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Loading...Here is an intriguing guest post! And a controversial one. Did Jesus actually heal people?
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Our guest poster is Doug Wadeson, himself a medical doctor with (obviously) a lifelong interest in healing but also a keen interest in the historical study of the NT Gospels. In this series he combines these two interests and provides some some unusually interesting reflections.
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The Gospels portray Jesus as performing amazing miracles. Some of them have to do with nature, such as calming a storm or turning water into wine. Most have to do with healing a variety of afflictions, including leprosy and possibly other infectious diseases (like Peter’s mother-in-law, and maybe Jairus’ daughter?), blindness, being mute and deaf, paralysis (or some form of crippling disease), one case of a bleeding disorder (maybe dysfunctional uterine bleeding?) and most remarkably, raising two people from the dead.[1] He was also said to exorcise demons which apparently caused seizures and mental disorders, so I would also classify those as healing miracles.
The faithful believe Jesus performed such miracles; after all, he was the Spirit-empowered divine Son of God. Skeptics believe such miracles are purely legendary. But even if so, there likely was some basis for portraying Jesus as a great healer. The Gospels tell us that Jesus believed in the power of prayer (as in Matthew 21:22, “And whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive it all.”), and that he was a compassionate person, caring about the downtrodden and afflicted (as in Matthew 9:36, ‘Seeing the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast, like sheep without a shepherd.’). So, it seems quite reasonable that Jesus would have prayed for those in need of healing. But, did he succeed in healing them? All of them? Some of them? How many would Jesus have to heal in order to secure a reputation as a great healer?
Let’s examine Jesus’ first recorded miracle. In Mark 1:23-28 we read of a man with “an unclean spirit.”[2] When Jesus rebukes the spirit, ‘After throwing him into convulsions and crying out with a loud voice, the unclean spirit came out of him.’ This is not the only story connecting convulsions with demon possession. Later in the same Gospel is a more complete description: “…whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground, and he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes stiff” (see Mark 9:14-29). A classic description of a grand mal seizure, again supposedly caused by demon possession. It is understandable that people of that time would attribute seizures to demon possession. A person seems perfectly normal one moment, and the next he loses control of his faculties and writhes on the ground as if possessed. Lacking a medical explanation, people resorted to a superstitious one.
So, could Jesus heal epilepsy? I would suggest that he did not have to. Seizures tend to be episodic; intervals between seizures can be anywhere from minutes to months. Although seizures can be protracted most are relatively brief, less than two minutes. If you pray for someone having a seizure the odds are that the seizure will end soon. There may be a “post-ictal” period of lethargy but otherwise the person is back to normal. The demon is gone! He has been healed! Thank you, Jesus! If you had a son afflicted in this way and a dynamic religious figure like Jesus prayed for him and the seizure ended, wouldn’t you want to believe that your son was healed (or cleansed)? Jesus had a peripatetic ministry; by the time the next seizure occurred Jesus could have been many miles away. The family might be aware of the relapse, but the disciples traveling with Jesus, who became the tellers of his story, would go away thinking they had witnessed a miracle. (I suspect they did become aware of some relapses, and Jesus addressed that; I’ll discuss it later.)
I have my own “miracle” story concerning epilepsy. I had an acquaintance with a rather persistent form of epilepsy and despite multiple medications he would still have seizures on occasion. Typically he would presage a seizure by getting a glazed look in his eyes and stroking his nose. One day we were at a mutual friend’s house and he got that glazed look in his eyes and started to stroke his nose. So I spoke directly to him, calling him by name and getting his attention.[3] No seizure occurred. Our mutual friend was amazed, “You talked him out a seizure!” It was nothing supernatural. A seizure is an electrochemical storm in the brain that disrupts its normal function. If you can interrupt that cascade of events then the seizure is averted. I got his attention and short-circuited the seizure. Or possibly it just wasn’t going to develop into a full-blown seizure anyway, and I got lucky! (Rather, he got lucky.) That’s all that happened on that day. There was no miracle. But it impressed our friend. As I’m sure Jesus’ disciples were impressed.[4]
It seems that psychiatric disorders were also attributed to demon possession. Later in Mark 5 we meet a man said to be possessed by many demons, such that they called themselves “Legion.” This description sounds like someone severely disturbed: “Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and cutting himself with stones.” Jesus calmly talks to the man, casts the demons out of the man and into a nearby herd of pigs[5], and the man returns to his right mind. Like seizures, psychosis and other mental aberrations can be episodic. Perhaps Jesus was the first person bold enough to engage the man in conversation, rather than confronting him in fear, and this calmed him down. Again, this would have been very impressive to his disciples. It is interesting to note that Jesus does not let the man accompany them, but sends him back home, so his disciples would never know if the healing was permanent.
[1] In one case Jesus raised an unnamed man in Nain according to Luke 7, and in the other He raised up Lazarus in John 11. In each case the miracle is not confirmed by the other Gospels, which is most remarkable in the case of Lazarus since it happened near Jerusalem and that Gospel (alone) says it is the very event that led to Jesus’ eventual arrest and crucifixion!
[2] Most scholars recognize Mark as the earliest Gospel. Paul wrote earlier, but never mentioned any of Jesus’ miracles.
[3] Interestingly, in ancient times it was believed that if you knew the demon’s name you could control him.
[4] Another possibility could be pseudoseizures, which are consciously or unconsciously caused by emotional, social or even financial influences. I have seen several cases in my career. When confronted by an impressive figure like Jesus such a person might forego their seizures, at least until the excitement and attention had faded.
[5] The pigs then rush into the lake and are drowned. Is it possible that Legion scared the pigs into a stampede, but the villagers attributed it to the demons? Or could this be nothing more than a later embellishment?
There was a patient at the hospital my Dad worked at who got a seizure whenever he saw my Dad. The neurologists were fascinated.
Interesting. I hope your dad didn’t take it personally!
Fascinating post. Just a small point re. footnote 1, the raising of Lazarus just *might* be corroborated by Morton Smith’s Secret Gospel of Mark, assuming that it is a genuine document. I take it Douglas will be doing more posts on this topic and I am looking forward to his explanation of how Jesus might have brought the dead back to life.
There were 4 posts in the series, but you’ll need Platinum membership to see them. I don’t think Jesus would have been able to bring a truly dead person back to life. However, I wonder if people of that day would have been less impressed than instantly healing paralysis or leprosy. To resurrect someone “all” you have to do is bring the soul back into the body, which is already there. No problem! Any good medium should be able to bring up a soul! I’m reminded of the craze in the 1800s of equipping graves with escape mechanisms in case one was buried alive. It’s possible people were near death, mistaken for dead, and then recovered, leading to resurrection stories. As for Lazarus, I find it very hard to believe that the other Gospel writers would have ignored such an amazing and important miracle. (Sorry it took me so long to reply!)
Interesting analysis. Thank you for this insightful post!
Thank you. I hope you are (or will be) a platinum member so you can read all 4 posts in the series.
Dr Doug,
This is an underappreciated point.
Consider the money and time discussing the health care system now, imagine the value of and effect of temporary, partial relief to someone and her family for which there is no other kind, or pplace to turn. If it is true that Jesus got angry at some point in being asked to cure someone his anger may have come from his belief that this world is messed up as much as having an inconvenience.
In the last post of the series (there were 4 in all) I go into possible harm from these apparent miracles. Like the tremendous disappointment of seeing your child relapse after being certain they were cured. Like the stigma of people thinking demon possession was the cause of your problem (“What did she do to allow demons into her?!”). Consider the harm done over the centuries from people thinking demons were the cause of certain illnesses rather than physical processes. But on the other hand, Jesus is said to have touched the leper, talked to demoniacs, consorted with the unclean: that would have been comforting and a real lesson for others. (Sorry it took me so long to reply!)
Another factor to consider in the “miracle” stories is that miracle workers were common in those days. Dio Cassius records how Vespasian, in Egypt on his way back to Rome to become emperor,”Vespasian himself healed two persons who had come to him because of a vision seen in dreams. One of them, who had a weak hand, he cured by treading upon that member, and the other one, who was blind, by spitting upon his eyes.” (Dio, Roman History 66.8). The latter “cure” is almost exactly the same method Jesus used in Mark 8:23.
Good article, with practical reasons to doubt divine “healing” powers. There are also scientific reasons to doubt….
QFT (quantum field theory) has removed the possibility of supernatural healing with such exceptional confidence, that it makes no sense believing this sort of thing. Of course back then, they had no idea what QFT was, and few people do today….. but it’s coming. Evolution is nothing, compared with the challenge of QFT to religion/supernatural.
Basically, you have to push around quarks and electrons if you are going to kick out demons, turn water to wine, regrow limbs or rise from the dead, and we know everything that does that. There are no god/devil/soul/ghost fields, forces or particles or we’d know it and they would no longer be supernatural. Or there would still be unexplained interactions – but there aren’t any that are pertinent. QFT has destroyed the supernatural. The world just doesn’t realize it yet. (Note that QFT is a well-understood subset of QM – quantum mechanics, which we are still trying to understand).
The physical changes involved in instantly curing paralysis or blindness are mind-boggling – which is why you have to assign it to magic, I mean, miraculous power. I am sure devout believers will expect God to handle QFT with no problem.
Yes, but doing so makes God a deceiver, a liar, a canard. If he allows us to discover the laws of nature, but they are just an illusion because he controls everything, then he’s a bad god – a two-faced, lying, deceptive god. This would mean that the fact that the moon follows an orbit detailed by physics, is merely a coincidence since it is actually angels guiding it along its path.
This is the same as those YECs who insist that Yahweh planted fossils to test our faith – he’s a deceiver.
Mary Magdalene would be a point against this theory though. Skeptics would still have to say some part of that story in the gospels is legendary or a lie since she stuck around after having demons cast out.
If you believe demons are the cause of your illness, there is no reason to think that once exorcised they cannot return. Jesus addresses this in Matthew 12 (and Luke 11) when he says a demon can go out and return with 7 more demons, so the last state is worst than the first. There are people today who return to their faith healer for repeated healings or exorcisms.
This is a very helpful take, thanks for sharing. In Bible College and Seminary I was been part of many exorcisms where I was both involved in the praying for others and the one being prayed for. I’ve seen some pretty odd things and for a long time I wrapped my fingers around theologies that argue for the existence of demons, the need for exorcisms, the reality of divine healing, etc – I didn’t want to let them go. Nowadays, though … I have a lot of questions. I’m in this place where I’m “deconstructing” so much of what I learned growing up (in a very Evangelical world) and this helps me put words on a lot of things that I’m feeling and wrestling with internally. Thank you!
Hope my thoughts were useful. Most doctors will tell you the human mind is very powerful and it can be a challenge to objectively verify what we perceive and believe. (Sorry it took me a while to reply!)
I concur with your reasoning of seizures as they are understood today and that is your explanation that occurred in Jesus’ time. But then these stories in Scripture become even more remarkable in my view because they infer that Jesus truly was a genius and healed people, in a time where these signs were performed. Where would he get the idea that by talking to someone you can heal them of seizures, in a time when this kind of medical discovery, was probably unlikely and unheard of ? I think most of us today,knowing what we do know, would not expect to go and be healed of demons or whatever by Benny Hinn at a revival.
Bart, any reason for not moderating my post? Does it not meet your standard/guidelines? Or was it just missed?
I can see your original comment, but don’t know how to restore it in this system. Can you ask it again so everyone can see it, and I’ll give my answer.
I think Jesus was a compassionate person and believed in prayer, so it makes sense that he would have prayed for the sick. In some cases, perhaps early on, Jesus saw some people appear to respond and get better. Perhaps this encouraged his belief that he had been chosen by God. If they believed supernatural forces were the cause of the problems, then it makes sense that divine healing would be possible. And even today plenty of people do seek out faith healers for exorcisms and healings (even multiple times!). (Sorry it took a while for me to reply.)
“I suspect they did become aware of some relapses, and Jesus addressed that; I’ll discuss it later.”
Did you forget to cover this, Doug, or is it the subject of a separate post?
That was addressed in a later post; there were 4 in the series. The passage in Matthew 12:43-45 is one: a demon is cast out but then brings back 7 more, so the last state is worse than the first. Mary Magdalene had seven demons cast out; it is possible that this meant Jesus had to exorcise her seven times, suggesting a series of relapses. If you believe demons are the cause of an illness, rather than natural processes, then one might expect relapses, even after a “real” exorcism. Like the title says, “Those darn demons!” (Sorry it took a while for me to reply.)
Thanks for taking the time to reply. This is all quite fascinating. I’d have loved to read the rest of the posts… but alas, I’m not in a position to upgrade to Platinum membership. All I can hope is that we bronze-level commoners might be treated to more of your work in the future 🙂
I think it’s interesting that Asclepius’ “dream cures” were also attested to work for people. And I wonder about psychosomatic illness and pain? I mean almost everyone in the ancient world must have been a bit traumatized.
I always found it weird that bringing people back from the dead is not treated as a bigger deal in the bible. I mean compared to the emphasis on Jesus being resurrected, the authors don’t really seem to be as blown away as they should be by the other resurrections. Those should have been enough!
If you have Platinum access I address neurospychiatric disorders in another post (there are 4 in the series). Yes, I wonder if everybody in the ancient world had some psychological baggage considering how difficult life must have been! As for resurrection, maybe they saw it as simply putting the soul back in the body, which didn’t seem as hard as healing paralysis or leprosy? I mean, any really good medium should be able to conjure up a spirit, right?
I signed up so I could read the rest, but I’m not sure how to find the rest of the series.
Send a note to my assistant by clicking Help then Contact Support.
You can use the Search feature at top of page, search for “Wadeson”, but you’ll have to sort out the 4 posts from the others I’ve written. (Dr. E has been too generous in letting me write Platinum posts!)
Cannabis alleviates epilepsy. There’s archaeological proof of cannabis in the First Century Levant.
Did the peasants have access to any of that? No bc they poor. (Many were poorer than the ethnically Jewish. Herod’s big project was force-immigrating marginal peoples to Galilee, as whole towns had been abandoned from Assyrian conflict.)
John 4:1 -2
Jesus had learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John—although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples.
Jesus’ disciples did the dunking, but Jesus was credited with the baptisms. It’s not implausible to think that Jesus did the important spiritual healing, and his disciples followed up with the aftercare.
We also have disciple women making ointments in the NT.
Healthcare in Judea consisted of exiling your butt outside city walls until you figure out how you ticked off God. So, toclays (Capernaum, meaning “town of healing” is famous for its miracle clay), ointment, love, food, and denarii, and you could heal people you select out of a crowd even in Yemen today.
Who had kaneh-bosm, myrrh, frankincense, ephedra, poppies? Nabataea. Chuza-funded, magi-chosen.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jan/06/science.religion
You might want to get the book “The Immortality Key” by Brian Muraresku as he goes into great detail about possible drug use in ancient religions including early Christianity.
Legion I think is code for, idk, the Roman Legion?
Gerasa is bundled into resistors-par-excelançe Nabataea in the handover of Arabia Petria in AD 106. Gerasa’s Christian church is built on top of Nabataea’s “Lord of Heaven” temple. The middle layer is Dionysian — King ‘Philhelene started that. They love wine!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerash_Cathedral
Matthew changes it to Gadara nearby, but Marcan primacy.
Jesus wanted to have himself equated to a Vespasian or an Obodas. He starts winning hearts and minds with free food and healthcare after Antipas oomfed Phaesalis. The Queen of Galilee was a Nabataean, right?
“And he works without reward or favor, and he, when death tried to claim us, did not let it claim us, for when a wound of us festered, he did not let us perish.”
“Life-giver and savior to his people.” Nab graffiti, around-ish the First Century:
https://www.livius.org/sources/content/nabataean-inscriptions/
Jesus was under zero moral obligation to disclose trade secrets. Big pharma doesn’t
even disclose their molecules in 2021. He needed to take credit to be perceived as king material.
Jesus’ table-flipping game the weakest tho, ngl. Casual reminder that Jewish messianic prophesies were not about free healthcare, food, or being the “servant of all” — those are Nab royal family duties.
“Legion” could simply be indicative of a large group of enemies, in this case demons instead of soldiers. In regard to your last statement: I think Jesus envisioned the coming kingdom of God as a place where things like hunger and sickness would be done away with. Over time his teaching may have been morphed into stories of him accomplishing such things during his ministry. Or as I suggested, maybe he had some “successes” that were embellished into stories of great healings. Always hard to know without good evidence.
Thank you for responding to me Fishician! I hadn’t figured out the system yet. Stoked you replied! 😊
The Kingdom of Heaven is a real place with a spiritual counterpart, just like bread and wine are real food and beverages with spiritual counterparts.
The Kingdom of Heaven was Nabataea.
The Queen of the Jews was Nabataean.
The Queen of Galilee was Nabataean.
You wouldn’t debate the last two of those statements, right?
Antipater the Idumean is the founder of the Herodian dynasty and local ruler of Judea. Antipater’s parents are Arabs forced to convert to Judaism, per Josephus. Cyprus the Nabataean is his queen.
Romans wouldn’t let his formal title be king, but the NT refers to Antipas as King, so I’m using NT conventions.
Herod the Great is halfie Nab. He marries a Hasmonean *Jewish* second wife and appeases the people.
The Queen of Galilee is 100% Nabataean. Phaesalis is King Aretas IV Philopatris’ daughter, and 1/4 Nab Herod Antipa’s first wife.
Herod Antipas then marries a Jewish Hasmonean second wife, Herodias.
This starts the war that Josephus says is payback for John the Baptist.
Can you tell me why a Nabataean King would be fighting a Jewish king for executing Jewish John the Baptist?
https://www.ccel.org/ccel/josephus/complete.ii.xix.v.html
Great pun btw!🐠🧑⚕️I think Jesus loved wordplay too.
Nabataea’s supreme diety is the Lord of Heaven. Like Yahweh being originally a copper-smelting god and son of Ēl, Dushara originally referred to the Shara mountains — which are like 6X the height of Jewish mountains.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_(deity)
Lord Heaven is also a statue, like Lady Liberty. If Star Trek opens with rebels on an alternate Earth defending the Kingdom of Liberty, I’m giving you 10 minutes to figure out what country they’re referring to 😅
I don’t know if you’ve had the misfortune of reading about the fate of rebels and royal aspirers in Near East kingdoms, but they make Rome look like Disneyland.
So rebels might mix in code:
•Roman demon Legion
• Barabas, Barbarian Son of Man/Son of Rabbi
• 666 for Nero
Mark 4:11
And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, everything is done in parables,
Antipa/Antipater = Anti Father
Philopatris = Loving Father
Latin/Greek Decathlon schism +
Antipater sent his kids away to Nabataea, too!
Magi come from a single country to the East with frankincence, gold, and myrrh. Why would foreigners declaring who they back for King of the Jews even be allowed?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menahem_the_Essene
Please tell us a book by Dr. Wadeson is in the works (?)
Also, is there a consensus in scholarship as to the reason that Paul didn’t discuss Jesus’ miracles? Because he didn’t know about them? Or didn’t believe they proved anything about the importance of Jesus, because they weren’t any more spectacular than the miracles of other faith healers? Other?
Thank you, platinum members! Good choice.
Perhaps Dr. Ehrman will chime in on this one. My humble opinion is that Paul may have been converted early enough that the resurrection of Jesus was the only miracle he heard about (and in a sense experienced when he had his own vision of the risen Jesus). And he may have been educated enough to recognize that miracle stories at that time were common but very suspect. And ultimately I don’t think the miracles add anything to Paul’s message, which is so focused on Jesus’ resurrection. Paul’s writings are all letters to people and churches and even if he knew miracle stories he may not have found it necessary to mention them in those letters. I wish he had said something one way or another about Jesus’ miracles, but alas! (A book, huh? I have thought about going through the Bible from a medical perspective. There’s some real psychopathology to talk about in some of the characters…)
The question is whether or not the psychiatric “miracles” scenes were intentionally fabricated by Jesus and his followers to look real as part of a manipulative practice to attract poeple to the new religion(competing with the status quo).
It is clear throughout the Gospels that the demonic episodes are intentionally used over and over again to emphasize the supernatural nature of Jesus. Amazingly, the demonic healing trick works very well for the majority of the crowd, being a temporary symptom that may spontaneously vanish by itself.
Back to the siezures. I think that most probably the observable symptoms of epilepsy seizures, pseudoseizures and psychiatric disorders were known conditions to some people(maybe Greek) that lived during Jesus time and even before. Of course, for the majority of uneducated crowd, the causes of all were probably attributed to concepts within the superstition-based belief system at that time.
We may assume that at least a minority of obervers knew that the type of “miracles” of healing psychiatric cases were not life-long permanent cure.
Again, the main question is Did Jesus and his followers know what they were doing?
I don’t know if you have Platinum access to see all 4 posts of the series, but that’s a question I also consider. Jesus and his disciples could have staged miracles either as demonstrations of the glorious life in the coming kingdom of God, or as actual deceptions. Since the stories of Jesus were spread by those who saw him as a divinely gifted being I doubt we will ever see any alternate explanations from his time, so we are left to speculate.
Are there other diseases that are also episodic and therefore the lack of symptoms could be interpreted as a cure, e.g. my eczema flare ups from time to time? Could any of these diseases be tied to the supposed miracles recorded in the gospels?
True eczema probably isn’t going to resolve quickly enough to look like a miracle healing, but possible. I suspect a variety of skin diseases like psoriasis may have been mistaken for leprosy. Perhaps they would go into remission enough to spawn some stories of miraculous healing of leprosy. Some types of urticaria, like dermatographic urticaria, could appear on the skin, even caused by intense emotions, and then fade quickly, suggesting some sort of healing. Jesus was said to heal Peter’s mother-in-law who had a fever: lots of causes of fever, some of which could fade quickly. If you have Platinum access to the full set of 4 posts I go into some other possibilities. Neuropsychiatric disorder can mimic various conditions, for example, and could have a sudden remission looking like an apparent sudden healing.
Maybe Jesus never did any healing. I can’t think of any historically famous person who was famous because of doing miracles. Great religious leaders are famous for their teaching and ideas, not miracles (cf Buddha, Mohammed) Same with other famous people (see Vespacian above). I doubt that people can become historically famous for miracles. Believing in miracles is hard and self refuting because even if you had faith, relying on that faith for the next miracle is bound to disappoint. Even Jesus’s apostles had no faith according to Jesus. I rather think that all miracles stories are added by later story tellers.
I tend to think that Jesus’ message would be more powerful today if it were not obscured by the miracle stories. But maybe in the first few centuries they were necessary to get people’s attention and impress them? Still, I prefer teachings which can stand on their own against miracle stories that can’t be verified.
Googling Saul of Tarsus, vision, Paul, Tarsus, blindness in different groupings with methanol yields 0 results, why?
Lasts 45 to 90 hours. Can be skin contact, inhalation, or ingestion. Antidote is ethanol. There is only one case of non-reversible vision stuff, in acute exposure, in an NIH overview.
“Methanol is a clear, colourless and volatile fluid which smells and tastes like ethanol and therefore it is difficult to differentiate methanol from alcohol”:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4222078/?utm_source=pocket_mylist
Poisoning is all over First Century literature like Josephus’.
[Berean Literal Bible]
Acts 9:1-2
“Meanwhile, Saul still breathing out threats and murder toward the disciples of the Lord, having gone to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.”
2 Corinthians 11:32
“In Damascus the governor under the king Aretas was guarding the city of the Damascenes to seize me.”
Romans 16:11
“Greet Herodion, my kinsman.”
Saul = Team Herod☹️
Ananias = Team Aretas🙂
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abgarid_dynasty
Jesus’ ministry activates when Phaesalis escapes Herod. Daddy Aretas then beats Herodian butt in AD 34, AD 35, AD 36.
What are Nabs known to communicate with? Flashes of light.
Continued –
Don’t need an antidote for methanol exposure, categorically. It just metabolizes.
Jesus smiting and reviving Saul pre-figures Saul’s ‘second death’. Rites of passage were common in preliterate societies. It being the binding of Ishmael, not Isaac, to the East, bolsters that.
Aretas was unconvinced of a Herod-hugger flipping pro Jesus. But as we know, he did.
With Jesus’ one-year mission over (bridegrooms have a one-year waiting period), it takes several people to replace his skills:
•Saul, adoptee of royalty, like Jesus being chosen by magi. Diplomacy.
• Luke the physician. People formally called physician were scarce — the best are Roman military physicians:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legio_III_Cyrenaica
“In the first century AD, it was usually located in Arabia Petraea.” 🙂
My bet being Luke is Lucius of Cyrene. The very non-cannon Cayce readings say that Luke has a Roman dad, Greek mom.
Roman Dad had a Samaritan second wife. (Their daughter is Luke’s sister, matches me in the readings.) Church of Laodicea reps the 7th chakra in the BoR.
• James, his half-brother helps the Jews.
• Peter the illiterate mysoginist
Nabs were known for bitumen boats on the Dead Sea, but Essenes don’t float. So Jesus recruits fishermen, an armed guard Sicarii for the moneybag, and a moneyman.
Your acquaintance might have temporal lobe seizures. Though there are many kinds as you know. My mother had those. I grew up watching for the glazed look in her eyes and the stare into space while the seizure lasted. Afterward she nearly always had a bout of depression. Partly due to embarrassment because of the lack of awareness and knowing she would walk and talk but couldn’t make sense and partly because of the return of normal mental processing. I have tons of stories about this. Some involving incidents while driving. There was always a real safety concern. Though it was “controlled” with medication.
In another post in the series (there were 4) I also go into pseudoseizures and neuropsychiatric disorder, which can mimic seizures and other conditions. There are those who think Jesus used psychoactive substances like marijuana in his healings, and some drugs like this might actually help with seizures. Interesting notion, but a bit too speculative, even for me.
Good launching point about the interruption of neurological cascades —
1. I think even “less-educated” First Century folks would be aware of its normal duration/rate of occurrence for themselves? — and would only be impressed by a significant reduction.
2. There were distractions then, just maybe not entrainment. Mirror neurons, or a similar pathway, may let very well people be a tuning fork:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/entrainment#:~:text=Entrainment%20is%20an%20important%20characteristic,alignment%20(Cummins%2C%202009).
Brain waves are frequencies — Alphabet company (Google) Verily’s moonshot is a Vagus Nerve Stimulator that uses frequencies to potentially “replace all drugs,” by directing the body into creating the analogous molecule:
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/kris-famm-galvani-bioelectronics-wired-health-2017
And VNS is now FDA-approved to alleviate the condition you describe: https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/vagus-nerve-stimulation/about/pac-20384565
On to exsorceism — experiment 2021. Someone goes into a prison and says, “Who wants to be blamelessly reintegrated into society?”
hands go up
“Ok, just put the rap on [funny word]. Free to go!”
Many people would be on their best behavior to prove it. Idk if you’ve ever lived near a community with ancient resource challenges, but even “pre-verbal”
negative attention-seeking can persist to adulthood:
https://www.cdc.gov/parents/essentials/consequences/ignoring.html
Notice these events take place in public.
It’s possible that satisfying that need for drama through Jesus’ “blame-relief practice” helps, along with the community buy-in.
Ofc, there is room for relapse, heh:
Matthew 12:43-45
Distance healing would merit my greatest skepticism, but then we have Google’s “time crystal”:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/08/12/timecrystal-google/
Imo, you’d need a person exceptionally healthy in the area of focus to be an entrainer. The 12 apostles are presumably young and cardio-fit HRV superstars in Jesus’ time. If doing it as intercession, physical presence overall would be adjusted by the physical and mental health of the practitioner. This is where laying of hands people seem to not do that.
Also, idk if people know that nocebos were reported to be especially strong in pre-literate societies:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150210-can-you-think-yourself-to-death
Placebos, ofc, work so well that they are the standard to beat in all drug trials.
To return to Saul of Tarsus, where I can’t seem to find Christian speculation on the actual cause of his uh, temporary issue:
https://slate.com/technology/2010/02/the-little-told-story-of-how-the-u-s-government-poisoned-alcohol-during-prohibition.html
After 1933, the gov switched from mandating “denaturing” (a euphemism, because it’s not the chemical process called denaturing) to heavily taxing non-denatured alcohol. Offloading responsibility.
The least monetarily-wealthy are thus disporportionately affected, like the indigenous American community in this article. Can’t we expect something better from the gov?
https://www.sacbee.com/news/coronavirus/article244359087.html
One gov, Nabataea-like New Zealand, has stepped up to change that
Congrats on so many comments, Dr. Wadeson!
Did some NT reading (yep, haven’t read the whole thing yet as an adult)
• Couching, lens dislocation for relief of cataract symptoms, is practiced to this day. Noted since at least the 5th century BC. 30% fully manual in this study:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3743109/
Mark 8:22-26
…He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”
Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
Not sure how well Paul’s vision healing went.
Acts 23:5
Paul replied, “Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest…”
• Kollourion enchrisai is eye ointmenting in Revelation 3:18. So it may be that Dr. Jesus leaves ointment application to the nursepostles.
John 9:6
When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,
•Saliva is “rich in antimicrobial compounds such as hydrogen peroxide, lactoferrin, and lysozymes”:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6855406/
•Galilee clay is 69% smectite — an adsorbant widely used in modern medicine:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diosmectite
Matthew 19:21-22
Jesus: “…come, follow Me.”
Entrainment or steady hands? Jesus offers apprenticeship to a *young* (repeated 2X) man, and not to a willing Gerasene.
In my opinion, the Gerasene/Gadarene demoniac story has no historical basis. It notoriously does not make sense geographically speaking; it takes place in a gentile city while Jesus probably kept his teachings to Jewish communities; the seams before and after the story are noticeable; it goes against the Markan theme of Messianic Secret; and so on. It may as well have been a later addition to Mark, who knows?
I too don’t think it’s historical, but I do think it was original to Mark. There are no indications to suggest otherwise.
Well, between an expert’s opinion and a highly speculative guess, I stay with the expert.
It could be a complete fabrication, but as with any story in the Gospels it is impossible to say that there was not some historical basis. Perhaps Jesus was in the habit of speaking to people thought to be possessed (in reality suffering from a neurobiological disorder) and in some cases seemed to have a calming effect, interpreted as healing. Over time who knows how the details were changed, enhanced or added, until written down 40 years after the inciting events. For example, when Matthew tells the story, (Matt. 8) it’s two demoniacs, not one. Did he hear a different version of the story, or simply thought two demoniacs are better than one? Who knows?!
Matthew had the habit of doubling things from Mark, for double the dramatic effect.
Yes, it is ultimately impossible to say what has historical basis and what hasn’t, but I personally find it very improbable that this particular story is historical.
Interesting. So what about “I suspect they did become aware of some relapses, and Jesus addressed that; I’ll discuss it later”? You forgot that later discussion, but I think you were thinking of the woman who had 7 demons cast out of her, Maria of Magdala, and the others who travelled with them. If your hypothesis is sound they should all have seen relapses but how do you mean Jesus addressed this?
That was addressed in a later post; there were 4 in the series. The passage in Matthew 12:43-45 is one: a demon is cast out but then brings back 7 more, so the last state is worse than the first. Mary Magdalene had seven demons cast out; it is possible that this meant Jesus had to exorcise her seven times, suggesting a series of relapses. If you believe demons are the cause of an illness, rather than natural processes, then one might expect relapses, even after a “real” exorcism. Like the title says, “Those darn demons!”