Dictionaries :: Health

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Health:

helth (shalom, yeshu‘ah, ‘arukhah; riph'uth, ‘arukhah; soteria, hugiaino): Shalom is part of the formal salutation still common in Palestine. In this sense it is used in Ge 43:28; 2Sa 20:9; the stem word means "peace," and is used in many varieties of expression relating to security, success and good bodily health. Yeshu‘ah, which specifically means deliverance or help, occurs in the refrain of Ps 42:11; 43:5, as well as in Ps 67:2; in the American Standard Revised Version it is rendered "help." Riph'uth is literally, "healing," and is found only in Pr 3:8. Marpe' also means healing of the body, but is used in a figurative sense as of promoting soundness of mind and moral character in Pr 4:22; 12:18; 13:17; 16:24, as also in Jer 8:15, where the Revised Version (British and American) renders it "healing." ‘Arukhah is also used in the same figurative sense in Isa 58:8; Jer 8:22; 30:17; 33:6; literally means "repairing or restoring"; it is the word used of the repair of the wall of Jerusalem by Nehemiah (chapter 4).

The word "health" occurs twice in the New Testament: in Paul's appeal to his shipmates to take food (Ac 27:34), he says it is for their soteria, literally, "safety"; so the American Standard Revised Version, the King James Version "health." The verb hugianino is used in 3 Joh 1:2, in the apostle's salutation to Gaius.

Written by Alexander Macalister