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The ‘Physician’ is a major title of Christ, shared with the Apostles and bishops, in all Syriac tradition, which origins are easily traceable. The Syriac word âsyâ is inherited from Akkadian, in which it was a loan-word from Sumerian. Originally this word in Sumerian meant “the knower of water” (a-zu), and the Akkadian asû was an epithet of healing deities. The New Testament provides its own justification for the development of ‘physician’ as a regular title of Christ, and the title is shared in the Acts of Thomas. Jesus is ‘physician’ or ‘healer’ (mˀassyānâ), especially of souls, while both words are also applied to Judas Thomas, who is unlike other doctors in that he heals souls as well as bodies (95; 155). Very similarly the ‘Apostle’ Addai says, in the legend of his preaching, that he is no ordinary physician, but ‘the disciple of Jesus Christ, the physician of troubled souls’. Likewise in the Manichaean psalms Jesus is the ‘Physician of the Wounded’ or ‘of Souls’, while Manichaean literature widely applies the term to Mani, who ‘said to the king “I am a doctor from Babylon”. For Aphrahat Christ is the ‘wise Physician’ and those who exercise the pastoral care in his name share the title and the figure of physicians; and healing always refers to penance, not in sacramental but in the ascetical sense (Dem. passim). ‘Physician’ seems to be Ephrem’s favourite title of all for Christ. As well as describing Christ in his actual work of physical healing, it naturally symbolizes him as healer and restorer of human nature. Thus the myrrh of the Magi was ‘to make known the Physician who was to heal the broken state of Adam.’ Likewise, ‘Physician’ refers to Christ as conqueror of death. Ephrem says in Carmina Nisibena 34, that before Christ the whole world was sick (st. 9) and could not be perfectly healed of its illness. Christ the Physician saw and took pity, and healed us through his own body and blood, through the ‘Medicine of Life’ (st. 10).
Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Acts of Thomas 95
Acts of Thomas 155
Aphrahat, Demonstrations
Ephrem Syrus, Carmina Nisibena 34.9-10
Bibliography
| Murray 1975, 199-200 | Murray, Robert. Symbols of Church and Kingdom. A Study in Early Syriac Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1975. |
Amar Annus
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