People who are qualified in medicine and treat those who are ill. Doctors do not feature extensively in Scripture; rather God is portrayed as the source of health and healing for his people. Prophets were sometimes intermediaries in healing and priests were responsible for diagnosing certain diseases in accordance with the law. Luke, the author of the Gospel of that name and Acts, was a doctor.
God as the source of physical health and healing
Exodus 15:26 See also Numbers 12:10–15, Numbers 21:4–9; Deuteronomy 32:39; Psalm 6:2
saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then I will not bring on you any of the diseases I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”
God as the source of spiritual healing
Job 5:18 See also Isaiah 53:5; Jeremiah 33:6; Hosea 6:1
For He wounds, but He also binds; He strikes, but His hands also heal.
Jesus Christ as a healer
Matthew 8:16–17 parallels Mark 1:32–34, Luke 4:40 See also Isaiah 53:4; Matthew 4:24, Matthew 14:14 parallel Luke 9:11
When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to Jesus, and He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.”
Prophets as intermediaries in healing
2 Kings 5:1–14, 2 Kings 20:1–7 parallels 2 Chronicles 32:24, Isaiah 38:1–5; Isaiah 38:21
Priests in a medical role
Leviticus 13:1–46, Leviticus 15:1–33
Medical treatments mentioned in Scripture
Use of oils and emollients on wounds
Isaiah 1:6 See also Jeremiah 46:11
From the sole of your foot to the top of your head, there is no soundness— only wounds and welts and festering sores neither cleansed nor bandaged nor soothed with oil.
Splinting and bandaging of broken limbs
“Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt. See, it has not been bound up for healing, or splinted for strength to hold the sword.
Poultices
2 Kings 20:7 See also Isaiah 38:21
Then Isaiah said, “Prepare a poultice of figs.” So they brought it and applied it to the boil, and Hezekiah recovered.
Human doctors mentioned in Scripture
Their limited ability contrasted with God's power
2 Chronicles 16:12–13 See also Job 13:4; Mark 5:25–29 parallel Luke 8:43–44
In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his disease became increasingly severe. Yet even in his illness he did not seek the LORD, but only the physicians. So in the forty-first year of his reign, Asa died and rested with his fathers.
Non-Israelite doctors
Genesis 50:2 These were Egyptian physicians. See also Colossians 4:14 Luke was a Greek.
And Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel. So they embalmed him,
Figurative use
Mark 2:17 parallels Matthew 9:12, Luke 5:31 See also Luke 4:23
On hearing this, Jesus told them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Related themes
Dictionary of Bible Themes © 1999 Martin Manser, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, via Bible Aquifer. Formatted for this site, with Scripture from the Berean Standard Bible.