Luke – The Beloved Physician and Ancient Healing Practices

The word "physician" mostly has a negative meaning in the Bible. However, the word "physician" is used positively in the New Testament portion of the Bible when it refers to Jesus Christ. There is one exception in the New Testament, however, of one of the disciples of Jesus being referred to as "the beloved physician", which is how the apostle Paul referred to Luke, who is believed to be the only non-Jewish author in the New Testament portion of the Bible. He wrote the Gospel of Luke, as well as the Acts of the Apostles. He was a frequent traveling companion with Paul, who referred to him as "the beloved physician". Historical evidence outside of the Bible has led some people to believe that Luke was originally from Antioch, and attended a famous medical school in Philippi, part of the Roman empire at that time. Since Luke is not referred to as a "former physician", it is reasonable to believe that he may have retained some of his "medical" knowledge and perhaps even continued to use it as a disciple of Jesus. However, to understand how the English word "physician" (ἰατρός - iatros in the Greek) was used over 2000 years ago in the Greek/Roman world, we need to look at some history of Greek-Roman medicine as it was practiced back then, which is very different from how the terms "doctor" and "medicine" are used today in the 21st Century.