History of sickness and medical art 18: Ancient Israel 4

 

＜　Michelangelo's David  ＞

Sickness

About 50 sorts of sicknesses are looked at in the Old Testament.

In surgical sickness, there was a giant’s malformation, a weakening of hand and foot of the muscle atrophy or the paralytic nerve, a defect of hand and foot, blindness, and deafness.

There were many cases of swelling or skin disease and there were smallpox, black plague, and leprosy.

In the circulatory organ, there were a heart attack, cerebral hemorrhage, and the headache that was thought to be the subarachnoid hemorrhage, too.

In other cases, there were lung disease, fever, gout, peritonitis, woman's illness, malaria, and dysentery, and then the eye disease are regarded as endemic disease.

In the psychiatry, there were the mental derangement and deafness that were possessed by an evil spirit.

病　気

旧約には約５０種の病気が見られる。

外科では、巨人の奇形、筋萎縮性か神経麻痺性の手足の萎え、手足の不具、盲目、聾唖があった。

腫れ物や皮膚病の症例は多く、天然痘、線ペスト、ライ病がある。

循環器では、心臓発作や脳出血、クモ膜下出血と考えられる頭痛もある。

他に肺病や熱病、痛風や腹膜炎、婦人病があり、マラリヤや赤痢、眼病は風土病と考えられる。

精神科として、悪霊に憑かれた精神錯乱や唖があった。　

＜　Talmud　＞

Medical treatment

The treatment of the doctor was doubtful, and the medical treatment with medicine appears in the Old Testament only 12 times.

Except the circumcision as the ceremony, the Bible hardly has referred to the surgery.

The midwife only encouraged and attended a pregnant woman.

Although Talmud had descriptions of medical treatment, most of them were based on a superstition.

I introduce a treatment of fever from Talmud.

"A sick person is sat on a crossroads. If the ant that is carrying the heavy burden on its back is seen, he catches and shakes the ant, and he shouts, "Your heavy burden is imposed on me and my heavy burden (fever) is imposed on you." "

治　療

医者の治療はおぼつかなく、薬による治療は旧約に１２回しか出てこない。

儀式としての割礼を除けば、聖書は外科についてほとんど触れていない。

助産婦は励まし、妊婦に付きそうだけであった。

タルムードに治療の記述はあるが、迷信に基づいているものが多い。

発熱の対処法を紹介する。

「病人を十字路に座らせる。重荷を背負っている蟻を見たら、その蟻を捉え、『お前の重荷をわたしに課し、わたしの重荷（発熱）がお前に課せられるように』と叫びながら振りなさい。」とある。

＜　a miracle of Jesus  ＞

However, there was revolutionary change in medical treatment.

Although it is called a miracle, it may be able to say that a psychological treatment started.

“ for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me.” Exodus 20:5

“If thou, Jehovah, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” Psalm 130:3

“Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.” Isaiah 35:6

“And he took him aside from the multitude privately, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue.”

“And his ears were opened, and the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plain.” Mark 7:33,35

しかし治療に大きな画期が現れた。

それは奇蹟と呼ばれるが、それを精神治療の発露と言えるかもしれない。

「ヤハヴェは、嫉む神であり、私を憎む者には、父の罪を子に罰し、三代四代の世代に罰を与える。」出エジプト記、２０．５

「主よ、あなたが不正の記憶を保存するならば、誰が生き残ることが出来ましょうか？」詩編、１３０．３

「その時、足萎えは鹿のように飛び去り、おしの舌は歓喜で叫ぶであろう。」イザヤ書、３５．６

「そこで、イエスはこの人だけを群衆の中から連れ出し、指をその両耳に差し入れ、それから唾をつけてその舌に触れられた。」

「すると、たちまち耳が開き、舌のもつれが解け、はっきり話すことが出来るようになった。」マルコ福音書、０７．３３、３５

＜　a expiation:　Sacrifice of the lamb　＞

Into this undercurrent, I can read a change from God that gives a punishment (sickness) to God that gives a blessing (healing).

By repenting its sins, that is to say, because each person faces one's mind, they will be freed from their sickness.

Jesus rather gave a sinner (sick person) a blessing.

Although Gautama Buddha of India denied the expiation and the miracle also, the thing that he aimed was the same.

Many of ancient civilization developed the ceremony of the expiation, and the sin was not forgiven without the expiation.

この底流に、罰（病）を与える神から、恵み（癒し）を与える神への変化が読み取れる。

罪を悔いることにより、つまり各人が自分の心に向き合うことで病から解放されることになる。

イエスは、むしろ罪ある人（病人）にこそ恵みを与えている。

インドの釈迦は贖罪を否定し、奇蹟も否定したが、目指すものは同じだった。

古代文明の多くは、贖罪の儀式を発展させ、罪はそれ無しには赦してもらえなかった。