Sickness and Healing in Jesus Sirach

In Bible times, many people were suspicious of doctors. We hear another message from the Jewish scholar Jesus Sirach. For him, sickness is a consequence of a person’s sin against his creator, but the sick person still has to go to a doctor for healing.

Sirach wrote a treatise on consulting doctors (see Sirach 38). He advises his disciples to show respect to healers, as their ability to heal is a gift from God. He suggests that God sees to it that nature produces remedies in the form of healing herbs. And God has given people the knowledge to heal sick people with these means. The apothecary makes medicines from herbs, and the healer administers them, taking away the pain. Both patient and healer must pray to God for healing, but it is through the effectiveness of the natural products that healing will take place.