Paragraph 215. If a doctor has treated a gentleman
for a severe wound with a bronze lances and has cured
the man, or has opened an abscess of the eye for a
gentleman with the bronze lances and has cured the
eye of the gentleman, he shall take ten shekels of
silver.
218. If the doctor has treated a gentleman for
a severe wound with a lances of bronze and has caused
the gentleman to die, or has opened an abscess of
the eye for a gentleman and has caused the loss of
the gentleman’s eye, one shall cut off his hands.
219. If a doctor has treated the severe wound
of a slave of a poor man with a bronze lances and
has caused his death, he shall render slave for slave.
220. If he has opened his abscess with a bronze
lances and has made him lose his eye, he shall pay
money, half his price.
221. If a doctor has cured the shattered limb
of a gentleman, or has cured the diseased bowel, the
patient shall give five shekels of silver to the doctor.
224. If a cow doctor or a sheep doctor has treated
a cow or a sheep for a severe wound and cured it,
the owner of the cow or sheep shall give one-sixth
of a shekel of silver to the doctor as his fee.(22)
(22) The Oldest Code
of Laws in the World; translated by C.
H. W. Johns, Edinburgh,
1903.
The medicine of the Old Testament betrays both
Egyptian and Babylonian influences; the social hygiene
is a reflex of regulations the origin of which may
be traced in the Pyramid Texts and in the papyri.
The regulations in the Pentateuch codes revert in
part to primitive times, in part represent advanced
views of hygiene. There are doubts if the Pentateuch
code really goes back to the days of Moses, but certainly
someone “learned in the wisdom of the Egyptians”
drew it up. As Neuburger briefly summarizes:
“The commands concern prophylaxis and suppression
of epidemics, suppression of venereal disease and
prostitution, care of the skin, baths, food, housing
and clothing, regulation of labour, sexual life, discipline
of the people, etc. Many of these commands,
such as Sabbath rest, circumcision, laws concerning
food (interdiction of blood and pork), measures concerning
menstruating and lying-in women and those suffering
from gonorrhoea, isolation of lepers, and hygiene of
the camp, are, in view of the conditions of the climate,
surprisingly rational."(23)
(23) Neuburger:
History of Medicine, Oxford University
Press, 1910, Vol.
I, p. 38.
Divination, not very widely practiced, was borrowed,
no doubt, from Babylonia. Joseph’s cup
was used for the purpose, and in Numbers, the elders
of Balak went to Balaam with the rewards of divination
in their hands. The belief in enchantments and
witchcraft was universal, and the strong enactments
against witches in the Old Testament made a belief
in them almost imperative until more rational beliefs
came into vogue in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
