When considering ancient religious writings, the Bible alone avoids these bizarre beliefs that plagued other cultures and religions of the world. This is remarkable indeed, considering that Moses, who wrote the first five books of the Bible where much pertaining to medicine is seen, was educated in Egypt where many of the faulty practices that I have described originated.

No, this isn't a sorcerer's spell. Nor is it a restaurant menu from some horror movie. These are some of the remedies prescribed in an ancient Egyptian medical document discovered in the mid 1800’s. The relic dates back to about 1550 B.C. and is the oldest known manuscript of its kind.(1) I learned this and a number of other fascinating medical remedies of antiquity from a recent book (1988) written by Kenny Barfield, minister of the Serrod Avenue Church of Christ in Florence, Alabama. Brother Barfield's book is called Why The Bible Is Number One: The World's Sacred Writings in Light of Science.(2) It is "a comprehensive review of the general knowledge and practices of ancient peoples in the areas of medicine, astronomy, and earth science." Sadly, the book is out of print now, and I don’t know if or when it will be available again. I carefully guard my copy after trying to get an additional used one from Amazon.com and finding that the only one they had available was going for $100 – and that was for a paperback!

This morning, Lord willing, we will continue our series called God’s Word – the Bible, A Most Remarkable Book. This is the fourth message in the series. Last Sunday we took a look at the accuracy of the Bible in the area of astronomy.

My plan is to look again at the remarkable accuracy of the Bible – this time in the area of medical science. I will make the point that, though the Bible was written in ancient times (from about 1500 B.C. to 100 A.D.) it is remarkable in its harmony with medical facts we know to be true today. This, along with showing you the very primitive level of medicine practiced by ancient cultures and religions around the world while the Bible was being written will, I believe, give any person with an open mind compelling reasons to put faith in the Bible as the word of God.

The ancient Egyptians are considered to be the most medically advanced civilization of antiquity. Homer’s Odyssey, written in 1100 B.C. states that, "In Egypt the men are more skilled in medicine than any other art." Several ancient rulers, including Cyrus and Darius, were served by Egyptian physicians, according to their contemporary, Xenophon.

But don’t let these words of high praise fool you. Their progress seems great only in comparison with the generally low level of human knowledge of ancient times. By our standards today, most of Egyptian medicine should be considered quackery. One writer claims that only three out of every ten children lived to adulthood and the average life-span among the ancient Egyptians was only thirty years.

Most of what we know about ancient Egyptian medicine is contained in two papyrus documents, the Papyrus Ebers, which I’ve already mentioned, and the Edwin Smith Papyrus. While the Egyptians wrote much about ancient surgical techniques, probably fueled by their practice of embalming the dead, the documents mentioned pass along some terrifying prescriptions and treatments for illness.

For instance, the remedy for trembling limbs was a combination of fruit from the dom palm, garlic, honey, copper, and verdigris. Verdigris is that greenish powdery compound that forms on copper when it is exposed to the air for a period of time. After the mixture was eaten, the patient was to put on a dog’s hide and await delivery from his illness from the gods.

The remedy for splinters included worm’s blood and donkey manure mixed into a compound and applied to the area of the wound. (When we consider the existence of tetanus spores present in such a mixture, we might better understand those short life spans of the Egyptians!)

Eye ailments were treated with gall of a tortoise and honey, along with cattle urine and pig bile.

The remedy for baldness was a mixture of six fats, including that of the horse, the hippopotamus, the crocodile, the cat, the snake, and the wild goat. (If it didn’t grow hair it would certainly shine things up!)

Since baby mice were believed to be protectors of children, the same were skinned and fed whole to infants who were sick.

The application of all kinds of urine and excreta was also so common that one author calls ancient Egyptian medical practice, "sewage pharmacology."

Following an ancient concept called "the doctrine of signatures," ancient Egyptian physicians sought drug sources that resembled the diseases or afflicted parts of the body. Yellow plants were prescribed for jaundice; rashes were treated with red berries, and ear aches were treated with plants whose leaves had the shape of the human ear. If an Egyptian was wounded in battle, he would be treated with crushed material from plants whose leaves were shaped like a spear.

Witchcraft or sorcery is also seen in ancient Egyptian medicine. They feared that even a drop of blood, a toenail, or a hair that fell into the possession of a wizard might be used to place spells on unsuspecting victims. It was thought that if such a spell maker could gain possession of even a small part of an enemy’s body, that piece of tissue could be embedded into a wax model of that individual. Any mistreatment forced upon the wax model would then, according to their belief, come upon the sorcerer’s target. Delivery from such imagined "spells" formed the basis for some of the Egyptian physicians’ cures.

It is interesting that Moses, the writer of the first five books of the Bible, who lived about the same time as these documents were written, might have been familiar with some of this dubious "medicine." His training in the courts of Pharaoh may well have included such concepts. I’ll have more to say about Moses later in this message.

If ancient Egyptian medicine was horrifying, the picture of medical knowledge was even worse in ancient Babylon. Besides some rather useless or even dangerous drugs that were used, along with the "doctrine of signatures" we’ve already mentioned, the ancient Babylonians seemed to have a particular fascination with urine and feces. If this seems revolting to us, we must understand that it was also revolting to them. In fact, their reasoning behind such treatments was that if the patient became disgusting enough in appearance and smell, the demons causing his illness would be forced to leave, curing him of his sickness. Even demons have their own level of self-respect, you know. It gives new meaning to the idea of being reluctant to go to the doctor, doesn’t it?

Medical diagnosis among the ancient Babylonians was just as barbaric. Liver divination, dreams, the movement of animals, and astrology were among the means that physicians used to diagnose illness in ancient Babylon. In liver divination, a sacrificial animal would be offered to the gods on behalf of the sick patient. It would them be cut open and its liver examined. Archeology has unearthed clay replicas of livers along with written instructions for diagnosis. If a patient could not afford a sacrificial animal, other means were available to "divine" his ailment. One was placing a drop of oil into a bucket of water. The behavior of the oil drop was then analyzed. Sinking to the bottom, rising to the top, the formation of rings, all of these things had specific meanings according to these ancient "doctors."

Since astrology originated in ancient Babylon, it isn’t surprising that the position of the stars as omens also had application to medicine. Elaborate charts were developed to predict a patient’s future. Would he die? Would he recover? How long would the disease last?

Exorcism was also a part of ancient Babylonian medicine – the casting out of offending demons. Babylon may have produced one of the seven wonders of the ancient world in its hanging gardens, but its level of medical understanding was dismal.

Ancient Chinese medicine also evidenced many of these same errors along with additional treatments unique to their culture. Demonology, divination, alchemy, and various forms of magic are prevalent in ancient Chinese writings.

I do not mention the practices of these ancient people to ridicule them. These cultures of antiquity were doing the best they could do, having only human wisdom and primitive science to guide them. But it is important that we understand these things so that we can contrast them with the ancient writings of the Bible – which we will do shortly.

Actually, there was not a sharp division between culture and religion in ancient times. We are looking at ancient religious views separately simply because if any of them originated from a god with more understanding than that possessed by humans, it would be evident in their superior religious writings. Said another way, if their writings came from a god with intelligence that surpassed human knowledge, we ought not to find such medical mistakes. So what do we find in the writings of ancient religions?

In ancient Hinduism, the Atharva-Veda is the chief source of Vedic medical knowledge. It has 100 hymns that were written as cures for disease. They are the oldest of the Hindu writings that have reference to medicine and they date from around 700 B.C. These writings attribute all disease to supernatural demonic powers. Since these writings were heavily influenced by belief in reincarnation, disease and illness is presented as affliction from certain demons in retribution for the sins of previous lives. A mortal sinner from a former life, for instance, became a leper. An alcoholic in a previous life automatically had black teeth. Anyone who killed a cow would be struck blind in his next life.

As for Hindu cures, the ancients believed that diarrhea could be cured by earth taken from an anthill. Constipation could be cured with dirt taken from a molehill. (Ants and moles burrow in dark places, right?) Dog saliva, slime from the teeth, spittle, and rotten fish were all considered to be useful under the assumption that anything that tasted or looked bad enough to disgust a patient would also disgust the demon in him that caused his disease. "Drugs" made from ground goat bones, bile, animal blood, and urine were considered useful, even in later religious works. The "doctrine of signatures" mentioned earlier was also prevalent in Hindu religious medicine.

Ancient Buddhist religious writings contain almost no references to medical cures. This isn’t surprising since Buddhists view the physical body as nearly worthless and consider that man’s major goal in life is to reach the state of nirvana, or nothingness. The only good in Buddhist belief comes from suffering.

Ancient Chinese religious writings, based on the ancient Tao religion, contain many medical teachings, but they offer little of lasting value. Alchemy, the belief that elements can be transmutated, that is, lead can become silver or silver can become gold, led to the belief in the existence of an ultimate "elixir of life" that supposedly could cure all disease, heal all wounds, and restore youth. Chinese alchemists sought this imaginary liquid in their mixing of minerals. (Ponce de Leon in his search for a legendary "fountain of youth" had nothing on the ancient Chinese.) Yet these "cures" did little to help ailing patients. Rather, many of the metallic potions they produced were deadly. One noted British historian compiled a list of Chinese emperors who probably died from heavy metal poisoning.

Chinese Taoist writings also contain the use of charms and talismans for healing. Magic drawings were written on paper, burned, and then swallowed to cure disease.

Ancient Zoroastrian medial treatments were no better than what we have already seen. Illness was attributed to demons. Cures related to warding off these demons, which brought on the application of repulsive substances like manure and urine that we have already mentioned.

The ancient Japanese religion of Shinto fell victim to many of these same errors, with all disease ultimately traceable to spirits and demons.

The Koran, the basic writing behind modern Islam, is relatively silent on the issue of medical practice. It, of course, is of more recent origin (550 A.D.)

Non-inspired ancient Jewish writings and even extra-biblical ancient Christian texts also contain many of these medical errors, which ought to come as no surprise. Neither Jews nor modern Christians claim that they themselves are inspired. We only claim that this book, the Bible, is inspired.

So how does the Bible stack up in its presentation of medical truth in ancient times? Do Bible writers make the same errors as the other ancients? Further, does the Bible present anything in its statements that could be considered as beyond the level of understanding its writers?

When considering ancient religious writings, the Bible alone avoids these bizarre beliefs that plagued other cultures and religions of the world. This is remarkable indeed, considering that Moses, who wrote the first five books of the Bible where much pertaining to medicine is seen, was educated in Egypt where many of the faulty practices that I have described originated. Moses may well have been familiar with the Papyrus Ebers that I’ve been referring to. "Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians…," we read in Acts 7:22, yet not a single one of the medical errors of the Egyptian physicians found its way into his writings. The other Bible writers avoided such errors in their contributions as well. This alone is quite remarkable and unseen anywhere else in human experience.

If you read the Bible, you won’t find a single reference to such dubious cures as application of animal excrement, blood, or alchemy. Divination is forbidden.(3) The use of omens is exposed as "delusion."(4) Astrology is likewise forbidden.(5) Bible writers never state or imply that all disease is caused by demons. Though demons are mentioned, especially in the time of Christ, and sometimes are cited as cause for illness in certain cases, these were exceptions and not the normal reckoning for the cause of disease. Matthew 10:1(6) Acts 5:16(7) make a clear distinction between demon possession and normal sickness.

We haven’t time to go into each of these statements in detail, but if you are interested in investigating it further, I would be happy to share what I know with you privately.

But besides the absence of the kinds of abominable "cures" we read about elsewhere in antiquity, there is evidence that the writings of the Bible were actually far ahead of their times – something that simply cannot be attributed to mere human intelligence. One such evidence is seen in:

In our day we have come to take sanitation and rules of good personal hygiene for granted. We know that disease is spread by microorganisms that can be transferred from one person to another. "Wash your hands after going to the bathroom or before you eat," is something we are taught from our earliest recollection. Yet it hasn’t always been so.

As late as the mid-1800’s, physicians were not washing their hands between patients. In Vienna, Ignaz Semmelweis was ridiculed for trying to persuade his fellow physicians to wash their hands before treating patients. One in six women were dying in one of the best obstetrics training hospitals in Austria. Semmelweis began to notice that women assisted by midwives had a much greater survival rate than those treated by the medical students. As he investigated, he discovered that the students often went from performing autopsies directly to treating their OB patients with no measures of sanitation. In time he issued a "strange" new rule – no doctor could examine a patient in his ward without first washing his hands thoroughly. There was resistance to this new requirement but as a result the mortality rate plummeted from one in six to only one in eighty-four. What a significant discovery it was!(14) But then again, we’d really need to say, "What a significant re-discovery it was, because the writings of Moses contain detailed instructions for personal hygiene and sanitation when touching a corpse or a sick person. Numbers 19 and Leviticus 13-15 are too lengthy for me to read here but when you have a chance, spend a little time with these passages to verify what I am saying.

Millions of people died throughout ancient and medieval history due to various plagues like leprosy, the Black Death, and syphilis. It wasn’t a cure found in a test tube that began to check these horrendous losses. It was a renewed interest in the Law of Moses and its rules for sanitation, waste disposal, and quarantine that cut the horrendous death rate.

If you know much about Judaism or have any orthodox Jewish friends, you probably know that they will not eat pork (among other things.) It is forbidden in the Law of Moses. Actually, there are extensive lists of criterion for "clean" and "unclean" animals in the Pentateuch. Leviticus 11 contains one such list. No restrictions are put upon fruits or vegetables there, but there are severe limitations on the consumption of certain kinds of meat. Only those animals that "split the hoof" and "chewed the cud" could be eaten. Of seafood and freshwater life, only that with fins and scales could be eaten. Birds of prey were also forbidden. Distinctions were also made between clean and unclean insects. You could eat a grasshopper but not a fly or a spider.

A careful examination of the laws Moses gave in Leviticus and Deuteronomy will show that those animals and organisms forbidden to the Jews were the ones that had the highest risk of transmitting disease – especially if not cooked well. Such rules were unique to the Jewish people. Nobody else had such laws. Yet the microbiology that gives us the scientific reasons why we should be careful about consumption of certain kinds of flesh was not possible until after the invention of the compound microscope by two Dutch spectacle makers in 1590 A.D.(8) Three thousand years before it was even possible to observe the presence of deadly microorganisms in potential food, Moses wrote a set of laws that got it right every time!

Besides the laws of clean and unclean animals, the early Bible writings contain prohibitions against eating animal fat, eating animals killed by natural causes of torn by wild beasts, and the consuming of blood. Leviticus 7:22-27 contains these prohibitions.

Did the ancient Israelites know the medical reasons behind these food restrictions? No, they didn’t – other than a remarkable statement that God made to them in Exodus 15:26: "If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the Lord, am your healer."

Did they know about microbiology? No. Did they know that doing what God said was related to their health? They most certainly did.

Biblical rules for sexual relations are rapidly being ground underfoot in these days of "free love" and so-called "enlightened use of our bodies." Marital fidelity, prohibition of homosexual relations, and forbiddance of sex outside of marriage are viewed by many today as relics of a can’t-be-too-soon-forgotten past.

Yeah. And that’s why we have an A.I.D.S. epidemic. It’s also why Syphilis and Gonorrhea have not disappeared but are still with us. The World Health Organization estimates that each year there are 250 million new cases of Gonorrhea and 50 million new cases of syphilis worldwide. 20 million people died of AIDS between 1981 and 2003.(9) 37.8 million people are living with HIV/AIDS today. 12 million children living in Sub-Saharan Africa had been orphaned by AIDS at the end of 2003.(10)

The African country of Uganda, one of many such African nations devastated by HIV/AIDS, out of desperation, began a campaign a few years ago to educate its citizens on the dangers of illicit sex. In a public education push, they stressed postponing sex until marriage and faithfulness to one partner. Through these means they have reduced the rate of HIV/AIDS infection as much as 75%. "The outcome was equivalent to a highly effective vaccine," said those who did the research.(11)

If we had time I would read you a few of the straight forward passages of the Bible that deal with sexuality.(12) Suffice it to say here that men today would still do well to adopt or readopt the moral principles of the Bible in this area.

By the way, the idea of sexual restraint outside of marriage is another rather unique teaching of the Bible. Other religious systems are far more promiscuous. Shinto has virtually no moral code. Hinduism has little in the area of restriction on marital faithfulness. Islam allowed a husband to cohabit with an unlimited number of slave women. The ancient Egyptians were known for their loose morals. Only the Bible places restrictions exactly where they need to be, and that is sex within the bounds of monogamous marriage.(13)

There are many more things that could be said on this subject of the Bible and medicine. I’ve only scratched the surface in the limitations of our time. For now just let me say that there is evidence in the area of scientific foreknowledge that is compelling in producing faith in the Bible as the word of God. It is available to any and all who are willing to investigate. We’ve considered astronomy. We’ve looked at medicine. Next Sunday, Lord willing, we’ll consider the Bible and earth science. I hope you’ll be here.

Footnotes: Please use your back button to return to your place.

1. http://www.whonamedit.com/synd.cfm/443.html
2. Kenny Barfield, Why the Bible is Number One, The World's Sacred Writings in the Light of Science, 1988, Baker Bookhouse, Grand Rapids, MI, 49516. I am indebted to Brother Barfield for compiling in his book much of the material I have used in this sermon. The book is currently out of print but might still be available in used bookstore outlets. I highly recommend it.
3. Deuteronomy 8:10
4. Jeremiah 10:2-3
5. Isaiah 47:12-14
6. Matthew 10:1: "…He gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. NAS
7. Acts 5:16: "And also the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits; and they were all being healed." NAS
8. http://www.microscopeworld.com/misc/history-of-the-microscope.htm Also see: http://www-micro.msb.le.ac.uk/109/History.html
9. http://aids.about.com/od/dataandstatistics/qt/worldstats.htm
10. Ibid.
11. http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/apr/04043004.html
12. Proverbs 7:4-27; Leviticus 19:29; Proverbs 5; Mark 10:4-12; 1 Corinthians 6:18; 1 Corinthians 10:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8; Exodus 20:14, 17.
13. Even in the case of ancient Israel where Moses allowed divorce and remarriage "because of their hardness of hearts," Jesus said that the standard of one man with one woman was God’s intent all along. See Matthew 19:8.
14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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