Sacred Medicine and the Bible: Thomas Bartholin’s On Biblical Diseases (1672)

Abstract

Abstract The Danish physician Thomas Bartholin, famous for his work as an anatomist, also nourished a career-long interest in accounts of medicine in the Bible that resulted in a series of books on the topic. His final such work, On Biblical Diseases (De morbis biblicis, 1672) attracted a wide readership and was regarded by contemporaries as a model of an early modern practice called medicina sacra, the analysis of biblical accounts of disease and healing. Taking Biblical Diseases as a focal point, I investigate methods and goals of early modern study of medicine in the Bible. Setting out early influences that shaped Bartholin’s development, I demonstrate connections between his work and its precursors. Examining Biblical Diseases itself, I indicate how Bartholin deployed contemporary medical, philological, theological, and historical knowledge to scrutinize biblical accounts. A brief glance at the reception of Biblical Diseases reveals that theologians and physicians alike utilized Bartholin’s work and how it influenced subsequent studies of medicine in the Bible.