New Testament Word Study Regarding God’s View of Man’s Health

              Having surveyed God’s view of health in the Old Testament through these word studies in a prior essay (LINK), we can approach the New Testament with an initial foundation and consider how various New Testament Greek terms deepen our understanding of God’s view of man’s health.  A variety of Greek words convey God’s perspective on mankind’s whole person health.  While each word shares a sense of wellness, obvious nuances mean that these terms convey different angles on how we should view our health.  Each offers some particular insight, but taken all together the group provides a more robust understanding of what God wants us to know about whole person health. 

               We will walk through hygianio (hygiaínō), therapeuo  (therapeúō),  iaomai (ee-ah’-om-ahee), and sozo (sode’-zo).  With each, a definition and some examples of how each is expressed in the New Testament help to shape our understanding of the design God is instructing us to pursue for whole person health.

               First, Thayer’s bible dictionary defines hygianio as:

1. To be sound, to be well, to be in good health
2. Metaphorically: of Christians whose opinions are free from any mixture of error
   1. Of one who keeps the graces and is strong

In this definition, we have soundness, a “soundness”, or holding together in wellness.  While the metaphorical use regarding opinions without error does address doctrine and truth issues, the implication is that this word implies lack of error or lack of illness in terms of health.  A few verses from the New Testament provide a clearer backdrop of how this word was applied to physical health as well as spiritual health. 

               In 3 John 2, we read that John prays for the letter recipients that they are all in “good health” or hygianio.  This wellness or soundness refers to physical health as John immediately says that he hopes their physical wellness matches the prospering of their soul.  Hygianio therefore cannot just refer to spiritual health, but John prays that their physical health will be as good as their spiritual health. 

               Next in Luke 15:27, the parable of the Prodigal son provides another opportunity to consider how hygianio is used to describe the health of the Prodigal son. The father rejoices that the son is back “hygios”, or safe and sound.  This suggests a wholeness at least in body if not in body, spirit, and relationship, except for the older brother’s unwillingness to restore his relationship.

               In Luke 5:31, we find Jesus meeting in the home of Levi the Tax Collector where He was challenged by pharisees for eating with sinners.  Jesus responds “Those who are ‘well’ have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”  The primary import is clearly spiritual, but the “well” is this same word, hygianio, and clearly refers to physical wellness in its non-figurative use standing next to “physician”.  The word is secondarily used as figurative of the health of the spirit which was his primary target.

               In the Gospel of Mark, chapter 3, we find Jesus healing the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath.  Jesus “restored”, the act being described by a verb form of hygianio, the withered hand, exemplifying the clear use of this word in terms of a physical healing through a spiritual work.  We see Jesus caring for physical needs over the rigid rules of the Pharisaical Sabbath keeping.

               In the Gospel of John, chapter 5, we read of the encounter between Jesus and the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda who hoped to be made “well” by the angel’s stirring of the waters.  Verses 4, 6, and 9 use the hygios form of hygianio and clearly refer to a physical healing.  The words of the paralyzed man indicate no thought of spiritual or relational health, only a physical healing that he might walk again.  Jesus makes him “well” or hygios and enables him to walk again. 

               In each of these uses of hygianio or a form of the word, we find an aspect of physical healing or soundness.  Some illness is removed or someone rejoices that no illness nor unsoundness is present.  We find both Jesus and the disciples expressing pleasure in the physical health of others.  This implies that we as Christians today, following Christ and the disciples examples, can rejoice and be glad in other’s health.  It would seem from these examples that working to restore health and finding joy in physical health are both good goals.

               Second, we consider the Greek therapeuo, {ther a pe úō}, which Thayer’s dictionary defines as:

1. To serve, do service
2. To heal, cure, restore to health.

In this definition we have a picture of someone being made well through an action performed upon them.  It focuses more attention on the work of the one healing or curing, but still conveys that the recipient is made well.  We see the word therapeuo used at least 30 times in the Gospels alone and 5 times in Acts.  A few verses from the New Testament provide a clearer backdrop of how this word was applied to physical health.

               In Matthew, several uses of therapeuo and its derivatives provide insight.  In Matthew 4:23-24, Jesus ministered to crowds who had ‘every disease and every affliction” as He went about “healing” them.  No one can argue that He was not addressing physical illnesses although many who oppose the supernatural working of Christ have tried to say that He used psychological means to cure psychological illnesses in these individuals who only looked like they had physical illnesses.  In reality this was clearly a removal of at least physical illness in many cases, but given the mention of demon oppression, it could sometimes include spiritual healing as well.  The two aspects were not mutually exclusive one of the other.  In contrast, the word used for disease or sickness in these verses was the word nosos, which clearly referred to physical illness elsewhere in Matthew 8:17, 9:35, and 10:1.  Clearly, physical healing was a work done by Christ and even delegated to the apostles in Matthew 10:1.

               We see connections between spiritual health or the Gospel and physical health in two other quick examples of therapeuo from the New Testament.  In Mark 6:5, Mark reports that Jesus healed fewer sick people in Nazareth due to the state of their faith.  An unhealthy spirit, one in which the people did not have faith in Christ for whatever reason, prevented their geographic area from receiving as many physical healing works in it.  In Luke 9:1, like Matthew 10:1, we read how Jesus gave power to His disciples to heal physical illness as He was sending them out to preach the Gospel.  Spiritual power was the source of physical healing and physical healing commonly accompanied spiritual healing.

               Third, we look at iaomai, (ee-ah’-om-ahee) which is defined int Thayer’s dictionary as:

1. to cure, heal
2. to make whole
3. to free from errors and sins, to bring about (one’s) salvation

In this definition we see the nature of the work being done whether to remove a disease by healing/curing or making whole or to remove spiritual disease of sin and thus bring out someone’s salvation. A few verses from the New Testament provide a clearer backdrop of how this word was applied to health.

               Two verses from Matthew bring out connections between spiritual and physical health using this word iaomai.  In Matthew 13:15, Jesus quotes the book of Isaiah that if the people would turn spiritually, that God would “iaomai” them.  Isaiah had used the word raphe which we studied from the Old Testament in part one of this word study.  Matthew intended to convey the same sense of physical healing by iaomai as was in raphe.  Then in Matthew 15:28, we read how the faith of the Canaanite woman led to the healing of her daughter.  Her daughter apparently suffered both spiritually and physically as the physical healing occurred secondary to the removal of demonic oppression.  The driving out of the demon was necessary for the physical healing to take place.  In God’s usual pattern we see physical healing being important yet connected with spiritual health.

               Another two examples help paint a fuller picture of the use of iaomai in the New Testament.  In Luke 9, Jesus is sending out the disciples to preach and to heal.  When he describes the healing in verse 6, he uses iaomai.  They were doing both spiritual and physical healings for the people.  Then in I Peter 2:24, Peter is explaining how the people are healed or iaomai by the wounds of Jesus.  Given Christ’s primary role in salvation, this example appears to refer primarily if not solely to spiritual healing.  This particular word, iaomai, for to cure or to heal or to make whole could refer to spiritual or to physical healing or to both aspects together as parts of a whole work. 

               Fourth and final, we find the word sozo (sode’-zo) defined by Thayer’s dictionary:

1.  To save, keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction

2.  …(not pertinent)

3.  to save a suffering one (from perishing), i.e. one suffering from disease, to make well, heal, restore to health.

Two examples from the Gospel of Matthew begin to fill out how this word was used.  In Matthew 9:21-22 Jesus interacts with the woman who had an issue of blood and had touched His garments seeking healing.  She clearly had a physical illness from this description which received a physical healing from Jesus.  In Matthew 15:29-31 we read about the crucifixion of Jesus.  The people are asking how Jesus could have saved others but could not sozo himself.  There was an inclusion of Jesus saving his own physical life, but there seems a fuller sense that does not exclude Jesus saving Himself from the punishment by crucifixion for wrongdoing.  An irony was intended in that the Savior could not sozo or save himself from physical punishment that was resulting from spiritual guilt.

               The word is again used to refer to physical healing in Luke 17:19 where Jesus cleanses 10 lepers.  He removes their leprosy, obviously a physical healing, and this is translated as “made you well”.  Yet, in Titus 3:5 a description of Jesus’ work is given in which he is said to sozo us in the washing of regeneration.  This seems a clear example of using the word to describe spiritual healing rather than physical healing.  Then in James 5:15 we again read of a physical use of the word in that the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick.  We are left with an overall impression that sozo may be used to describe the work of either physical or spiritual healing or when both types of healing are involved. 

               For the Greek words, hygianio, therapeuo, iaomai, and sozo a New Testament picture of health forms in which the physical and the spiritual are not fully separated when we see examples of these words referring to physical health or healing in one place and spiritual in others.  Given the number of times we see Jesus healing physical illness in the Gospels as these words are used, we get a sense of the importance of physical health in addition to spiritual health as well as a connectedness.

Next in the series…  Part 3: Various Scripture Addressing God’s Approach to Man’s Health