picture of doctor hands holding white pack and pills

by Brian Shilhavy


To answer the question “Do doctors really heal?” one must first define the term “health,” to understand what it is doctors are supposed to be restoring, and then we need to define the word “doctor.”

As was discussed in a previous article, the concept of “health” was understood very different among the ancients in biblical times. Among the people of faith, health was defined in terms of a proper understanding of truth, and a restored relationship with God which was provided with Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

So if we understand health the way ancient people in the Bible understood the term, the answer would be that most modern day doctors who are licensed physicians and practice medicine generally are not healers in terms of helping people to understand the truth of God, and come into a restored relationship with him through Jesus Christ.

What was once the domain of spiritual leaders is now the domain of the pharmaceutical industry.

As we saw in the article on “health,” when we compared how modern English understands the word “health” with how people in biblical times would understand the same concept, so too the word “doctor” or “physician” in modern English takes on a completely different meaning from what people in biblical times would understand when using words that are today translated into our English words “doctor” or “physician.”

Starting with the verse above from the Gospel of Mark, we see that the term “doctors” is used negatively in terms of being able to heal someone, while faith in Jesus brought about healing:







But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.


He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.“(Mark 5:24-34)

What the “doctors” could not do for 12 years while taking all of her money for their services and products, Jesus accomplished in a moment through the faith of the woman – free of charge.

Who were “Doctors” in the Ancient World?

So who were these “doctors?” How was this title used in biblical times?

When we use this word today in English, we automatically imagine someone in a white coat at a clinic or hospital who examines people and prescribes medicine or other medical procedures designed to deal with physical sicknesses.

We would not think of a “doctor” as someone who looks at spiritual issues in addition to physical issues, and tries to find remedies through invoking certain spirits, through incantations, spells, or magic.

We would not imagine someone working in a temple offering up sacrifices to “gods” as bearing the title “doctor.”

No, we would not imagine “doctors” like this today in the “modern” world. Since the days of “enlightenment” and since the time of Darwin and the new age of Darwinian-based “science,” such practices have for the most part ceased to be a part of popular western culture.

When you see the English word “doctor” or “physician” in the biblical literature, however, this is just how the word was understood in those days. They were usually temple priests, seen as having experience with the spiritual world, in addition to experience with physical remedies.

They bore some resemblance to the doctors people pay to see today, in that they accepted money in exchange for “health” services or products.

But the types of services and products were vastly different in the ancient world. Dealing only with the physical realm and only physical health is a recent development in human history, particularly post Darwin and the theory of Darwinian biological evolution.

In the ancient world, if you went to see a doctor you would most likely be going to some temple where sacrifices were made to appease the spirits or gods that were causing the illness, and trying to get on the good side of the spirits or gods that supposedly had the power to heal you.

There were also physical remedies that were used in the physical realm. The Greeks, for example, were strong in empiricism and rationalism and used empirical examinations to find causes and effects to problems.

But they combined this with their belief system in their gods, especially Apollo who for a period of Greek history was considered the mediator of healing between men and Zeus, one of the highest Greek gods.

Depiction of Temple of Artemis in Ephesus. The apostle Paul’s healing ministry during the first century greatly disturbed its business. See Acts 19.
Photo courtesy of psu.edu




When Paul and Barnabas conducted a healing in the name of Jesus in the Roman town of Lystra on one of their missionary excursions, for example, the people were so impressed with the healing that they concluded the Greek gods themselves, whom they associated with healing, had come down to visit them.

They called out the town priest to offer the appropriate sacrifices.

This was not some remote secluded tribal area, but a major metropolitan area in a very advanced western culture. They understood the spiritual realm, and they understood that healing was not only related to the physical realm.



At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.



The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them. (Acts 14:8-13)

Healing Apart from God is Idolatry

Understanding then how “doctors” performed their healing arts in ancient times, it is easy to see why the nation of Israel was forbidden to participate in the healing arts of magic and witchcraft which called upon the spirit world.

They were to only worship the one true God and depend solely on him, since he is the Creator of the universe and more powerful than lower, created spirits that the physicians relied upon.

And since God had miraculously delivered the Israelites from their bondage and slavery to Egypt, they had a contract with God to serve Him only.

The whole confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh in Egypt was a confrontation between the one true God of the universe and the Egyptian gods over the power of sickness and healing.

God won, the Egyptian gods (who performed real magic) lost.

Therefore, depending upon other “gods” for healing was idolatry, and strictly forbidden in the Jewish laws.

So when we read about what King Asa did when he was crippled in his feet and how he went to the “physicians” instead of to the LORD, we may be tempted to think “What was so bad about that?” given modern day Christians’ acceptance and high regard of the current medical-pharmaceutical system.

But what was more than likely happening was that the King of Israel was running away from God and was seeking a pagan priest with his magic, spells, and potions instead of seeking the one true God of Israel through the Levitical priests:


This was considered idolatry, and something that God hated. Israel’s belief and service to the one true God was what separated them from all the other pagan nations around them.

Old Testament Priests were the authorities in healing. Incense and anointing oils were commonly used.

These sins of idolatry are also prohibited in the New Testament biblical writings.

One of the more interesting Greek words that is usually translated as “witchcraft” or “sorcery” in English is pharmakeia, from which we get such English words as “pharmacy” or “pharmaceutical.”

Outside of the biblical texts, it would probably most often be translated into English as “medicine.” It is used in Galatians 5:20:


Can you imagine using the English word “medicines” in place of “witchcraft” in the list of sins in the verses above? Obviously the modern translators of the English Bible could not, and yet that was the word the ancients would have used for our modern day word “medicine.”

It is also used in the book of Revelations in a couple of places:


In this verse the word pharmakeia is translated “magic arts.” It is used below in referring to Babylon:


Here the word pharmakeia is translated “magic spell.” Again, “medicine” did not seem appropriate to the translators in these verses, because of the current acceptance and understanding we have in the word and concept of “medicine.”

When we look at the word group for “physician” in the New Testament, we see the verb form of that word was used quite a bit for the activity of Jesus, such as:


The verb “healing” here comes from the same root word used in the noun “physician” in Mark 5:26 above.

Interestingly, it is in Luke’s writings where this verb form of the word was used most often to describe the healing ministry of Jesus.

Could this be because Luke was at one time numbered among the pagan physicians, but now had turned to the true healer and had become like Jesus in looking after men’s souls?

When Paul referred to Luke as a “physician” he qualified it with the word “beloved,” no doubt to distinguish him from the commonly understood meaning of that word among the pagans who practiced magic and witchcraft: “Luke, the beloved physician, sends you his greetings…”(Colossians 4:14)

I think Luke chose this particular word to describe Jesus’ healing ministry to distinguish him from the professional physicians of his day who could not accomplish true healing.

So when we use the English word “doctor” today, and try to understand how people in the ancient cultures would have understood this term, we need to think in terms of temple priests, who although they may have sold certain remedies to be ingested, also offered up sacrifices and practiced in the spiritual arts as well, such as magic.

The Jewish people did not seek out these “doctors,” but instead went to the Jewish priests in their own temple or synagogue, as this is what was prescribed in the Law of Moses.

Jesus and His Disciples – Healers for the Modern Ages

When Jesus arrived on the scene in the first century, he presented a huge conflict to the ruling priests, because he went around healing everyone, (and more effectively than they did!) challenging their authority as he was from among the common people, without the formal education they had.

Jesus’ authority came directly from God, and he passed this authority on to his disciples who were also common men with no formal education. (See: The Authority to Heal)


The Exhortation to the Apostles – by Tissot, Brooklyn Museum. These “common” men with no formal education changed the world.
Source Wikimedia

The Levitical priesthood was replaced in the New Testament with the “priesthood” of  believers, where everyone who believes in Jesus now has the same authority to heal that Jesus had.






Jesus, although not from the tribe of Aaron that the Old Testament priests were descended from, took on the permanent role of high priest: but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood.  (Hebrews 7:24)

James, the brother of Jesus, wrote instructions for believers to follow in matters of healing, and it did not include seeking out “doctors”:



The acts of the early disciples of Jesus are recorded in the Book of Acts, where common men went throughout the entire Roman world, practicing the principles Jesus had taught them, challenging the “doctors” and health authorities of their day, both in the Jewish as well as in the Greek communities. Their success in healing people is well documented in the biblical records.

Who are you trusting in today for your healing? Do you hold on to a belief system based on Darwinian evolution that sees “health” as purely a physical condition? Because that is the system of “healing” that is licensed today, and based on pharmaceutical products with the presupposition that all sickness is a result of physical causes only.

There is no room in modern medicine, which is really a system developed from Darwinian biology, to consider spiritual causes at all.

Or have you come to understand the biblical definition of health which defines health in terms of our relationship to our Creator? There is only one physician who brings true health, and that is Jesus.

Physical health may have some value in the short term during this life time, but by itself it holds no value for the future when you enter eternity through physical death and meet your Creator.

All the lies of Darwinian evolution and modern-day scientism will prove worthless then, and the medicines of doctors will be of no help, just as it is prophesied in the book of Revelation.



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