Table Of ContentLouise Wells
The Greek language of healing from
Homer to New Testament times
W
DE
G
Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die
neutestamentliche Wissenschaft
und die Kunde der älteren Kirche
Herausgegeben von
Erich Gräßer
Band 83
Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York
1998
Louise Wells
The Greek language of healing
from Homer to New Testament times
Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York
1998
@ Printed on acid-ftee which falk within the guidelines of the ANSI
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Dit Dmtscbt Bibliothek - Catalogng-in-Pubücaíion Data
[Zeitschrift füf die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die
lEunde der älteren Kirche / Beihefte]
Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und
die Kunde der älteren Kirche. - Berlin ; New York : de Gruyter
Früher Schriftenreihe
Reihe Beihefte zu; Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche Wissen-
schaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche
Bd. 83. Wells, Louise: The Greek language of healing from Ho-
mer to New Testament times. - 1998
Wells, Louise:
The Greek language of healing &om Homer to New Testament
times / Louise WeUs. - Berlin ; New York : de Gruyter, 1998
(Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die neutestamendiche Wissenschaft
und die Kunde der älteren Kirche ; Bd. 83)
Zu^.: Diss., 1993
ISBN 3-11-015389-0
ISSN 0171-6441
© Copyright 1998 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co., D-10785 Berlin
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Printed in Germany
Printing: Werner Hildebrand, Berlin
Binding: Lüderitz & Bauer-GmbH, Berlin
For my family
Preface
The problem of suffering has preoccupied mankind since the
earliest times. From the time of Homer to the present day humans
have constantly searched for a solution to their suffering and an
understanding of it. This study focuses on two expressions of this
search through a study of the Greek language of healing: the
healing cult of Asklepios, which flourished in the Mediterranean
world from the fifth century ВС to the fourth century AD, and that
of Jesus of Nazareth, whose healing ministry began in the first
century AD, supplanted that of Asklepios in the fourth century
AD, and is still in existence today. The investigation does not
consider whether physical healings actually occurred; rather it is an
exploration of the meaning of the general terms used to describe
the healings recorded.
The study is in two parts: Part One contains the argument. Part
Two the texts and translations (or analysis of texts) on which the
argument is based. Usually only the primary texts in which
language has been discussed are cited in the bibliography, other-
wise reference to primary sources is made by the usual method in
footnotes.
Part One is in two sections: Section One begins with the use of
healing language in the work of Homer, and traces the devel-
opment of this semantic field through a study of the language
surrounding the cult of Asklepios at Epidauros, Athens, Kos and
Pergamon. These four centres were chosen because they illustrate
the differing nature of the cult over the period of its existence.
Epidauros was a major colonising sanctuary, and remained a
major centre of pilgrimage throughout its existence; Athens
became a state cult and so illustrates a parochial and familial
quality; Kos was the centre of a major medical school; and
Pergamon was both the cult focus of a major hellenistic monarchy,
and the site where the great Galen practised medicine. Thus a focus
on these four centres allows a study of a breadth of sources, from
before the time of Hippokrates until the time of Galen. Naturally
the study of sources is not exhaustive. A selection was made from
as wide a field as possible to illustrate the use of general healing
terms in inscriptions and literature over the longest possible
timespan.
Vlii Preface
After a bridging survey of the Jewish use of this semantic field in
the Septuagint, together with complementary material from Philo
of Alexandria, and Josephus, Section Two focuses on the meaning
of the same semantic field in the New Testament. A linguistic
survey of Hebrew and Aramaic documents is excluded, as being
outside the scope of the topic, in terms of both space and relevance.
Central to this study are the human concepts of health and
wholeness, and of the relationship of mind and body, spirit and
soul, and the language used to express these concepts and
relatior\ships. Especially significant are the forms and usage of
θίραπευω, Ιαομαι, υγιαίνω, σ^ζω, and their derivatives. It will be
seen that θ€ραπ€υω and Ιαομαι, while overlapping slightly in
meaning, are not synonymous in a healing context, and that there
is an aspectual quality implicit in each that is important for our
understanding of them. As well, from its first appearance in
cognate form in the work of Homer, the verb θ€ραπ€υω over time
burgeons in meaning to include emotional, physical, spiritual, and
psychological factors (although these factors are foreshadowed in
the characteristics of the Homeric θ € pati ων), until, in a teaching
context, its focus is primarily spiritual. In contrast, the meaning of
the other verb groups remains reasonably static. Thus these
characteristics, noted in Section One, reflected in the healing
language of the Septuagint, and corroborated by contemporary
Jewish authors writing in Greek, are important for our under-
standing of the appearance of these word groups in the New
Testament.
I owe acknowledgement to those who have made the research
for this book possible: the Commonwealth of Australia for the
award of a postgraduate scholarship; the Tasmanian Friends of the
Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens for a scholarship
which enabled me to travel to Greece, stay at the Institute Hostel in
Athens for three months and read at the libraries of the foreign
schools there; the Classics Department of the University of
Tasmania for the award of a Dunbabin Scholarship which enabled
me to travel to the archaeological sites of asklepieia in Greece and
Turkey; the staff of the museums at Athens, Bergama, Epidauros,
Korinth, Kos, and Piraeus for permission to photograph exhibits;
and the staff of the Epigraphical Museum at Athens for permission
to work there and to photograph some of the stones. The debt I
owe to Ludwig and Emma Edelstein will also become obvious.
Their collection of testimonies concerning the cult of Asklepios
has been an invaluable resource for this study.
Preface ix
I would also like to thank the staff of Walter de Gruyter & Co. for
their interest and patience. I have appreciated their goodwill and
assistance.
There are a number of special people who in one way or another
have greatly enriched my life, and my work, and whom I would
like to name. Of my teachers: Professors Kussel Ward, Portia
Robinson, Raoul Mortley, Max Wilcox, and Paul Weaver. Others
whom I would like to mention for support of differing kinds are
Barbara Chisholm, John Bishop, Mary Bagnali, Marrüe Yeates, Ted
Nixon, Frank Clarke, Janice Crowley, Robert Barnes, Greg Horsley,
Michael Lattke, Frank Moloney, Iain Lonie, Hermann Kienast,
Martin Schäfer, George Cresswell, Rudy Quadfasel, Andy Heron,
Nancy Bookidis, Stuart Godfrey, Ellen Malm, Robert Wesley-
Smith, Barbara Johnson, Warwick Cuthbertson, Owen Dowling,
Jermy Day, Patsy Graham, Beatrice Newton, and Jocelyn and Bill
Windeyer. To them all my grateful thanks.
Last and most of all I would like to thank my family, particularly
my husband and children, for their continuing support and
encouragement. My especial thanks to my husband Graham, who
not only encouraged my postgraduate studies, but also toiled over
my drawings to reproduce the maps in Appendices 1:1 and 1:2, and
supervised the type-setting of the entire work for publication.
All mistakes are, of course, my own.
Louise Wells 17 September, 1997
