After being sick all week, I looked for a word for sick, but didn’t find one with enough verses, so I decided to look up a word for heal instead. I found therapeuo.
From the Lexical Aids at the back of my Hebrew-Greek Study Bible, it defines therapeuo as “to wait upon, minister to, render voluntary service, heal, to serve as a therapon (servant, attendant, minister).
Seeing the word minister made me think of doctors and pastors. Doctors minister to people who are sick in body. But pastors (sometimes called ministers in different denominations) minister to the spirit and the body. Jesus has been called the Great Physician. He healed the sick in body, but more importantly, he healed the sick in spirit. He gave and gives hope to the hopeless, life to the dead, peace to the distraught, and joy to the sorrowful.
I learned that there are at least three different words that are translated as healing in the New Testament. This therapeuo is most often translated as heal, as in a healing of the body. In English you can easily see the transition to the words therapy and therapeutic. According to dictionary.com, therapeutic means of or relating to the treating or curing of disease. Therapy is the treatment of disease or disorders, as by some remedial, rehabilitating, or curative process.
Verses:
Matthew 4:23-24 NASB Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. The news about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them.
Matthew 8:7 NIV Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?” ESV And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
Matthew 10:1 KJV And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave the power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
Matthew 10:8 ESV Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay.
Matthew 12:15 NIV Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill.
Matthew 14:14 NASB When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick.
Matthew 21:14 KJV And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.
Luke 6:7 ESV And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him.
Luke 7:21 NIV At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind.
Luke 10:9 NIV Heal the sick who are there and tell them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”
Luke 13:14 NASB But the synagogue official, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the crowd in response, “There are six days in which work should be done; so come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day.”
Luke 14:3-4 KJV And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go. (The second heal (healed) is from the Greek word iaomai, one of the other words that can get translated as heal.)
Acts 4:14 ESV But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.
Acts 5:16 NASB Also the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed.
Acts 17:24-25 NIV The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.
Acts 28:8-9 ESV It happened that the father of Publius lay sick with fever and dysentery. And Paul visited him and prayed, and putting his hands on him, healed him. And when this had taken place, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured. (Healed is from iaomai here and cured is from therapeuo.)
Revelation 13:3 KJV And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
Revelation 13:12 NASB He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. (Talking about another beast.)
The G/K number for therapeuo is 2543.
The Strong’s number for therapeuo is 2323.
