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Bible Dictionaries
Sickness
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or Outside of the Gospels little attention is paid to sickness in the apostolic writings. This is very noticeable if one compares these writings with the OT or even the Gospels. Only five particular kinds of disease are specified: palsy (Acts 8:7; Acts 9:33); impotence (Acts 3:2); a digestive trouble (πυκναί ἀσθένειαι, 1 Timothy 5:23); dysentery (Acts 28:8); abdominal disease associated with worms (Acts 12:21 ff.). In addition we have those suffering from nervous disorders (Acts 5:16; cf. also Acts 16:16-18, Acts 19:12). Individuals are, in general terms, ‘sick’ (Dorcas [Acts 9:37], Epaphroditus [Philippians 2:26-27], and Trophimus [2 Timothy 4:20]), yet no symptoms are mentioned by which the nature of the illness may be defined.
The terms in which other references to sickness appear are extremely indefinite: ἀσθενής (cf. Acts 4:9), ἀσθένεια (Acts 28:9), ἀσθενέω (James 5:14), ἀδύνατος (Acts 14:8), κάμνω (James 5:15), ἄρρωστος (1 Corinthians 11:30). The meaning here may be only lack of strength, or it may be an infirmity caused by sickness. In all these cases of specific diseases the trouble is described popularly by its leading symptoms, with the exception possibly of the ailment of Publius’ father.
The only attempt to account for the cause of any sickness alluded to is by St. Paul in his advice to the Corinthians concerning the Lord’s Supper. He there intimates that sickness and even death are a Divine judgment on their flagrant abuse of the Eucharist. One may compare this with the theory of the supernatural cause of disease in Hebrew and Greek circles. A connexion between sickness and disease is suggested by Jesus in John 5:14. Two other implications as to the cause of abnormal conditions are contained in the Acts, both associated with nervous derangement, yet without any conscious diagnosis or effort to account for the fact. In accord with the notions of the time, evil spirits are reported as going out from those whom they had possessed (Acts 19:12), a particular instance of which is in Acts 16:16-18. Because the spirit Python possessed the damsel she became a ventriloquist-soothsayer. The demon was cast out by a word from St. Paul and the maid restored to mental equilibrium.
The treatment of sickness in the Apostolic Church, so far as suggested by the NT, is medicinal, therapeutic, psychotherapeutic, and miraculous. The practice of anointing with oil (James 5:14; cf Mark 6:13) is not indeed without a magical association-‘in the name of the Lord’-but its long history connects it with a healing virtue; wine also possesses medicinal properties (1 Timothy 5:23). The medicines used on the island of Malta are not specified, nor are the results of their use stated. The therapeutic treatment of disease certainly underlies St. Paul’s advice to the Corinthians. Psychotherapy is to be appealed to with reference to the healing of nervous disorders (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:28; 1 Corinthians 12:30, ‘gifts of healing’). The cases of cure which are not otherwise accounted for are regarded by the apostles as miraculous (cf. Acts 4:16; Acts 9:40).
Literature.-J. R. Bennett, The Diseases of the Bible3, 1896; T. H. Wright, article ‘Disease,’ in Dict. of Christ and the Gospels ; A. Macalister, article ‘Medicine,’ in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) ; see also Literature under Physician.
C. A. Beckwith.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Sickness'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/s/sickness.html. 1906-1918.
