The physician in ancient Israel: his status and function.

a tradition reaching back to Talmudic times when rabbis were frequently acknowledged for their healing skills.' This trend developed during the medieval period in Europe, when Jews, excluded from practically all the learned professions, turned to medicine as a means of livelihood.2 As a result, the Jews have been esteemed for their medical skills and, in our own time, continue to occupy a distinguished position in the medical profession throughout the world.3 Yet the honoured place occupied by the physician in Jewish society was not inherent to ancient Israel, but evolved through the centuries in ever changing circumstances. This article traces the development of the role of the physician in ancient Israel down to the close of the second Temple period in AD 70. It draws upon biblical pseudepigraphal and apocryphal literature, also referring to other sources when relevant to the subject (e.g. Josephus, Philo, the Talmud, etc.). The linguistic aspects of the root rf' in the Hebrew Scriptures are examined before the paper moves into the post-exilic period in which the development of the concept of the professional healer is traced down to the first description of the physician in Jewish literature by Shim'on b. Jeshua' b. Sira, known in Christian and Greek literature as Jesus ben Sirach, during the second century BC. In biblical times sickness and death were interpreted as God's punishment for disobedience to his will. Yet although punishment was in the hand of God so was healing ifthe subject was contrite. This is made clear following God's deliverance ofIsrael from