Medicine
The Deuteronomic Code contains several sanitation instructions; in particular, Deuteronomy 23:12-13 contains instructions to dispose of human waste away from the population, in order to keep locations holy.
The Old Testament contains a variety of health related instructions, such as isolating infected people (Leviticus 13:45-46 ) and washing after handling a dead body (Numbers 19:11-19 ). In addition, the Book of Leviticus provides instructions on handling of wet and dry plant seeds that may have come into contact with an animal's corpse. (Leviticus 11:37-38 ).
The Old Testament also contains various cleansing rituals. One suggested ritual, for example, deals with the proper procedure for cleansing a leper (Leviticus 14:1-32 ). It is a fairly elaborate process, which is to be performed after a leper was already healed of leprosy (Leviticus 14:3 ), involving extensive cleansing and personal hygiene, but also includes sacrificing a bird and lambs with the addition of using their blood to symbolize that the afflicted has been cleansed.
There is a contention that the degree of effectiveness of the Mosaic dietary restrictions and hygienic strictures indicates and, on the extreme end, "it has taken science thousands of years to discover what the Bible taught all along". However, many civilizations that had large cities had public sanitation systems, such as Ancient Egypt, the Aegean civilization, the Hittites, and the Elamites.
Passages within the Book of Proverbs relate the two, such as 12:4, 14:30, 15:30, 16:24, 17:22 . Modern science has found that certain proverbs contain advice toward sound mental and physical well-being.
Read more about this topic: Science And The Bible
Famous quotes containing the word medicine:
“In view of the fact that the number of people living too long has risen catastrophically and still continues to rise.... Question: Must we live as long as modern medicine enables us to?... We control our entry into life, it is time we began to control our exit.”
—Max Frisch (1911–1991)
“Hygiene is the corruption of medicine by morality. It is impossible to find a hygienest who does not debase his theory of the healthful with a theory of the virtuous.... The true aim of medicine is not to make men virtuous; it is to safeguard and rescue them from the consequences of their vices.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“As there is a use in medicine for poisons, so the world cannot move without rogues.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)