Early Christian Views on Physicians and Healing

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Direct teaching

For with the highest propriety the help of bodily diseases is called the healing art — an art acquired by human skill.

Origen, Against Celsus Direct teaching

...matter unless the principle involved was important and beneficial to human life. For the science of medicine is useful and necessary to the human race, and there are many disputes in it about the way bodies should be cured. For this reason, many heresies are admittedly found in the science of medicine among the Greeks, and also, I suppose, among those barbarous nations that claim to practice medicine. Again, philosophy professes truth, and promises knowledge of existing things for the guidance of life. It tries to teach what is beneficial to our race. And since the investigation of these matters is attended by great differences of opinion, countless heresies have arisen in philosophy, some of them more famous than others. Even Judaism itself provided an occasion for the rise of heresies, because different meanings were given to the writings of Moses and the prophets. So then, since Christianity appeared worthy of reverence to men, not only to the more servile class, as Celsus supposes, but also to many among the Greeks who were devoted to literary pursuits, heresies necessarily arose. Yet they did not arise at all from faction and strife, but from the earnest desire of many lear

Arnobius, Against the Heathen Direct teaching

Do you commit your sick bodies to the hands of physicians, without believing that diseases can be relieved by their severity being lessened?

Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho Supporting witness

For in arts of all kinds, he who knows any one of them is called a skilful man in the art of generalship, or of ruling, or of healing equally.

Dionysius of Alexandria, Miscellaneous Fragments Supporting witness

...dertaken for the common good. Some work as providers of resources, others as magistrates, others as physicians, others as statesmen. Even philosophers take great pride in their efforts to educate men. Will Epicurus or Democritus, then, dare to say that in practicing philosophy they only bring distress on themselves? No, rather, they would count this as a pleasure of mind second to none. For even though they hold the opinion that the good is pleasure, they will be ashamed to deny that practicing philosophy is the greater pleasure to them. But as for the gods, of whom their poets sing that they are givers of good gifts, these philosophers mockingly speak of them in words like these: “The gods are neither givers nor sharers in any good thing.” And how, indeed, can they prove that there are gods at all, when they neither perceive their presence nor recognize them as doers of anything? In this they are like those who, in admiration and wonder at the sun and the moon and the stars, have thought these were called gods because of the courses they run. Further, they do not assign to them any function or power of action, so as to call them gods because they create, that is, because they m

Arnobius, Against the Heathen Supporting witness

...o great admiration, is clear if you examine it carefully—a similar kind of treatment is followed by physicians also, a creature born of earth and not relying on true knowledge, but building on a system of guesswork and wavering in judging probabilities. Now there is no special merit in removing by remedies those illnesses that affect people. The healing power belongs to the drugs, not to qualities in the one who applies them. And although it is praiseworthy to know by what medicine or by what method it is proper to treat people, there is room for giving this credit to man, but not to deity. For it is, at least, no dishonor that a man should improve human health by things taken from outside. It is a disgrace to a god that he is not able to do it by himself, but gives health and safety only with the help of external things.

Arnobius, Against the Heathen Supporting witness

For if they have at any time ordered, as is reported, either that medicine or a special diet be given to some, or that a draught be drunk off, or that the juices of plants and of blades be placed on that which causes uneasiness or have ordered that persons should walk, remain at rest, or abstain from something hurtful — and that this is no great matter, and deserves no great admiration, is evident, if you will attentively examine it — a similar mode of treatment is followed by physicians also, a creature earth-born and not relying on true science, but founding on a system of conjecture, and wavering in estimating probabilities.

Arnobius, Against the Heathen Supporting witness

...ubbornness! If a physician had come to you from distant lands, unknown to you before, offering some medicine that could completely keep every kind of disease and sickness away from you, would you not all eagerly hurry to him? Would you not receive him into your houses with every kind of flattery and honor, and treat him kindly? Would you not want that kind of medicine to be completely certain and genuine, since it promised that, even to the farthest limit of life, you would be free from so many bodily troubles? And even if the matter were uncertain, you would still trust yourselves to him. You would not hesitate to drink the unknown mixture, urged on by the hope of health set before you and by the love of safety. Christ appeared and shone forth to tell us news of the greatest importance, bringing a sign of prosperity and a message of safety to those who believe. What, I ask you, does this cruelty mean? What does such barbarity mean? Or rather, to speak more truly, what does this scornful pride mean? Why not only trouble the messenger and bearer of so great a gift with mocking words, but even attack Him with fierce hatred, with every weapon that can be thrown at Him, and with eve

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Direct teaching

and the art of healing is of the Lord.

Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus Direct teaching

Who is the Physician? God, who heals and makes alive through His word and wisdom.

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Direct teaching

He will give true and lasting health. This remedy should be sought by all, inasmuch as the soul is harassed by greater danger than the body, and a cure should be applied as soon as possible to secret diseases.

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness

...ecure stability of the earth. For You have filled Your world and adorned it with sweet-smelling and healing herbs, with many kinds of living creatures, strong and weak, for food and for labor, tame and wild; with the sounds of creeping things, and the cries of many kinds of flying creatures; with the cycles of the years, the numbers of months and days, the order of the seasons, and the courses of the rain clouds, for the producing of fruits and the support of living creatures. You have also appointed the place of the winds, which blow when You command, and the abundance of plants and herbs. “And You have not only created the world itself, but have also made man as a citizen of the world, showing him as the ornament of the world. For You said to Your Wisdom, ‘Let us make man according to our image and according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven,’ Genesis 1:26 Therefore You made him of an immortal soul and a body liable to decay—the former out of nothing, the latter out of the four elements. And as to his soul, You gave him rational knowledge, the discernment of piety and impiety, and the recognition of right and wron

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness

...ave pressed grapes picked from the vine and made wine, than to have produced grain itself from the earth, or the vine itself? God, indeed, may have left these things to be brought out by human skill. Yet all things must belong to Him, who gave man both the wisdom to discover them and the very things that could be discovered. The arts also are said to have won immortality for their inventors, as medicine did for Aesculapius, and the blacksmith's craft for Vulcan. Therefore let us also worship those who taught the trade of the fuller and the shoemaker. But why is no honor paid to the discoverer of the potter's art? Is it because rich men look down on Samian vessels? There are also other arts whose inventors greatly benefited human life. Why have temples not been given to them also? But no doubt it is Minerva who discovered everything, and so craftsmen offer prayers to her. Such, then, was the low place from which Minerva rose to heaven. Is there really any reason why anyone should leave the worship of Him who created the earth with its living creatures, and the heaven with its stars, for the worship of her who taught men to set up the woof? What rank does the man hold who taught t

Lactantius, Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died Supporting witness

And now, in the eighteenth year of Galerius's reign, God struck him with a disease that could not be cured. A deadly ulcer formed in the lower part of his private organs and gradually spread. The doctors tried to remove it, and they healed the affected place. But after the sore had skinned over, it broke out again. A vein burst, and so much blood flowed out that his life was in danger. The bleeding, however, was stopped, though with difficulty. The doctors had to perform their operations again, and at last they formed a scar over the wound. Because of a slight movement of his body, Galerius suffered an injury, and the blood poured out more heavily than before. He became thin, pale, and weak, and then the bleeding stopped. The ulcer began to resist the treatments that were applied, and gangrene took hold of all the nearby parts. It spread farther and farther as more of the decayed flesh was cut away, and everything used as a cure only made the disease worse.

Lactantius, Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died Supporting witness

Then famous doctors were brought in from every place, but no human treatment had any success. Apollo and Aesculapius were urgently asked for cures. Apollo did give instructions, but the disease grew worse. It was already nearing its deadly crisis, and it had spread through the lower parts of his body. His bowels came out, and his whole lower part rotted. The unfortunate doctors, although they had no hope of defeating the sickness, did not stop applying warm treatments and giving medicines. After the bodily fluids had been driven back, the disease attacked his intestines, and worms were produced in his body. The stench was so horrible that it spread not only through the palace, but even through the whole city. And this is no wonder, because by that time the passages from his bladder and bowels had been eaten away by the worms and had become mixed together, and his body, in unbearable agony, was dissolving into one mass of decay.

Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness

And if any one, on a candid consideration of these things, shall admit that no improvement ever takes place among men without divine help, how much more confidently shall he make the same assertion regarding Jesus, when he compares the former lives of many converts to His doctrine with their after conduct, and reflects in what acts of licentiousness and injustice and covetousness they formerly indulged, until, as Celsus, and they who think with him, allege, they were deceived, and accepted a doctrine which, as these individuals assert, is destructive of the life of men;

Cyprian, Epistles Direct teaching

... again, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick," in Matthew 9:12. What medical skill can a man use if he says, "I heal only the healthy, who have no need of a physician"? We ought to give our help, our healing skill, to those who are wounded. And let us not think that they are dead. Rather, let us regard them as lying half alive, since we see that they were wounded in the deadly persecution. If they had been completely dead, they could never afterward, from among those same people, have become both confessors and martyrs.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Direct teaching

...lind person astray. The apostles, tasked with finding the lost and becoming sight for the blind and medicine for the weak, certainly did not speak to them based on their current beliefs but rather based on revealed truth. No person would act rightly if they advised blind men, about to fall over a cliff, to continue their dangerous path as if it were safe. Or, what doctor seeking to heal would prescribe medicine based on the patient’s whims instead of what is needed? The Lord Himself declares that He came as the physician for the sick, saying, “Those who are whole need not a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” How, then, shall the sick be strengthened, or how shall sinners come to repentance? Is it by continuing in the same ways, or rather by undergoing a significant change and reversal of their former way of living, which brought them much sickness and many sins? But ignorance, the mother of these, is dispelled by knowledge. Therefore, the Lord imparted knowledge to His disciples, using it to heal those who suffered and to deter sinners from sin. He did not speak to them based on their original ideas or answer in line

Justin Martyr, On the Resurrection, Fragments Direct teaching

But if our physician Christ, God, having rescued us from our desires, regulates our flesh with His own wise and temperate rule, it is evident that He guards it from sins because it possesses a hope of salvation, as physicians do not suffer men whom they hope to save to indulge in what pleasures they please.

Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness

Matthew 9:12 What medical skill can he exercise who says, I cure the sound only, who have no need of a physician?

Matthew 9:12 Background

But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

Luke 5:31 Background

And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.

Luke 4:23 Background

And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.

Cyprian, Epistles Direct teaching

What greater or more fitting duty do overseers have than to care, with careful concern and healing medicine, for the nourishing and keeping of the sheep? For the Lord speaks and says, "You have not strengthened the diseased, nor healed what was sick, nor bound up what was broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost. And my sheep were scattered because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the beasts of the field, and no one searched or sought for them." Therefore the Lord says, "Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my flock at their hands, and cause them to stop feeding the flock; neither shall they feed them anymore. For I will deliver them from their mouth, and I will feed them with judgment." Since the Lord threatens such shepherds, by whom the Lord's sheep are neglected and perish, what else ought we to do, dearest brother, than to show full diligence in gathering and restoring the sheep of Christ, and to apply the medicine of a father's affection to heal the wounds of the fallen? For the Lord also warns in the Gospel and says, "Those who are whole do not need a physician, but those who are sick do." Matthew 9:12 For a

Cyprian, Epistles Direct teaching

But in your love, brother, never stop calming the minds of the fallen and giving the medicine of truth to those who have gone astray, even though sick people often reject the kindness of those who want to heal them. The wound of the fallen is still fresh, and the sore is still swelling into a tumor. Therefore, we are sure that when more time has passed and their urgency has worn itself out, they will love that very delay which sends them to a faithful remedy, if only there are not some who arm them for their own danger and, by teaching them wrongly, demand for them the deadly poison of an early communion instead of the healing remedies of delay. For we do not believe that, without being stirred up by certain persons, they would all have dared so boldly to claim peace for themselves. We know the faith of the church of Carthage. We know her training. We know her humility. For this reason, we have wondered that certain things were suggested against you somewhat harshly in a letter, although we have often seen your mutual love and charity in many clear examples of your shared affection for one another. Therefore, it is time for them to repent of their fault, to prove their grief for th

Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness

...ith the idea that his heart is pure and spotless, so that, trusting in his own innocence, he thinks medicine does not need to be applied to his wounds. For it is written, "Who shall boast that he has a clean heart? Or who shall boast that he is pure from sins?" Proverbs 20:9. And again, in his epistle, John declares and says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." But if no one can be without sin, and whoever says that he is without fault is either proud or foolish, then how necessary and how kind is the divine mercy. It knows that even in those who have been healed, some wounds are still found after their healing. And so it has given saving remedies to cure and heal their wounds again.

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness

...he one who has despaired of salvation because of the great number of offenses to perish completely. Search for the one who has grown sleepy, drowsy, and sluggish, and who is careless about his own life because of the depth of his sleep, and who is far from his own flock, so that he is in danger of falling among the wolves and being devoured by them. Bring him back by admonition. Urge him to be watchful, and plant hope in him. Do not allow him to say what some have said: “Our impieties are upon us, and we pine away in them; how then shall we live?” Therefore, as much as possible, let the bishop make the offense his own, and say to the sinner, “Only return, and I will undertake to suffer death for you, as our Lord suffered death for me and for all men.” For the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. But the hired servant, who is not the shepherd and whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming, that is, the devil, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf seizes them. John 10:11-12 We must know, therefore, that God is very merciful to those who have offended, and has promised repentance with an oath. But the one who has offended and does not know this promise of G

Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness

... into all kinds of irrational animals, and sometimes into that state of being which is incapable of using the imagination, why should we not improve the souls of our subjects by means of a doctrine which does not teach that a state of insensibility or irrationality is produced in the wicked instead of punishment, but which shows that the labors and chastisements inflicted on the wicked by God are a kind of medicines leading to conversion? For intelligent Christians, keeping this in view, deal with the simple-minded as parents do with very young children. We do not go then to young persons and foolish rustics, saying to them, "Flee from physicians." Nor do we say, "See that none of you lay hold of knowledge." Nor do we assert that knowledge is an evil. Nor are we mad enough to say that knowledge causes people to lose their soundness of mind. We would not even say that anyone ever perished through wisdom. And although we give instruction, we never say, "Give heed to me," but, "Give heed to the God of all things, and to Jesus, the giver of instruction concerning Him." And none of us is such a braggart as to say what Celsus put into the mouth of one of our teachers to his acquaintan

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness

...tting and searing, or using corrosives, but also binding up, and putting in tents, and using gentle healing medicines, and sprinkling comforting words. If it is a hollow wound, or a great gash, nourish it with a suitable plaster, so that it may be filled up, and become even with the rest of the whole flesh. If it is foul, cleanse it with corrosive powder, that is, with words of reproof. If it has proud flesh, eat it down with a sharp plaster, that is, the threats of judgment. If it spreads farther, sear it, and cut off the putrid flesh, mortifying him with fastings. But if, after all that you have done, you see that from the feet to the head there is no room for a fomentation, or oil, or bandage, but that the disease spreads and prevents all cure, like a gangrene that corrupts the entire member, then, with a great deal of consideration, and with the advice of other skillful physicians, cut off the putrefied member, so that the whole body of the Church may not be corrupted. Therefore do not be ready and hasty to cut off, nor easily have recourse to the saw with its many teeth. But first use a lancet to lay open the wound, so that the inward cause from where the pain is derived, b

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness

not only cutting and searing, or using corrosives, but binding up, and putting in tents, and using gentle healing medicines, and sprinkling comfortable words.

Cyprian, Life and Passion of Cyprian Supporting witness

There needed some one who could, when men were wounded and hurt by the various arts of the attacking enemy, use the remedy of the celestial medicine according to the nature of the wound, either for cutting or for cherishing them.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book IV Direct teaching

...ter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years, be freed from this bond on the Sabbath?” Clearly, He freed and revived those who believe in Him as Abraham did, without doing anything against the law when He healed on the Sabbath. The law did not forbid healing on the Sabbath; in fact, it allowed circumcision on that day and required priests to perform duties for the people. It didn’t even prohibit healing animals. Both in Siloam and on many other occasions, He healed on the Sabbath, and for this reason, many came to Him on the Sabbath. The law commanded them to refrain from all servile work, meaning from all pursuit of wealth through trading or other worldly activities, but encouraged them to engage in spiritual exercises, involving reflection and helpful communication for their neighbors' benefit. Therefore, the Lord reproved those who unjustly criticized Him for healing on the Sabbath. He did not nullify the law but fulfilled it by performing the duties of the high priest, seeking favor from God for people, cleansing lepers, healing the sick, and suffering death Himself, so that exiled man might be freed from condemnation and might return without fear to his rightful

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book IV Supporting witness

... to the law of God, which prepares them for the coming of Christ. They even criticized the Lord for healing on the Sabbath, which, as I have already mentioned, was not forbidden by the law. They themselves, in a way, performed acts of healing on the Sabbath when they circumcised a man on that day, but they did not criticize themselves for breaking God’s command through tradition and the aforementioned pharisaical law, failing to follow the commandment of the law, which is the love of God.

Luke 14:3 Background

And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?

Didache, Connection to Matthew 9:12 Background

since neither did the Lord refuse to eat with publicans and sinners; and when He was accused by the Pharisees on this account, He said: "They that are well have no need of the physician, but they that are sick."