Physician Priests of Antiquity

Alice C. Linsley

The earliest medical texts are found among the ancient Nilotes. These include the Ebers Papyrus, the Hearst Medical Papyrus, and the Edwin Smith papyrus, the world's oldest known surgical document (c. 1600 BC). These texts, most of them based on older texts dating possibly from 3000 B.C., are comparatively free of the magician’s approach to treating illness. Priests were the first to practice medicine at "Houses of Life" or temples along the Nile.

Only members of the elite strata of society learned and practiced medicine. One of the earliest known medical practitioners was Eanach (Enoch). He served the Pharaoh as his priest-physician, a wab sxmt (wab sekhmet). Eanach lived around 3000 B.C. and is said to have "healed the pharaoh's nostrils." Likely, this means that he performed a healing ritual that involved placing the cross-like Ankh against the Pharaoh's nose and offering prayers for his healing.

The wab sekhmet appears to be a distinct role from the non-priest healer called a wabau. It may be that the wabau was a shaman. The priest and the shaman represent different approaches to healing. The priest is forbidden to consult spirits in a drug-induced state. The shaman believes that disease and illness happens when the spirits have been offended. He or she will enter a trace state to discover the cause of the disease and how the spirits are to be appeased.

It is also possible that the wabau was a priest of lesser rank who served the common people, rather than the nobility. More research is required to gain a better understanding of the different types of healers, but it is known that the physicians specialized in one part of the body: head, stomach, heart,etc.

"The study of medicine with them was divided between specialists; each physician attending to one kind of illness only. Every place possessed several doctors; some for diseases of the eyes, others for the head, or the teeth, or the stomach, or for internal diseases." (Diodorus Siculus, i. 91)

The Mesopotamian physicians learned their skills from the priest caste that moved into the Tigris-Euphrates from ancient Kush (Gen. 10). The Akkadian word for a physician priest is azu. Sargon was born in Azu-pir-Anu, a house of divine healing/temple of Anu, the High God. The physician priest sat beside the sick person. This suggests that the Akkadian word wasabu is related to the Egyptian word wabau, a healer-priest. In ancient Egyptian images the harwa, Horite priest, was often shown seated.

Another high ranking wab sekhmet was Imhotep (2600 BC), the High Priest of Heliopolis (biblical On) and royal vizier. He was so famous that after his death he was venerated as a god (deified). His skill as a physician became legendary. The Greeks linked Imhotep to Asclepius around whom a cult of healing grew. The rod of Asclepius is a snake-entwined staff and the symbol of modern medicine. Some consider it to be like the rod Moses held up in the wilderness for the healing of the snake-bitten Israelites. However, the serpent on Moses's rod was a solar image. It had a coiled shape like that on the bishop's crozier below.

Egyptian physician-priests advanced medicine by keeping written records of which treatments worked and which did not. One such record book is the Ebers Papyrus, written about 1500 BC. One of the remedies described in this papyrus is medicinal clay made from red and yellow ochre. The Ebers papyrus has a treatment for asthma. The patient was to sit over a mixture of herbs heated on a brick and inhale the fumes.

Surgical procedures are described in the Edwin Smith papyrus, the world's oldest known surgical document (c. 1600 BC). It is written in the hieratic script and gives detailed descriptions of anatomy, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of forty-eight types of medical problems. It describes closing wounds with sutures, preventing and curing infection with honey and moldy bread (both known to contain antibiotics), application of raw meat to stop bleeding, and treatment of head and spinal cord injuries.

Ancient Egyptian doctors used copper to sterilize water and wounds around 2,400 BC. They also used herbs and minerals medicinally. They mixed the substances with honey, wine, or beer. Some medicines were worked into dough balls to form pills. They used ointments for wounds and treated chest complaints by getting the patient to inhale steam infused with essential oils.

Water and oil were two substances commonly used by healers. The idea of sacred pools can be traced to the priest-physicians of the Nile Valley. The sick came to them at the Nile shrines and temples. Water was used to cleanse wounds, ease strained muscles, and for ritual healing of the inner being. Oil was used to prevent infection, treat dry skin, and for anointing the sick with prayers for healing.

The tradition of healing by the priest is an ancient one. It is a holistic approach that seeks the health of body and soul. In the English village the "curate" had pastoral responsibility for the welfare of the people in his parish or his "cure". The word "curate" is derived from the Latin words curatus, the past participle of curare which means to take care of." The curator of a museum is responsible for the care of the museum's artifacts and archives. The verb curare can also refer to healing.

The first hospitals in the West were founded when Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire. In Byzantium, there had been monastic centers for healing. Toward the end of the early Middle Ages, Benedictine monks founded hospitals which served the monks and people living in the area of the monastery. Hospitals also were needed to care for those who were sick and wounded due to the hardships of the crusades. The Hospitaller Knights specialized in this.

Related reading: Ancient Words for Priests; Medical Care in the Ancient World; Medical Care in Ancient Egypt; Neolithic Medical Care; Nubians Used Antibiotics; Medicine of the Pharaohs; Brain Surgery in the Ancient World

Women Prophets and Shamans

Alice C. Linsley


The Wisdom Tradition of the ancient world involves women seers and prophets. Themistoclea is an example of the first and Deborah is an example of a female Biblical prophet. They served similar functions in their communities, but their practices and worldviews were different. Themistoclea represents the shamanistic approach and Deborah represents an approach in which consultation of spirits and trace states was forbidden.


The Biblical Prophet

The Biblical prophet was forbidden from consulting spirits. Indeed Saul's rejection as king over Israel was due in part to his consulting a medium. The Biblical prophets knew what shamans worldwide know - that the spirits sometimes lie. Therefore they were to consult only the Spirit of God (Ruach) who moved over the waters at the beginning and know all things, and cannot lie.

The Wisdom Tradition of the Bible represents a very ancient approach to epistemology. This is evident is such books as Job, Proverbs, Sirach and Baruch. Wisdom as a feminine principle is sometimes called the “Sophia” Tradition. Sophia is the Greek word for wisdom.

Here is an example of the personification of wisdom as a female:

Proverbs 9:1-5

Wisdom has built her house;
she has set up its seven pillars.
² She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine;
she has also set her table.
³ She has sent out her servants, and she calls
from the highest point of the city,
⁴ “Let all who are simple come to my house!”
To those who have no sense she says,
⁵ “Come, eat my food
and drink the wine I have mixed.


There are many examples in the Bible of wise women. The wise woman of Abel-beth-Maacah saved her town from destruction when she surrendered the head of Sheba to David’s general (II Sam. 20:17-22).

The prophetess Anna lived in the Temple precinct and recognized Jesus as the Promised Messiah. Luke's brief description of her highlights the high regard in which she was held.

Deborah was a prophetess who judged from her sacred palm between Ramah and Bethel to the north (Judges 4:5). Deborah's duties would have included settling disputes, providing wise counsel in both spiritual and worldly concerns and advising on matters of war. Judges 4 and 5 tells us the land enjoyed peace for forty years under Deborah’s rule.

The prophetess Huldah was sought by kings because of her reputation as a wise adviser. King Asaiah sent his priests to consult Huldah (II Kings 22:14). Her name indicates that she belonged to the tribe of Hul, a son of Aram (Gen. 10:23). Huldah, who lived approximately 655 years after Deborah, resided in Jerusalem, in the "new” section or the temple precinct which was regarded as the sacred center of the Jerusalem shrine. Jerusalem (Urusalim in Akkadian) was an important shrine city, exhibiting typical characteristics of ancient shrines. It had flowing water from a perennial spring and was built on a precipice.


Greek Shrine Wisdom

Women in the ancient world played a greater role in the philosophical project than is generally recognized. Pythagoras and Socrates were taught by women philosophers, and Plato received philosophical instruction from Perictione, his mother.

Pythagoras’ wife, Theano, took over the direction of his academy after his death. She perpetuated his idea of the transmigration of souls into new bodies, not necessarily human. Iamblichos or Suda mentions Pythagorean women who were mathematicians and philosophers.

Themistoclea (Theistokelia) was a 6th century B.C. philosopher and the Pythia or Prophetess at the ancient shrine of Delphi. She is reputed to have been the teacher of Pythagoras, the great mathematician of Samos who believed that the workings of the material world could be expressed in terms of numbers.

In Diogenes Laeterius’ work, The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, in the section concerning the "Life Of Pythagoras," Diogenes states that "Aristoxenus asserts that Pythagoras derived the greater part of his ethical doctrines from Themistoclea, the priestess at Delphi."

Themistoclea represents an ancient epistemological approach which wedded experience, reason and the supernatural. As the Prophetess of Apollo at Delphi she would have been a source of much ancient wisdom, including knowledge of the natural world, astronomy, medicine, music, mathematics, animal husbandry and philosophy. She would have offered advice pertaining to sowing and harvests, whether to go to war, and who and when to marry.

It is likely that such wisdom was received from her predecessors. This very ancient tradition of wisdom was associated with trees, serpents and women. The wide dispersion of such myths and archetypes indicates a very ancient point of origin. The oldest known site of serpent veneration dates to about 70,000 years ago. Stories of trees and serpents often have a female as the principal character. It was a woman to whom the serpent spoke, inviting her to eat of the Tree of Knowledge (Gen. 3).

Women such as Themistoclea were often deified, either posthumously or during their lifetimes. Similarly, the Hebrew (habiru) holy ones were regarded as deities (elohiym). The plural form for God in Arabic and Hausa is Allohi, the equivalent of the Hebrew Elohiym. El and Al are very ancient names for God. The plural form appears in Genesis 1: In the beginning elohiym created the heavens and the earth. The word also appears in Genesis 6:2, which speaks of the "sons of the elohiym" who took wives from the daughters of men. The plural form relates to the ancient Horites from whom we receive this material. They are the origin of Israel's priesthood and why Jews call their ancestors "horim."

The Horite Hebrew ruler-priests were regarded as deified "sons" of God. They served as the wise ones or the ruler's holy counselors. As such, they are called "gods", as in Exodus 22:28: "Thou shalt not revile the gods (elohiym), nor curse the ruler of thy people."

Deborah the prophetess likely had as her totem a serpent (nahash). The serpent image was sacred for the ancient Israelites, as is evident from the story of Moses lifting the bronze serpent over the people in the wilderness. (Numbers 21:8)


The Pythia

The Pythia sat on a bronze tripod in the inner chamber of Apollo's temple. Here the spirit of Apollo overcame the Pythia while in a trance state. The trance was induced by hallucinogenic vapors from below the temple or presumably from chewing laurel leaves. Black figure ceramic pieces from ancient Greece show the seated Pythia holding laurel leaves and a divining bowl.

The Pythia could not be approached by the petitioner directly. Those seeking her help first offered sacrifice. The sacrifice was made by the priests of Delphi. Only men were priests. The priest would then present the seeker’s question to the Pythia and the priest would interpret the Pythia's response for the questioner.

Dating back to 1400 B.C., Delphi was the most important shrine in Greece. As with all sacred shrines in the ancient world, Delphi was built at a water source; in this case a natural spring. Delphi was considered the omphalos, the earth’s belly button, or the sacred center of the world.

The Pythia’s services were in high demand by the wealthy and by rulers. She offered advice and wisdom and gave prophesies (oracles), usually in a trance state. People came from all over to present questions to the Pythia. The shrine amassed a great fortune in gold received from rulers and from all the Greek city states. Delphi was also a place where scholars congregated to discuss and debate, and where political rivals met to negotiate, often with the help of the priests and the Pythia.

The Pythia was the seer of Apollo, the “God at Delphi” (tou pythiou). The word "Pythia" is related to the word for serpent – python – and alludes to the dragon slain by Apollo. The origins of serpent oracles is very ancient. The wide dispersion of serpent images on artifacts and in mythologies indicates that serpent veneration is very ancient. Serpents on artifacts range from coiled snakes to fire-breathing winged dragons. Serpent cults entail trances like that described in the account of Appius Claudius Pulcher’s visit to Delphi in Lucan's Civil War (5.64-236).

Connections to African Practices

Flinders Petrie wrote in his book “The Making of Egypt” that the deity Galla had the serpent as his totem. The origin appears to be in the Upper Nile in East Africa, perhaps among the Oromo who are also called Galla. The Delphic shrine dates from 1400 B.C. at which time it was dedicated to Gaia. It is likely that Gaia and Galla are the same deity.

The serpent cult was also found in the Lower Nile. The whole of Lower Egypt venerated Renenutet whose totem was the serpent. She often appeared in the form of a hooded cobra. She was also venerated at Terenuthis (modern Tarrana) north of Cairo in the western delta. It was probably from Terenuthis and Crete that the cult moved into Greece. In the Laws, Plato attributes the serpent cult of Athena to the culture of Crete.

Virgins and Priests

The water shrines of the ancient world were attended by virgins and priests. The virgins were often the unmarried daughters of high ranking persons. Some noble daughters were denied marriage for political reasons. In the Middle Ages noble families sometimes sent unmarried daughters to the monasteries.

Such water shrines are still found in Asia and in Africa. Osofo Ahadzi, spokesman for Africania Mission (Ghana), explains that women consult deities at the water shrines in order to have children. These children are often pledged to the shrine or to the deity (as Hannah pledged Samuel to God in return for blessing her with a child). Ahadzi says that people who fail to redeem such pledges eventually lose those children.

People come to the shrines for other reasons as well. Ahadzi explains, “If there is a calamity befalling a family and they go back to the divinity or shrine and it is said that such a person should be trained in the shrine to learn the skills and acquire the power of divination to protect the family, that is when that person is devoted to the shrine."

The girls who are presented to serve at the shrines are usually young virgins. Sometimes their families are too poor to provide a marriage dowry. These girls are called "trokosi" and they serve much as indentured servants.

Ofoso Ahadzi says that men may not marry a trokosi without permission from the shrine. This is because the girls are also regarded as spirit wives of the deity. He said marrying a trokosi without going through the proper procedure will bring severe punishment. He recounts the following story to illustrate:

“There was a situation where the divinity asked one of the keepers not to marry this woman and he decided to go forward and marry. He thought that he was powerful and he went ahead and married. The mother died, he was going and the car had an accident. He died with his wife. In the traditional African religion the commandment is thou must not do this, if you do that you will get your punishment.”

He says, “It is completely out of place for anybody to claim that the keeper of the shrine plays around with the girls. You can’t do that. When you go against any of the regulations, it is not human beings that will punish you. The deity will punish you because all the girls who go in there for training are the daughters and princesses of the divinity. So if you take liberties with them you will be punished.”

Ahadzi said the girls have a good life at the shrine. They are not taken advantage of even though they are expected to provide free labor. He said the chores they perform can be likened to what students are made to do in boarding schools. (Read more about trokosi shrines here.)

In the ancient world, shrine virgins became the daughters of the shrine deity. From among these one emerged as the wife of the deity. This virgin would remain in the position of Pythia or Sibyl until she died or retired around the age of 50. Similarly, nuns in Christian monasticism are regarded as married to Christ.

Related reading:  Priests, Shamans and Prophets; Passing Conversation with Priestess Kaeton; Why Women Were Never Priests; Greek Art: From Prehistoric to Classical; The Serpent of Eden; Women Rulers in Ancient Israel; Sacred Mountains and Pillars; Seats of Wisdom

Priests, Shamans and Prophets

Alice C. Linsley


Anthropological study of the Bible helps to clarify the roles of three ancient religious offices: priest, shaman and prophet.  This clarification is especially important today because there is confusion, even obfuscation, about these offices in the academic community. This is evidenced in the textbooks used to teach World Religions (a subject that I teach on the college level).

A widely used World Religions text mentions priests in three contexts, none of them representing the original context of that office. The first instance refers to the ordination of women as priests in the Anglican Church, an innovation which has caused division in that communion. As I was once an Episcopal priest, I understand this innovation and its dangers better than many who write on this topic.

The second reference is to Shinto priests, who are really shamans since they consult the spirits of the ancestors, often engaging serpents as their mediums. Such practices are explicitly forbidden to priests in the Bible.

The third reference is to pagan priests and priestesses of ancient Greece. Study of their practices reveal that they were not priests, but oracles or seers whose trances parallel the practice of shamans.

Priests and shamans have one thing in common: they act as intermediaries, but that is where their similarity ends.


Priests and Shamans Represent Distinct Worldviews

The priesthood is verifiably the oldest known religious institution and appears to have originated in the Nile region. It is quite distinct from the other ancient religious office, that of the shaman. Underlying shamanism is the belief that spirits cause imbalance and disharmony in the world. The shaman’s role is to determine which spirits are at work in a given situation and to find ways to appease the spirits. This may or may not involve animal sacrifice. Underlying the priesthood is belief in a single supreme Spirit to whom humans must give an accounting, especially for the shedding of blood. In this view, one Great Spirit (God) holds the world in balance and it is human actions that cause disharmony. The vast assortment of ancient laws governing priestly ceremonies, sacrifices, and cleansing rituals clarifies the role of the priest as one who offers animal sacrifice according to sacred law. The priest was forbidden to consult the spirits of the ancestors as shamans do in trance states.

Priests are intermediaries between the Creator and the community, not between the spirits and the community. Both offices are intermediary, but their worldviews are quite different. When sickness, sudden death, or a great calamity such as flooding or plague affects the community, the shaman investigates the cause and seeks to balance benevolent and malevolent energies. When the community served by the priest experiences hardship, deprivation and loss, the priest calls the people to repentance and seeks to restore the community to the peace of God.  In ancient times, this sometimes meant seeking out the offenders by using the binary system of divination represented by the Urim and Thummim. These represent numerous binary sets. The urim would have a number of associations which would be assigned the opposite meaning with the thummim. Using these tools involved more than yes-no questions. It involved deriving meaning from the directional poles, gender, numbers and reversals. The morehs or ancient prophets apparently used the same approach when rendering counsel such as that given to Abraham by the moreh at the Oak of Mamre (Gen. 12:6).


Priests and Prophets

Analysis of the genealogical data in the Bible indicates consanguine (blood) kinship between ruler-priests and prophets.  Examples are the sons of the ruler-priests Elkanah and Zacharias. Elkanah's son was Samuel who served in a monarchial role and was called a "prophet." Likely he was a cousin of Eli’s sons, who were priests (and rejected by God).  Zacharias’ son was John the Baptist, who was called a prophet.  He was of the ruler-priests lines.  He was the cousin of Jesus, who the Bible designates the “Great High Priest.”  All of these individuals were descendants of Abraham and his ancestors who were Horites. 

The Horite ruler-priest caste is the oldest known priesthood and it is logical to assume that it provides the pattern whereby we are to understand the origins of this religious office. As the ruler-priests lines intermarried exclusively (a trait of castes), there is a consanguine tie between the lines of the rulers listed in the Genesis genealogies. This is not generally understood, but it is critical to perceiving the blood kinship of the greatest biblical figures: Noah, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ.

While there is not a single example of a woman serving as a priest in the Bible, women did serve as prophets.  Three were especially famous: Huldah, Deborah and Anna. All were of the ruler-priest lines, and Deborah was said to be a "judge," though none served as priests. Huldah’s fame was such that the King sent his wise men to consult her.  The Bible tells us that “all of Israel” came to consult Deborah at her tamar (date nut palm) between Bethel and Raamah. When Jesus was presented in the Temple, the priest Simeon and the prophetess Anna testified that He was the Promised One, the Son of God who would bring salvation to the people.  These descendants of Abraham’s Horite people lived in expectation of the Incarnate Son of God who would fulfill the promise made to their ancestors in Eden.  So it is that Simeon and Anna were able to discern rather quickly the identity of the son of Mary and Joseph. This is not to exclude the aspect of supernatural revelation, which was evidently a factor in their recognition of Jesus as the Savior.


Marrying That Christ Might be Born

The Horites originated as a caste of priests who were devoted to the veneration of Horus, who was called “son of Ra.” Ra was the name of their High God, the Creator. The veneration of Horus has been traced back to the oldest Kushite-Nubian temples and shrines of the Sudan. In light of this information, those who distain Christianity have claimed that it borrowed the Horus myth to lend importance to the Jesus myth. This explanation fails to take into account the blood ties of the Horites, a more logical explanation for the continuation of messianic expectation from the most ancient times in Kush to the time of Jesus and his followers.

Either Christians borrowed the Horus myth or Christianity emerges in an organic way from the belief system of Abraham and his Horite people. If we decide that Christians borrowed the Horus myth, we must explain why they should have selected this particular myth. I know of no other religions that prefigure Jesus Christ, the Son of God, other than the faith of Israel as it emerges out of the faith of Abraham's Horite people.

Kinship patterns are highly resistant to change. The kinship pattern of Abraham's people survived Egyptian and Babylonian captivity, and existed in Jesus’ time as evidenced by the prominence of ruler-priests (members of the Sanhedrin) such a Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. This unique kinship pattern continued to the time of Jesus and then stopped soon after His death and resurrection, as if the pattern had fulfilled its purpose. The ruler-priest caste disappeared as an institution in Israel when the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D.

Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He will receive an eternal kingdom from the Father. He is the Son of God, the fulfillment of the Edenic Promise of Genesis 3:15. He is able to conquer death and deliver sinners from the curse of death. This is the core of Christian belief. Surrounding this are attendant beliefs which logically follow. One is that to receive eternal life, we must acknowledge our need for mercy, forgiveness and salvation. Another is that God does this for us out of His boundless love. John wrote, "This is the revelation of God's love for us, that God sent his only Son into the world that we might have life through him." (1 John 4:9)

Related reading:  Who Were the Horites?; The Christ in Nilotic Mythology; The Genesis King Lists; The Prophetess Anna; Eden: A Well Watered Region; Shamanic Practice and the Priesthood