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Rethinking
the Role of Health Care Hector
Avalos
The study of biblical "medicine" is increasingly being transformed into the study of "health care" in biblical times. This change in vocabulary reflects a more holistic approach often influenced by medical anthropology. The main feature of a medical anthropological approach is the treatment of health care as a system of resources, personnel, and strategies meant to maintain and/or restore health. This paper will examine how medical anthropological approaches to health care have brought forth a new terminology as well as contrasting proposals about the rise of Christianity in light of the health care systems found in Greco-Roman and Jewish traditions in the first and second centuries. Finally, this paper will discuss the possible future trajectories in the study of health care in early Christianity.
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