There is a passage in the book of Ecclesiasticus (also known as "The Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach" or just "Sirach") that speaks of medication and treatment by a doctor. This book is found in the older King James Version Bibles but was later deleted. It is also found in several of the Bible versions I have at home.
Ecclesiasticus 38:1-15 reads:
1 Honour physicians for their services,
for the Lord created them;
2 for their gift of healing comes from the Most High,
and they are rewarded by the king.
3 The skill of physicians makes them distinguished,
and in the presence of the great they are admired.
4 The Lord created medicines out of the earth,
and the sensible will not despise them.
5 Was not water made sweet with a tree
in order that its power might be known?
6 And he gave skill to human beings
that the pharmacist might be glorified in his marvellous works.
7 By them the physician heals and takes away pain;
8 the pharmacist makes a mixture from them.
God’s works will never be finished;
and from him health spreads over all the earth.
9 My child, when you are ill, do not delay,
but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you.
10 Give up your faults and direct your hands rightly,
and cleanse your heart from all sin.
11 Offer a sweet-smelling sacrifice, and a memorial portion of choice flour,
and pour oil on your offering, as much as you can afford.
12 Then give the physician his place, for the Lord created him;
do not let him leave you, for you need him.
13 There may come a time when recovery lies in the hands of physicians,
14 for they too pray to the Lord
that he will grant them success in diagnosis
and in healing, for the sake of preserving life.
15 a man sins in the eyes of his Maker
if he defies the physician.
Verse 15 can be linked to
Proverbs 18:9. In some versions of the LXX it is used by some to show that God expects us to have enough sense to use whatever means (medical and other) are available.
"He who does not use his endeavors to heal himself is brother to him who commits suicide."
and remember that the Apostle Paul advised Timothy to drink wine instead of water because of his stomach problems and many infirmities (see
1 Timothy 5:23)
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