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| Blue passion flower public domain |
ANCIENT MEDICAL PRACTICES
Good day all you fine people! What a beautiful day it is here in North America where spring time is in full bloom. I so love the changes in the seasons and the warmer weather is a welcome part of the year. You folks who live in the southern hemisphere I’m sure are welcoming the cooler weather and the beautiful colors of autumn, another favorite time of the year for me!
And speaking of a change in seasons, it often brings with it colds and the flu and allergies! We have all sorts of medicine nowadays but what did our ancient ancestors use? Surely they knew of some remedies, right?
Back before The Flood, many of the plants we have today were present then. We know this from the fossil record. Also from the fossil record we know there are plants that became extinct from this cataclysmic event. That is sad not just from the loss of diversity but also who knows what great medicinal values we may have lost. For it follows the Law of Logic that when Adam and Eve walked and talked with God that our
Creator taught them not just plants good for food but also those that were good for healing for the Lord would have known what was to come and I would like to think helped prepare them. I would also like to think that the Lord taught them how to test and try different plants for different purposes (i.e. for cuts and bruises and sickness too).
So with this in mind, we see early on in scripture different medical practices put into
play. “The instructions recorded in Leviticus 15 are strikingly similar to modern disease-prevention techniques. For example, anyone touching a person with a ‘running issue’ (that is, a bodily discharge), or anything upon which that person sat or lay, became ‘unclean’. In addition, should the ‘toucher’ touch someone without first having washed his hands, uncleanness would be transferred to the person he touched as well. Just a little more than 100 years ago, these precautions were instituted in modern medical facilities to prevent diseases from spreading. ‘No touch’ surgical and dressing techniques are now used. Gloves are necessary for persons touching infected areas and careful hand washing is observed before and after patient care. In addition, ‘universal precautions’
require that all bodily secretions be treated as potentially infectious agents.”1 A good example of this occurred during the North American civil war. “It would only be in post 1865 that Joseph Lister embarked upon the era of antiseptic surgery. Careful hand washing by
the surgeon of the Civil War was not even done. The doctors wore blood splattered clothes. When something was dropped, it was simply rinsed in cool, often bloody water. They used sponges that had been used in previous cases and simply dipped in cold water before using them again on the next person.”2 So many lives were lost that could have been saved if only people had listened to God’s word.
Deuteronomy 23:12-14 records God’s instructions on burying
their waste material—away from camp. “The Israelites were also admonished to burn used dressings. Garments that contained a growth (perhaps a fungus) were to be washed. If the fungus/growth was removed, the garment was to be rewashed before using again. If not, it was to be burned (Leviticus 13:47—58). Note that a first wash could germinate hardy spores. The new growth could then be removed by rewashing. Objects that were touched by an infected person were to be washed. If the object was pottery, however, washing was insufficient (perhaps due to its porous nature). It was to be destroyed (Leviticus 11:33, 15:12).”3 The ancient Israelites that followed
this practice lived free of many diseases. Yet many ancient cities didn’t practice this and with human filth, rotting garbage and rat and mice over running the city, diseases such as cholera, typhoid, plague and more were prevalent. Not until 22 A.D. when Rome rose to power did this issue become addressed again. The Romans built great aqueducts (over 300 miles) that brought fresh water to the city. This not only brought clean drinking water but also allowed for clean bathing, which they did, every day! Yet centuries before, clean water practices were written in Leviticus. “If the carcass of an animal was found in drinking water, use of the water was forbidden as ‘unclean’. If, however, the water source had a continual supply of fresh
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| Roman aquaduct, Italy public domain |
water, such as a spring, it would remain ‘clean’ because of the tendency of such water to renew itself (Leviticus 11:34—36). In addition, all food and water within a vessel that came in contact with a dead animal or an infected person was declared unclean (Leviticus 11:34, 15:12).”4
The ancient scriptures also speak of isolation practices (Leviticus 13:1-14:57), and wearing coverings over their mouths (Numbers 5:2-4). Something only recently brought into modern medical practice.
Early scripture also deals with burial precautions (Numbers 19:11, 19, 22 and Leviticus 11:24–28, 40), and unlawful lifestyles that spread disease (Leviticus 18:22, 20:10–16 and Exodus 20:14), and God’s plan of husband and wife constituting an exclusive married unit (Genesis 1:27, 2:23–25; Matthew 19:3—6) which would contain disease.
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| Ancient Burial Tomb, Israel |
So even though ancient medical practices were crude and horrible in various parts of the world, other people groups continued to follow God’s instruction until today we have the most sanitized and advanced medical practice known to man.
So when you are told that humans have evolved from apes and the medical practices evolved from crude to advanced along with man’s evolution, you now know this is false. Man had been given advanced and wonderful knowledge of medicinal practices from the very beginning. It was through the fall of mankind and sin entering the world that death and disease became wide spread. The crude practices of various early cultures had nothing to do with evolution but rather with falling away from God. As a
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| Burial graves, Israel |
matter of fact, you can still find crude practices of medicine being utilized today. And I don’t think anybody would consider those humans “less evolved” than humans in the most advanced cultures.
In my novel “Of One Tongue” I mention medical practices. Also in my new novel, next in the series “Sign of the Oth” I have written about several interesting ancient medical practices. The book should be released in about 6 to 8 weeks. Look for “The Golden Strand” at Amazon and other major book stores. Great for high schoolers and up!
Until next time, God bless and take care!
Willow Dressel
References:
Gates, Phil, “The History News Medicine”Candlewick Press, Cambridge, MA, 1997.
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