There are many times that I forget that the Bible, the holy book that Christians like myself read, is also a historical text with real stories. In this book, there is geology, science, literature, and, yes, healthcare! This page will be dedicated to people and stories surrounding the topic of medicine and health in the Bible. It, of course, does not include every reference, let alone a fraction of them, but just the ones that piqued my interest and inspired me to write!
The woman healed of menorrhagia
In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 9, there enters a story about a woman who had suffered from bleeding for 12 years. Biblical and historical scholars believe that this bleeding was “prolonged menstruation”. And according to Mosiac law, the law that was in place before Jesus came and fulfilled it, women who were menstruating or dealing with postpartum bleeding were considered unclean. They had to be “set apart” from everybody and were not allowed near institutions (worship, community, stores, etc.). She had gone to many clinicians but all had failed to heal her of this disease, and in fact, Mark 5:26 says that it had actually gotten worse. One day when Jesus was visiting her town, she heard of his visit and went out among the throng of people excited to see him. She reached out to touch the hem of his garment and immediately was healed of her bleeding. It says in Mark 5:29-30, “Instantly the flow of blood ceased, and she sensed in her body that she was healed of her affliction. At once Jesus realized in himself that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?'”
Today, those dealing with “prolonged menstruation” are diagnosed with menorrhagia, which is abnormally long and heavy menstruation that caused bad cramping and serious blood loss. It is also sometimes referred to as a hemorrhage, which is just a fancy word for bleeding, whether internally or externally. The treatment for menorrhagia today is usually hormone pills. However, in severe cases where that doesn’t work, surgical intervention such as a hysterectomy or endometrial ablation/resection is performed. The former is the removal of the uterus, and the latter is the permanent destruction of the uterus wall.
There are some probable causes to this woman’s menorrhagia. Phillip et al., in 2005, conducted a study evaluating the hemolytic causes of menorrhagia in adolescent and perimenopausal-age women. 47% of the 115 women with menorrhagia that were studied were found to have hemostatic abnormalities such as platelet dysfunction (such as idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, a disorder of low levels of platelets that leads to easy bruising and bleeding), von Willebrand’s disease (disease where your blood doesn’t clot normally), and coagulation factor deficiencies.
Another cause of menorrhagia is endocrine disorders, such as a thyroid disorder. When there isn’t enough progesterone produced, the endometrium (lining of the uterus) eventually breaks down, which causes menorrhagia.
If the medicine in that time of the bleeding woman were advanced as it is today, some treatments that physicians may have considered would be intravenous conjugated equine estrogen, which means injecting equine estrogen (a type of estrogen medication) into the veins. 25 mg is given every 4 hours for 24 hours, and after that, oral estrogen medication is given to the patient.
It is amazing to see that in the midst of this 12 year, complex bleeding disorder, this woman had the courage and faith to reach out to Jesus. Her faith ended up saving her, and she was healed of it!
The first recorded physicians + the embalming process
The first mention of physicians was in Genesis 50:2 when Joseph orders them to embalm his father Jacob who had died. “Then Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel (Jacob). So the physicians embalmed him.” In this verse we can see that the physicians were responsible for the process of embalming the dead, meaning that they were quite knowledgeable and familiar with the internal human body, just like our modern day physicians are. In fact, the Hebrew word for doctor is rofe, which translates to “to mend or sew together, bandager.” The process of embalming went like this. First, the dead body was taken to a tent known as an “ibu”, which means “place of purification”. They start out by washing the body with palm-wine and water from the Nile river. Second, comes the removal of the liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines. These organs are then washed and packed in natron, a natural salt use to dry out the organs. Thirdly, a long hook is inserted into the nose to mash up the brain and remove it from the nostrils. The body is then covered and filled with more of the natron, which will dry out the inside and outside of the body. The body is then left for forty days and then finally washed with more water from the Nile and oils. Lastly, the internal, dried out organs that were initially removed are then wrapped in linen and placed back inside the body. After once more covering the body in oils, it is wrapped in linen!
Jesus sweats blood
In chapter 22 of the Gospel of Luke, it details Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Dr. Luke, the author of this book and also Acts, was very detailed in his writings since he was a physician. “Being in anguish, he prayed more fervently, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.” This rare condition, called hematidrosis, is when there is the excretion of blood or blood pigment in the sweat. This occurs when the person is facing extremely stressful situations such as death, which if you know the story, Jesus was. He knew that Judas, one of his disciples, was going to betray Him and hand Him over to the Jewish authorities to be crucified. He prayed over and over again to God, saying, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me – nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” Hematidrosis is believed to be caused by the tiny capillaries in the sweat glands rupturing during intense emotional or physical stress. Blood is then mixed with the sweat and secreted from the body. In 1918, there was a case of a girl who sweated blood frequently. After careful inspection of her physiology, they found that her sweat had red blood corpuscles and some white corpuscles, leading physicians and researchers to make the conclusion about the cause.
Dr. Luke, like I mentioned above, was very detailed in his writings about Jesus’s healing of people. It’s so interesting! Another example of his historical explanations of medical conditions is in Luke 13:11, where he tells us of a crippled woman who, for 18 years, could not stand up straight. “As He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, a woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for over eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, He called out to her, ‘Woman, you are free of your disability.’ Then He laid His hands on her, and instantly she was restored and began to glorify God.” The condition this woman could have possibly had was severe kyphosis, which is an abnormally rounded upper back.
In Sickness and In Health 