Three Egyptian ceremonial headdresses and five styles of Greek headdresses.
Women were often veiled in public, although this custom changed over the centuries. Thus Rebekah was unveiled when she first saw Isaac (Gn 24:65). In NT times, women usually wore veils (1 Cor 11:6). Women also wore a cloth similar to the head-scarf, but the fabric was different in quality and color from that worn by men. It was often pinned over a stiff hat and set with ornaments. If a woman was married, these and other important coins covered the front of the hat and constituted her dowry (cf. Lk 15:8–10). Women also adorned their heads with an elaborate “plaiting” of their hair, prompting Peter to warn Christian women about too much concern with external beauty (1 Pt 3:3, 4).
See FASHION AND DRESS.
Heal, Healing.
To make sound or whole. The OT provides the proper background for a Christian understanding of the concept of healing. In the OT the basic point is made that God is the healer of his people. In Exodus 15:22–26, after God has delivered his people from Egypt, led them through the sea, and sweetened the water at Marah, he speaks of himself as their “healer.” This refers primarily to physical sustenance, but it points to the more encompassing concept of God sustaining his people in an eternal relationship with himself. In a similar manner Deuteronomy 32:39 speaks of God as the One who heals. The context in Deuteronomy implies that this healing power derives from the fact that God is God. This concept of God as the healer is echoed throughout the OT by the psalmists (Pss 6:2; 41:4; 103:3) and prophets (Is 19:22; Jer 17:14; Hos 7:1; Zec 11:16).
A head covering from Ur.
The NT significantly emphasizes Jesus as the healer. Mark portrays him as a teacher and healer in his opening account of Jesus’ ministry in Capernaum with the healing of the demoniac, Peter’s mother-in-law, the sick brought to him in the evening, and the leper (1:21–45). Indeed, healing sickness and casting out demons characterize Jesus’ ministry as Mark presents in rapid succession his healing of the paralytic (2:1–12), the man with the withered hand (3:1–6), the multitudes by the sea (vv 7–12), the Gerasene demoniac (5:1–20), the woman with a hemorrhage, and Jairus’ daughter (vv 21–43). Jesus then commissioned the 12 to proclaim repentance, to cast out demons, and to heal the sick (6:7–13); and he himself continued with healings at Gennesaret (vv 53–56), casting out the unclean spirit from the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman (7:24–30), healing the deaf and dumb man (vv 31–37), the blind man of Bethsaida (8:22–26), the boy possessed with a dumb spirit (9:14–29), and blind Bartimaeus (10:46–52).
Certainly healing is an important aspect of Jesus’ ministry. Those healings expressed not only his compassion for the suffering but also constituted a revelation of his person. This is brought out by the climactic statement of Jesus in healing the paralytic, “that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (2:10). It also seems that Mark intended his readers to understand that the healing of the deaf and dumb man (7:31–37) and the blind man of Bethsaida (8:22–26) symbolize the awakening of spiritual understanding in the disciples of who Jesus is. It is also significant that Mark has placed the healing of Bartimaeus (10:46–52) immediately after Jesus’ third announcement of his own coming death (vv 32–34) and the disciples’ third failure to understand that his being the Messiah entailed the necessity of suffering (vv 35–45).
Matthew also portrays Jesus as teaching, preaching, and healing (4:23–25), and parallels the accounts in Mark, except the healing of the demoniac in the synagogue (Mk 1:23–28) and the blind man of Bethsaida (8:22–26). However, according to his special purpose and structure, Matthew has placed many of Jesus’ healings together in a “mighty works” section (chs 8, 9) following and complementing the “great words” (“sermon”) section (chs 5–7). Matthew views Jesus’ healings as directly fulfilling the OT, as he states in 8:17. The unique way in which the healings of 8:16 are spoken of as fulfilling Isaiah 53:4 seems to indicate that Jesus’ power over sickness derives in some way from his death for sin which was to be accomplished at the end of his ministry.
It is also interesting that Matthew, in relating Jesus’ healing of the multitudes by the sea (12:15–22), cites Isaiah 42:1–4. This OT passage speaks of God’s servant anointed with the Spirit to proclaim justice to the nations. As used by Matthew, the quotation explains why Jesus commanded those healed not to make him known. Jesus did not want too much publicity about himself to thwart God’s plan for him as the Suffering Servant who was to bring forth justice or salvation to the nations. This action demonstrates that Jesus’ healings are revelations of his person.
Again another quotation from Isaiah (6:9, 10) in Matthew 13:14 brings out the fact that healing is understood primarily in the spiritual sense of hearing Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God.
Further indication of Matthew’s special interest in Jesus’ healing in his inclusion of the healing of the blind and lame (21:14–16) in his account of Jesus’ cleansing the temple (21:12–17).
Luke, like Matthew and Mark, portrays Jesus preaching and healing. After the account of the birth of John and Jesus and the ministry of John the Baptist, Luke presents Jesus preaching in Nazareth (4:16–30). Here in the synagogue of his hometown Jesus himself affirms, using a quotation from Isaiah 61:1, 2, that the Spirit has anointed him to proclaim good news and to announce release for the captives and a recovery of sight for the blind (v 18). The healing aspect of Jesus’ ministry occupies an important place in the rest of the Book of Luke. Indeed, Luke has all the healing incidents noted by Mark, except for those in Mark 6:45–8:26, which have no parallels in Luke. However, Luke’s opening scene in Nazareth seems to underscore that Jesus’ healing is to be understood, not as merely expressing Jesus’ compassion for the needy, but primarily as a sign of the arrival of the kingdom of God as promised in the Scriptures.
This emphasis may be seen in the distinctively Lukan account of the commissioning of the 70 (10:1–12), where Jesus instructs them to heal the sick in any city they enter and announce to the people there that the kingdom of God has come near to them (vv 8–10).
The first three Gospels take up the OT understanding of God as the healer of his people and see this as fulfilled in Jesus. This fulfillment signifies the presence of God’s reign in the ministry of Jesus and points to him as the One through whom God is at work in the midst of his people.
John’s Gospel has only four healing incidents: the official’s son (4:46–54), the man ill for 38 years (5:1–18), the man born blind (9:1–41), and the climactic raising of Lazarus in (ch 11). The special purpose and structure of this Gospel indicate that these incidents are carefully related to the accompanying discourses and are clearly intended as signs revealing the person of Jesus. This heightened emphasis on healing as regulatory signs in this Gospel confirms the similar intention in the first three Gospels.
The Acts of the Apostles tells of the continuation of Jesus’ ministry through the Spirit at work in his disciples, though now they are empowered by the Spirit. The primary focus in Acts is on proclamation as 1:8 indicates. However, the healing of the lame beggar in Jerusalem indicates that the disciples were able to exercise the power of healing in the name of Jesus (3:12–16; 4:8–16). The healing is clearly intended to point to and glorify the person of Jesus and lead to faith in him (3:12–16, 17–26). The balanced twofold ministry of the disciples may be seen in the prayer of 4:29, 30. “Lord, look upon their threats, and grant to thy servants to speak thy word with all boldness, while thou stretches out thy hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of thy holy servant Jesus.”
The ministry of Philip in Samaria was devoted to proclaiming Christ (Acts 8:5) and healing the sick and those with unclean spirits (v 7). Peter heals Aeneas and raises Tabitha (9:34, 40), and in each case the effects are that many believe in the Lord (vv 35, 42). Paul is also described as preaching the gospel (14:7), healing (vv 8–11; 28:8), casting out spirits (16:18), and raising a dead man (20:10).
The letters of the NT say little about healing. First Corinthians speaks of the gifts of healing (12:9, 28). The implication is that such gifts are intended to be part of the ministry of the church, but the context indicates that not all are given such gifts (v 30) and that it is God who sovereignty distributes gifts for the good of the body.
James indicates that a believer who is ill should request the church to pray for his healing (Jas 5:14–16; cf. Heb 12:13). The clear implication is that God is willing and able to minister to his people for healing today.
HOBERT K. FARRELL
Bibliography. E. Frost, Christian Healing; A.J. Gordon, The Ministry of Healing; M.T. Kelsey, Healing and Christianity in Ancient Thought and Modern Times; K. Seybold and U.B. Mueller, Sickness and Healing; R.A. Torrey, Divine Healing.
Elwell, Walter A., and Barry J. Beitzel. Baker encyclopedia of the Bible 1988 : 936–938. Print.
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