalene’s sins paralleled some healing scenes, as he told her: “Your sins are
forgiven…Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (Luke 7:48, 50) and “Neither do I
condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again” (John 8:11).

The discussion in John 9:1-7 regarding sin and blindness is unusual and
instructive. As Jesus and the disciples walked along, they encountered a man who had
been born without sight. The disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his
parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus replied, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned;
he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” Jesus then mixed
saliva with some dirt, applied it to the man’s eyes, instructed him to go wash in a pool,
and the man was then able to see. We will see below that this scene’s theology is more
commonly found in the letters of Paul and the other Epistles than in the Gospels.

Why did Jesus heal?

The healing works of Jesus depicted in the Gospels were one component of his
ministry as a whole. The healings took place in a wide variety of contexts and were
related to an assortment of theological and practical issues. The healings served as
evidence that the Kingdom of God had come; they affirmed Jesus’ authority as son of
God; they revealed God’s mighty power in the world; they introduced changes to the
ways that Jews and Gentiles related to each other; and--very importantly--they simply
expressed love and compassion toward human beings and attempted to alleviate their
suffering. The healing stories served to convey a number of points central to the
Christian mission.

Many of the healing accounts in the Gospels have been called “pronouncement
stories.” That is, the stories are couched in a narrative framework that leads up to a
pronouncement by Jesus. The numerous scenarios of healings performed on the Sabbath
are usually related to pronouncements. The freeing of the woman in Luke 13:11-13 who
had been bound by Satan for 18 years was immediately followed by a confrontation with
the leaders of a synagogue, and Jesus’ winning of the argument with the exclamation,
“You hypocrites! Does not each of you untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and
lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom
Satan bound…be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?” (Luke 13:16). In the
case of his healing of a paralytic man on the Sabbath (Matthew 9:1-18, Mark 2:1-12,
Luke 5:17-26), Jesus replied to the complaints of the scribes with a statement that “the
Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (Matthew 9:6). Witnessing this scene,
the crowds “were filled with awe, and they glorified God, who had given such authority
to human beings” (Matthew 9:8). The faith and persistence of the Caananite woman in
Matthew 15:21-28 made a statement that God’s mission through Jesus extended beyond
the Jewish people and to the Gentiles. Jesus’ healing of the ten lepers in Luke 17:11-19
also made this point: one, a Samaritan, came back to thank him, and Jesus said, “Were
not ten made clean…Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this
foreigner?” The Beelzebub controversy found in Matthew 12:22-32, Mark 3:20-28 and
Luke 11:14-23 is a statement regarding Jesus’ authority over the demonic forces, as well
as of the Kingdom of God’s arrival. Finally, in both Matthew and Luke, quotes from
Isaiah that “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf
hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them” (Matthew 11:4-
5, Luke 7:22) served as proofs and assurances to John the Baptist that Jesus was indeed
the Messiah.
The Apostles’ healing work

While Jesus is the centerpiece of the four Gospels, he also commissioned the
apostles to carry out the ministry of preaching and healing. The apostles do so in the
Gospels and to a greater extent in the book of Acts. The Gospel of Luke ended with
Jesus promising the disciples that he would send them “power from on high” (Luke
24:49). This promise was reiterated in Acts 1:4, then carried out on the Pentecost when
they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 2). The apostles subsequently performed numerous
miracles, including healings, as they won converts and spread the Gospel to the “ends of
the earth.” The first miracle in Acts took place when a disabled beggar outside the
temple asked Peter for alms. Peter replied, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I
give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” He then took the
man’s hand and raised him up, and the man’s legs were healed (Acts 3:1-8). This healing
was followed by pronouncements and faith statements by Peter regarding Jesus, “ . . .
And the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all
of you . . . ” (Acts 3:16). According to Acts 5:15, the power of Jesus worked so strongly
that at one point it is mentioned that people were healed by touching Peter’s shadow.
Miracles of all kinds are depicted in Acts as part of the new Church’s geographic
expansion. Healings in the book of Acts parallel those of the Gospels, and convey
similar messages regarding the Kingdom of God’s presence on earth and the authority of
Jesus as the Messiah.

Healing in the Epistles

Following the Gospels and Acts, most of the remaining books of the Bible
comprise letters, known as the Epistles. Paul was the founder of this genre--indeed, he
was probably the first NT author, writing twenty or thirty years before the first Gospel
was put to writing (Harris, 1997, 415-416). The issues and concerns that occupied the
individuals who carried out the mission of Jesus Christ--as they saw it--after his death
were probably somewhat different than those of Jesus himself. The early Christians
faced several enormous challenges: first, to make sense of what Jesus’ life, teachings,
actions and death had meant, and were to mean, to Christians then and into the future;
second, to organize and spread this gospel; and third, to guide a spontaneous, grass-roots
movement that had centered on a single charismatic leader through the process of
becoming a large, orderly, socially and politically sustainable institution. Healing
miracles were not to play such a prominent role in the Epistles. Healings were
occasionally mentioned as examples of the “deeds of powers” performed by apostles, but
not discussed very much. The Epistles do, however, contain enough discussion of
healing, health, and issues surrounding suffering and adversity to provide a general view
of the early Church’s perspectives on these issues. The Epistles are also important
because they set the tone for the theological and institutional developments which have
since followed for the last two thousand years.

Healing and the physical body

One of the most prominent discussions of healing in the Epistles occurs in Paul’s
letter First Corinthians, chapter 12, the chapter regarding spiritual gifts. Paul stated that
there were various gifts of the Spirit: these included gifts of wisdom, knowledge, faith,
healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues
(1 Corinthians 12:8-10). Healing, then was fourth in a list of spiritual gifts. It is not clear
whether the gifts were listed in order of importance, or were of equal importance. Paul
stressed that the most important point regarding these gifts was their source, the Holy
Spirit, and that they are intended for the common good of the community. The Spirit
chose to bestow these gifts upon individuals, not vice versa. Later in the chapter
following a description of the figurative body of the church, Paul gave another list: “And
God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then deeds
of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of
tongues” (1 Corinthians 12:27-29). Overall, the theme of chapter 12 is that there are
different gifts that God gives to different people for the benefit of the community. Paul
further emphasized that patient and kindly love is the greatest gift that should permeate
and guide the other gifts.

Healing is discussed in more detail in the Letter of James. In James 5:13-16 we

find the following: “Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any
cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call
for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the
name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up;
and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one
another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.” This passage is interesting
for several reasons. First, it appears to describe specific healing rites of anointing with
oil and praying that were practiced at the time of the early Church. Unfortunately, there
is no other firm record of these rites so it is not known how extensively they were
used. Second, this passage from James shows a theological connection between sin and
illness, a relationship also found in the OT and Gospels and Acts.

The attitude that sickness was related to sinfulness is found more often in the
Epistles than the Gospels. As we have seen, Jesus rarely drew a connection between the
two in the four Gospels. In Acts there are a few examples of sickness or health being
linked to sin--the most striking being the sudden, dramatic deaths suffered by Ananias
and Sapphira for lying and keeping money from the community (Acts 5:1-11). Also, in
one of his letters, Paul blamed the improper consumption of the bread and wine at the
Lord’s Supper for sickness and even death among the Corinthian Christians. “When we
are judged by the Lord, he says, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned
along with the world,” he wrote (1 Corinthians 11 27-32).

Paul’s attitude toward the body supplies another view on early Christian attitudes
toward health, sickness and healing. Paul seems to have dichotomized matter as
problematic and spirit as good. Paul’s language regarding the world was often rather
harsh, as seen in the second half of the preceding quote from 1 Corinthians 11. In
Romans 8:9-13 he wrote, “But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the
Spirit of God dwells in you . . . Though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life
because of righteousness…for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by
the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” There is a real
ambivalence to the physical body in this quote; it is the dwelling place of the Spirit, yet
by definition a source of great pitfalls. In 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 he wrote that “…you are
God’s temple and…God’s temple dwells in you. If anyone destroys God’s temple, God
will destroy that person.” According to 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, the worst sins one can
bring upon the body are overindulgence in food, fornication10 and prostitution. Paul
used strong, negative language in his pleas to Christians to care for themselves.
Suffering and Christianity

Another aspect of life that relates to health and sickness is suffering. The suffering
of Jesus became a central axis of the early Church’s understanding of what his life, death
and resurrection meant for believers and what it meant to be a follower of Christ. The
NT contains a good number of verses that deal with suffering, particularly the
Epistles. Paul’s description of the “thorn in his flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) is
representative of much of what the Epistles have to say about suffering. “And to keep me
from being too elated . . . a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger from Satan . . .
” Paul asked God to relieve him of this affliction, “but He said to me, ‘My grace is
sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’ . . . For the sake of Christ,
then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for
when I am weak, then I am strong.” A central message here and elsewhere is the
edificatory aspects of suffering. In Romans 5:2-5, he says “ . . . we also boast in our
sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance . . . ” See also Hebrews 12:7-11,1
Peter 4:6-7, James 1:2-4 and 5:10-11, 1 Thessalonians 3:3-5, and 2 Corinthians 4:16-17
for various perspectives on suffering for Christians.

Christianity and Community in the NT

Suffering should be understood within the context of early Christian views of

community. Suffering is seen as a sort of training or initiation that enables the Christian
to attend to the sufferings of other Christians through participating in the sufferings of
Christ. Acts 14:22 discussed Paul and Barnabas’ ministry of encouragement to
Christians in Antioch: “There they strengthened the souls of the disciples and
encouraged them to continue in the faith, saying, ‘it is through many persecutions that we
must enter the Kingdom of God.” Paul expressed this even more clearly in 2 Corinthians
1:1-7: “ . . . so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction . . . For just
as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant
through Christ. If we are being afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; if we
are being consoled, it is for your consolation, which you experience when you patiently
endure the same sufferings . . . ” Paul’s discussion of the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians
12:12-27 also relates community and suffering.
 A very different description of the early Christian community is found in
Acts. According to Acts 2:44-47 and 4:32-37, the community shared its resources in
common. Members sold their possessions and shared the proceeds with the group,
according to individuals’ needs. “Day by day, as they spent much time together in the
temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous heart.” (verse
46). “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one
claimed private ownership of any possessions…there was not a needy person among
them” (verses 32-34). Members of the community sold their possessions and “laid [the
proceeds of what was sold] at the apostles’ feet” (verses 32-35). Indeed, the young
church was seized with fear by the striking down of Ananias and Sapphira after they
failed to submit all of their proceeds to the apostles (Acts 5:1-11).

Finally, Paul shows a positive vision of social and community life in Romans
12:12-18, as well as theological sentiments that bridge the Gospels and
Epistles: “Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the
needs of saints; extend hospitality to strangers . . . rejoice with those who rejoice, weep
with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but
associate with the lowly . . . If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably
with all.”

While Paul's letters sought to counsel burgeoning Christian communities by

providing rules and precepts for thought and action, it was ultimately Jesus' injunctions
found in the Gospels that served as the foundation for their social ethics. The most
thoroughly codified list of these guidelines is found within the Sermon on the Mount
(Matthew 5:1-11). Here, Jesus diverges from prior concepts of messiahship emphasizing
a coming warrior-king that would deliver Israel from its oppressors. Instead, his vantage
is one that stresses this pending kingdom on earth as one of peace, service, and
benevolence. This version of a higher righteousness to expand the values of the Mosaic
Torah asserted that certain types of ostensibly lowly persons--the sorrowful, the
peacemakers, the hungry, and the persecuted--enjoyed divine favor. In doing so, the
Beatitudes challenged earlier biblical thought that viewed material prosperity and earthly
success as signs of godly endorsement. Falling early in the Gospel of Matthew (and also
reasserted near the beginning of the Gospel of Luke from 6:17-7:1), these statements laid
the groundwork for Jesus' ministry to people with illnesses and disabilities.
 Near the conclusion of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is brought before the
Pharisees to defend his theology. Asked about the greatest commandment in the law,
Jesus provided a two-part response. First, he replied, "You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." He then added, "You
shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:36-39). Assembling with his disciples
after this questioning, Jesus thoroughly rebuked the Pharisees as hypocrites preoccupied
with religious legalities at the expense of community ethics. For the high priests, "Justice
and mercy and faith" had become neglected, as the Pharisees "strain out a gnat but
swallow a camel" (Matthew 23:23-24). As demonstrated above, in later NT writings, the
values of justice, mercy toward the downtrodden, and an all-encompassing love for other
humans would continue to guide Christian thought. And as Christianity continued over
the past two millenia, it is these principles that have often underscored approaches to
promote health and social justice.
 Bibliography

Amundsen, D.W. & Ferngren, G.B. (1986). The early Christian tradition. In R.L.
Numbers & D.W. Amundsen (Eds.), Caring and curing: health and medicine in the
Western religious traditions (pp. 41-65). New York, NY: Macmillan.

Amundsen, D.W. & Ferngren, G.B. (1982). Medicine and religion: early Christianity
through the middle ages. In M.E. Marty & K.L. Vaux (Eds.), Health, medicine and
the faith traditions (pp. 93-131). Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press.

Bible: New revised standard version (1989). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Harris, S.L. (1997). Understanding the Bible (4th ed.). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield
Publishing Co.

Kee, H.C. (1992). Medicine and healing. In Anchor Bible dictionary (vol. 4, pp. 659-
664). New York, NY: Doubleday.

Kelsey, M.T. (1995). Healing and Christianity. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress
Press. (Original work published 1973)

Kinsley, D. (1996). Health, healing, and religion: A cross-cultural perspective. Upper

Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Kuemmerlin-McLean, J.K. (1992). Demons: Old Testament. In Anchor Bible

dictionary (vol. 2, pp. 138-140). New York, NY: Doubleday.

Reese, D.G. (1992). Demons: New Testament. In Anchor Bible dictionary (vol. 2, pp.
140-142). New York, NY: Doubleday.

Remus, H.E. (1992). Miracle: New Testament. In Anchor Bible dictionary (vol. 4, pp.
856-869). New York, NY: Doubleday.

Sussman, M. (1992). Sickness and disease. In Anchor Bible dictionary (vol. 6, pp. 6-
15). New York, NY: Doubleday.
1 D.W. Amundsen and G.B. Ferngren. “Medicine and Religion: Early Christianity
through the Middle Ages.” In Marty and Vaux’s Health, medicine and the faith
traditions. (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1982), 93.

2 The word LORD, capitalized, refers to the name YHWH in the Hebrew original.

3 Cf. Kelsey, 26-36, or Kee, 659-660 for lists of examples.

4 On pp. 42-3, Kelsey reports 41 healing works. He also reports that of the 3,779 verses
in the four Gospels, 727 related to healing of "physical or mental illness and the
resurrection of the dead.”

5 J.K. Kuemmerlin-McLean. “Demons: Old Testament.” In Anchor Bible

dictionary (vol. 2, pp. 138-140). (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1992), 140.

6 Kuemmerlin-McLean, 141. This verse infers that exorcism involved breaking the
demons’ direct power over individuals, while healing sickness involved defeating the
indirect influences of negative spirits. Unfortunately, Matthew was not specific, and this
is the closest we can come to understanding his conceptualization of healing sickness and
casting out demons.

7There are accounts of the first century Roman general and emperor Vespasian healing a
blind man by putting his saliva on the man’s eyes. Cf. Harold Remus. “Miracle:
NT.” In Anchor Bible dictionary (vol. 4, pp. 856-869). (New York, NY: Doubleday,
1992).

8 Centrality of faith is one of Matthew’s main theological theses, and he tended to

highlight the faith of the recipient of healing in his Gospel’s tellings of these stories. Cf.
Matthew’s emphasis on faith in the healing of the hemorrhaging woman (Matthew 9:18-
26, compared to Mark 5:21-43 and Luke 8:40-56).
9 Raising the dead is certainly not the same as healing the sick, but functionally this type
of miracle parallels healing. It bears resemblances to many healing stories, in Jesus’
emotional reaction to the scene and his spontaneous performance of an extraordinary
reversal of the recipient’s physical condition.

10 It is important to note that the translation of the Greek pornonoeia as “fornication” is

not accurate. Biblical scholars do not agree on the meaning of pornonoeia. It seems to
refer to sexual practices unacceptable to Paul, but what exactly these practices were
cannot be verified.