Philology of Ancient Hebrew Medicine

"Philology of Ancient Hebrew Medicine" is an ongoing research project focused on medical terminology in Biblical Hebrew and Late Biblical Hebrew. The project aims to reveal the origins and development of ancient Hebrew medicine through medical vocabulary in the Hebrew Bible and other ancient Jewish texts, compared with the medical traditions of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean as well as paleopathology. Past studies have either negated or speculated problematic reconstructions of Hebrew medicine, both relying on arguments of silence, since no ancient Hebrew medical corpuses survive. Instead, this project analyses "Hebrew medicine" through language and linguistics for more empirical and reliable results. Given the absence of separate Hebrew medical texts from antiquity, vocabulary is our main clue to the origins, presence, and developments of Hebrew medicine, both internal and external.

"Philology of Ancient Hebrew Medicine" is an ongoing research project analysing medical vocabulary in Biblical Hebrew and Late Biblical Hebrew. Past studies have either negated or speculated problematic reconstructions of Hebrew medicine, both relying on arguments of silence, since no ancient Hebrew medical corpuses survive. How do we get around this problem? The answer is through analysing terminology of medicine in the Hebrew language.