Asclepius, Snake God of Healing When the people of Pergamum needed healing, they went to the temple shrine of Asclepius—the snake god of healing. Everyone who entered the hospital complex passed a snake symbol and thereby credited any healing they would receive to the snake god. Priests interviewed potential patients to determine whether they were acceptable for healing. Interestingly, they turned away people who were dying and women who were ready to deliver babies. They didn’t want a particular patient’s death to “taint” their god. (This is an interesting parallel to modern-day cultures that seek to terminate the lives of the senior citizens and the unborn.) Once accepted, patients were led through an underground tunnel to a huge treatment room where they went to sleep, probably after being drugged. The patients waited to receive a vision of treatment from Asclepius, which they would reveal to the priests, who in turn would prescribe treatment(s). The main treatments related to water, so patients would take mud baths or drink sacred spring water. Exercise, dietary changes, rest, and attending the theater were also prescribed. Once healed, patients bowed down on their knees before a statue of Asclepius, thanked him for their healing, and gave him gifts. Finally, they would inscribe their name and the ailment from which they’d been cured on a large, white stone as a testimony to the god. During his ministry on earth, Jesus had provided John and the other disciples with evidence that refuted the claims of this god. Jews and Christians already knew that the snake, the symbol of Asclepius, symbolized evil in the Garden of Eden and represented everything sinful and satanic. Furthermore, the second and third miracles recorded in John’s gospel have to do with Jesus’ power to heal. Jesus raised a dead child and healed a man who had been waiting for thirty-eight years to be healed at the Pool of Bethesda (near what scholars believe was an Asclepius temple). John actually had seen Jesus heal people, something no “snake” god could do.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 15:55:53 +0000
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