HIPPOCRATES AND JESUS
I could
elaborate on the difference between the Greeks and Hebrews for the rest of the
book without adequately drawing deserved contrast between the two groups,
pointing out for example how Plato and Aristotle argued for their positions
while Jesus merely gave assertions and threatened those who did not accept
them, or how Democritus appreciated the vastness of the universe while any
Hebrew thought he was the center of it, but I will instead put the issue to
rest with one undeniably moving final observation.
Hippocrates, the
aforementioned father of medicine who lived from approximately 460-370 BCE,
once said, “Men think epilepsy divine, merely because they do not understand
it.” Yet four hundred years after the mortal Hippocrates realized that there had
to be a natural, rational explanation for the mysterious medical condition,
Jesus was allegedly curing epilepsy by casting out demons. Hippocrates realized
that people attributed epilepsy to demonic possession only because they did not
understand it. This leads us to perhaps the most important question I will pose
in this book. How is it that the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the
universe sent a messenger, the savior of all humanity, who knew less than an
ordinary man who had been dead for centuries? How could Hippocrates have a
better understanding of the world than Jesus? Why
should we hold Jesus as a superior teacher? It does not make sense.
