When a person wakes up sick today, they can ask a family member or friends what to do. They might call a doctor if they think it is serious. Ancient people also looked to a variety of healers when they became sick or injured.
Did the ancient world have doctors?
Many ancient Near Eastern societies had professional healers that we might call “doctors.” But these professionals did not go to medical schools nor have medical degrees. Most healers learned medicine by apprenticeship, following an established healer and practicing the trade while being supervised. These men and women typically came from the priests or scribes working in temples and palaces.
Ancient Egypt had different titles for professional healers. The title swnw is translated as “physician” or “doctor.” Another common title is wab priest, which refers to an individual who worked in the temples fulfilling many priestly duties in addition to healing people. Yet, the wab priest practiced the same type of medicine as the swnw. Both titles for healers are addressed in the Edwin Smith Papyrus, an ancient Egyptian medical text that lists injuries and their treatments.
The Assyrians and Babylonians of ancient Mesopotamia also had multiple titles for healers. The asu is translated as “doctor” and the ashipu as “magician,” but they both used medical practices to heal people. The translation of doctor for one title and not the other leads to the mistaken idea that these professionals practiced two types of medicine. However, all these healers used scientific knowledge in the form of drugs, bandages, and minor surgery as well as incantations and prayers to treat people.
The Hebrew name “Raphael” means “healer of God,” but the ancient Israelites never used this name as a title. Instead, during the First Temple period, Israel had two types of healers, the Levitical priest and the prophet. Unlike their Egyptian and Mesopotamian counterparts, the Israelite priest and prophet used different methods of treatment. The priest would inspect someone with a disease like scaly skin and pronounce them unclean, which forced the person to separate themselves from the rest of community for a few days. The priest would reinspect the skin, and if it cleared up, the person was declared clean and would then go through a ritual bath and give a sacrifice to God (Lev 13–14). The prophet did not always inspect the diseased person before making a pronouncement if someone would live or die, but they would use physical treatments like applying fig cakes to a rash (2 Kgs 20:7). Raphael eventually became a title for professional Jewish healers who practiced Greco-Roman style medicine. During the Second Temple and rabbinic periods, the term “raphael” became synonymous with the Greek iatros or “physician.”
Who did ancient people see for medical help?
The ancient Near East had two main categories for healers: professional and popular. Ultimately, ancient peoples believed that the gods sent disease as well as healed people (see, e.g., the book of Job). The categories of professional and popular/folk healer can indicate which one is closer to the divine and possibly better able to aid in healing. The professional healer worked in association with powerful institutions in society such as the temple or palace. This would make the Levitical priest a professional healer. In some cases, the sick petitioned the king himself as a type of professional healer since he oversaw the society’s institutions. The popular healer came from either the family/clan or someone considered knowledgeable within the local community. They did not go through a formal apprenticeship but still gained expertise often by learning from older healers in their community. This is especially true for midwives. Apart from midwives, popular healers tended not to carry any special titles and are harder to trace in the historical record. The Israelite prophet is a type of popular healer.
Whether someone chose to see a professional or popular healer depended on if they lived close to a city that had a professional healer or could afford to pay a professional. People who did not initially find relief from a local or popular healer would then seek out the professional associated with a temple, sometimes traveling great distances in hopes of appealing directly to the gods for a cure. The Israelite prophet was unique among ancient healers because their healing could be a direct appeal to God without using a professional institution like the temple.
Bibliography
- Zucconi, Laura M. Ancient Medicine: From Mesopotamia to Rome. Eerdmans, 2019.
- Nutton, Vivian. Ancient Medicine: Sciences of Antiquity. 3rd ed. Routledge, 2024.
- Upson-Saia, Kristi, Heidi Marx, and Jared Secord. Medicine, Health, and Healing in the Ancient Mediterranean (500 BCE–600CE): A Sourcebook. University of California Press, 2023.
