The Healing Wisdom of Ancient Times | Parable

My name is Arne Kislenko. My day job is teaching history, but now I want to live it. So I've come here to Israel to find out what life was like at the time of the Bible. Modern concoctions, ancient ingredients. Makes me wonder what people at the time knew about sickness and medicine. The Gospels report that people with a variety of ailments and diseases came to ritual baths such as this one, the Pool of Siloam in Jerusalem. The most famous was a blind man who had asked Jesus for help. Jesus mixes his saliva with the earth and puts it on the blind man's eyes, telling him to immerse in the Pool of Siloam. The blind man does, and then, miraculously, he can see. It's an inspiring story, but I'm also interested in the other stories we see in this scene. Look at all these sick people. Why have they all come here? And which of them will get better? When you got sick in the first century, what did you do about it? Today when we get sick, most of us go to doctors. But what did they do in biblical times? To find out, I meet Dr. Lior Rosenberg. He collects ancient medical instruments and can tell me about what they knew in the first century. Are these actually first century? These are actually first century or even maybe older. These are Roman instruments. Many of them were found here. Dr. Rosenberg has ancient probes, lancets, scalpels. This is going to get ugly, isn't it? Yes. Can I pick these up? Yeah, sure, but it's quite sharp. Well, it's a good thing I have a doctor with me, isn't it? OK, so this would be? So this is what we call the scalpel or the blade, the modern blade. OK. And this is a Roman blade? They look almost identical. Also, the size are very similar. And if you had a problem that couldn't be fixed with these cutting and sewing tools, there were objects in the shape of whatever problem you had to remind God what you needed help with. Surgery was not really practiced at that time. We became doctors, I mean, physicians, only in the 18th, 19th century, before that we were barbers. Yeah, plain old barbers. Yes. And carpenters, and other tradesmen, whoever had sharp tools. Given this approach to surgery, it's understandable why you might pin your hopes on a miracle worker like Jesus, rather than go under the knife. Now, these are leeches, obviously. These are leeches. Can I pick them up? Yes, sure. They would use this to bloodlet. Same principle in ancient times? The same principle, exactly. And in modern time, they're also used for bloodletting in microsurgery. So ancient times, ancient ways have made a comeback. Exactly. Unfortunately, they're about to make a comeback on me. Ow, come on. Other than hurt, what is this going to do for me? It's supposed to extract the bad blood out of your body, and bring it to the surface, and allow the good blood to remain. Once that bad blood comes to the surface, the leeches can suck it out of me. Great. Is that a special leech tube? Yes. What do you want it? No, no. Where do I want it? How about on you? He's smelling me, isn't he? Now, with this leech tube, I really can aim where I put it. No, you just feel it. That's all. Why do I feel like I'm in a science fiction movie all of a sudden? Because you are. Do you feel any pain? He's stabbing me. He's having lunch. Yeah. What kind of ailments would they have used this for? They use it for anything, and in all parts of the body. They were using leeches on the forehead, on the nose, inside the nose, the nostrils. They even were using on the lips, going down, obviously, on the chest, on the back, on the hands, on the fingers, to treat hemorrhoids, which is- Wait, wait, wait, hemorrhoid? Yes. Let's skip that one. Some patients found out the hard way that excessive bloodletting wasn't always a help. But using cups and heat to bring what people call bad blood to the surface is still done today. Instead of glass, in biblical times, they would have used clay cups or animal horns. And for some ailments, they also used a variety of herbs. Because the climate hasn't changed that much around here in 2,000 years, many of those herbs are still growing today. I'm heading north with Sharon Kotzer, who's an expert in herbal medicine, because I want to find out how they used herbs to keep healthy in the time of Jesus. Beautiful. Yes, this is an amazing place. It's exactly, I guess, how it used to be 2,000 years ago. Nothing really changed here. Really? So this is exactly like it would have been in the Bible. I think so. Look at this beautiful nettle. This is an amazing color. But they used to take it, and they used to actually tweak the skin with it, all right? They used to do it because in cases of kind of inflammatory disease of the joints, kind of arthritis. Arthritis, OK, right. Well, I've got arthritis. I think I'll give that a try. The blood supply decrease, and lots of toxin accumulate. And when you do this, you actually stimulate the nerve ending and the blood supply to the area. So they had a variety of methods to stimulate the blood supply. If your problem was in a joint where cups weren't an option, you could use this herb. And it's a kind of counter-irritant. It brings a kind of new blood supply to the area. It's cleaned the affected joint. It was used, this method, for thousands of years by people. I'm definitely taking some of this home. I wonder if I can get it by customs. This is a kind of rhamnos. This is quite a strong laxative. Rhamnos? Rhamnos. This is from the sage family. It's called balota. Balota. They use for lung problems, for lung disease. It's also a kind of mental relaxant. Sharon shows me some of the herbs that they would chew in biblical times. Willow bark for headaches, pistachio leaf for bad breath, and a mallow plant for ulcers. Marshmallow. Yes, it's a marshmallow. Taste it, see what you think. And I eat everything? Yeah, just eat it. It's very slimy. Yeah, yeah, very slimy. It creates a protecting kind of flare over inflamed mucous membranes, okay? For example, a mouth ulcer, ulcers of the stomach. Right. Any other inflammatory condition, also on the skin, on burns. It's a protect and soothe. Probably one of the main edible plants of the Bible time. It's like you've got nature's medicine chest all over the place. Absolutely, that's what we have. And today, healing ingredients from biblical times are combined in tasty concoctions. I've come to Jerusalem's Smahani Yehuda Market to meet a third generation healer named Uzieli, because I want to see how he uses biblical fruits for health. Hi, welcome. Welcome. Nice to meet you. Welcome to Jerusalem. Thank you very much, nice to be here. This is a pomegranate, mentioned in the Bible as one of the fruits the Israelites missed when they were wandering in the wilderness. I love pomegranate. Eat it. It's cholesterol, blood pressure. This is the new medicine in the market now. This is an etrog. It's an ancestor of today's lemons and limes. Biblical Jews planted them, and Uzieli uses every part. The juice for the stomach. That's fantastic. And the skin in a spray for everything else. Massage your face now, deeper, deeper. Lower as deep as I can. Like that? Yeah. Keep it younger, no wrinkles. I'm more beautiful. More beautiful, yeah. I love it. You want me to stick this up my nose? Yes, yes. Do it like this, do it like this. One drop, one drop. Jeez, man, I'm getting sprayed from every direction. Okay, this will open your ear. You don't need medicine anymore. I have arthritis in my hands. Yes. So, ancient times, what would I get? They use the ginger. Ginger, big stuff. The ginger will get inside, and also if you have a problem in the back, you squeeze it. The ginger juice. Yeah. So what else? They have olives back then, 2,000 years ago. Pomegranate. Figs, you know? Figs, yeah, yeah. Figs, dates, almonds. Fantastic, and you use the same stuff all the time. Yes. And it's not only biblical food. Uzi Eli also makes use of biblical animals. This is the hair of goats, black goats in the desert. We took the hair of the goats. The hair of the goats. And we make it together. And what does it do? In the desert, there's no medicine, so if you have migraine, it just circle around your head, a little bit pain. Yeah. Yeah, so you will not forget me. Hey, Uzi, I like this. And the pain will go away. Now, take your hand, press a little bit gently around your head. That itches, that's scratchy. Yeah, and then, done, okay? This will take away. I don't have any hair up there to protect me, so. Maybe it will grow up. Okay, that's what I need. I need some hair tonic. So in biblical times, there were some conditions you could treat, but blindness wasn't one of them. So once word got out that Jesus cured the blind man, people with all kinds of incurable conditions likely came to the pool of Siloam, hoping he could help them too. In addition to this body of water where people sought healing, there was a much larger one, and people still go there for its healing waters today. It's the lowest point on earth, the Dead Sea. It's 10 times saltier than the oceans, which is what makes you float. You literally can't sink. But people don't just come here for that. How do you like the moat? I don't really like it drying. I like putting it on, but now I'm kind of, but it's supposed to be good for your skin, so. I need that. I was kind of hoping it grew hair too. That's why I did it. To find out why they come from all over the world, I meet Dr. Marco Harari, who treats patients here. So Dr. Harari, exactly why do people come here to your clinic? We are using the air, but also the earth and the sun. The air, because we have more oxygen here, about 6% more than any place in the world. The earth, because we are using the black mud and the salt from the Dead Sea. And the sun, because our sun is filtrated here and can allow a longer time to exposure to sun for many patients. So it's a very unique weather condition. It is. It is exactly a very unique condition, but it is not a new one. It's not new. We have some references from 2000 years ago. So they did know in biblical times to come here for their skin ailment. Cure for the skin diseases, rheumatologic diseases and lung diseases. I have arthritis, so if I came here and use the mud in particular, I would get better. Surely, surely we have some data showing that people are improving for three, six months after simple applications of black mud. You know, this is the way to meet girls. It really is. Not married girls. What exactly is the science behind this? How do you prove that people are being treated so well here? We understand that the combination of salts of the Dead Sea and ultraviolet B, UVB of this area is a unique combination for improving skin diseases, but not only skin diseases. So black mud, for example, can be used for many rheumatic conditions, for joint diseases, for musculoskeletal diseases. We know that people are in a good remission after treatment at the Dead Sea for at least eight to nine months. Something that is pretty good for any kind of other treatment. So it is fantastic to see that without drugs, without medicine, we can reach at least the same result than with medications. After being in the Dead Sea, I feel very alive. To treat my arthritis, I'd have to do three weeks of floating appointments, which would be fine with me. So far, I've found out what they did know about health in the time of the Bible. Now I want to find out what they didn't know. In this famous scene from the Gospels, Jesus miraculously gives sight to the blind man at the Pool of Siloam in Jerusalem. Today, you hear people saying they're praying for a miracle after they've already tried everything else. But in biblical times, prayer was the first thing you did. Even today, some people pray when they get sick, and some studies have shown it may work. The most famous scientific study showing that prayer has a positive influence on healing was a double-blind study done in San Francisco in 1982. Those coronary patients who were prayed for were in less need of ventilators and antibiotics. Some dispute these studies, but I want to find out more about the connection between prayer and health. So I'm meeting with Rabbi Ken Spiro. This book, the Torah, contains some of the prayers that Jews offer to God. The Torah also contains the commandments for how to live. So Ken, are there commandments, some of the commandments dealing with things like your physical health, your public health? Absolutely. And it's interesting that many of the laws of ritual purity have shown to have side benefits that have been very beneficial in terms of hygiene and personal health, although they're not given for that reason. Yeah, I wanted to ask you about the ritual purity. I don't, what exactly does that mean? Well, the ritual purity, again, even though mikvah is a ritual bath and baptism comes from it, it's a side benefit that you're clean. But the purpose of a ritual bath was not to clean yourself physically, but to unclog yourself spiritually. At the time, belief in spiritual purity was a belief in health. But on the physical side, cleanliness being next to godliness didn't always pan out in these ritual baths, these mikvahs, because of what people at the time didn't know about infection and germs. I'm on my way south to Qumran to see how this played out. Near the Dead Sea in the Judean desert is the first century home of the Essenes, the Jewish sect who wrote many of the Dead Sea Scrolls, among the oldest biblical texts ever discovered. Found in these caves in 1947, after being hidden for 2,000 years, the Dead Sea Scrolls reveal to us a pre-Christian group of Jews who believed in the teacher of righteousness, like Jesus, and who were readying themselves for the final apocalypse. Since the end of days could happen at any moment, they kept themselves pure, and purity touched on everything, including going to the bathroom. But there was no bathroom out here. I'm with biblical scholar James Taber because it was his team who discovered exactly where the Essenes put their latrines. We're on our way there now to see how their rituals of purity affected their health. And one of the things about the scrolls, besides religion and mysticism, is ritual purity, bodily things, blood, sex, death. And the toilets are precisely located outside the living area, at least 1,500 cubits. That's probably 700 yards or so. Okay. And hidden away from the camp. It's quite the climb. Especially in an emergency. So here we are, exactly where the Essenes went when they had to go. How did they do it? So we've got you in a white Essene tunic and a belt, and then you always have a spade or a... It's actually mentioned in the text. It's issued to you when you join the group. And it's not for gardening. It is for the latrine. So you need to dig a shallow hole. How big is this hole? You have to be able to cover it. So that could vary from day to day, right? And is this actually in the scrolls? This is in the scrolls. How far down? Not how far down. Not that precise. Just that you dig a pit. Now squat over it. With dignity. Lift your robe. Okay, robes up. And let me know when you're finished. How did you know that it was right here or right there? We actually took a trowel like that and we took samples all over, dozens and dozens of samples. All through here? All through here. And then we did soil tests on them. And we found intestinal parasites. Really? Whipworms, roundworms, tapeworms, eggs, and so we began to think, now wait a minute. They're wearing sandals. This is like a toxic waste dump. They're actually getting it on their feet, walking back, and the worst thing in the world you could do is then go in a pool of water. But that's exactly what they did. After doing their thing 700 yards outside the camp, the Essenes would immerse in the waters of this mikveh before reentering the community. Washing is good for hygiene, but the Essenes didn't know about sharing germs. That's bad for hygiene. You went outside the camp. You're coming back in. Before you enter the camp, you have to clean yourself. From our point of view, you're introducing these microorganisms we talked about that have infected the soil, these parasites, intestinal parasites. I bring them down from the toilet? You bring them down. They're gonna get all in your eyes, your mouth, your nose. Any cuts, they're on your feet, and they would be unaware of this. From a sanitation standpoint, everything's unclean. I'm a time bomb, basically. I walk right into the community and spread. Yeah, the high cost of holiness. A people not prepared to pay that high cost were the Romans, who were occupying the land of Israel at the time. They brought aqueducts, sewers, and improved sanitation to the Holy Land, which helped control the spread of disease. I've come to see the archeological evidence in the Jordan Valley at Beit She'an. Now, these are toilets. Isn't this incredible? This is amazing. This is the best example in the Holy Land of Roman indoor toilets. We should give it a try. I gotta give it a try. I'm not gonna coax you at all. I'm just gonna see if you do any better than my students. I'm guessing if I sit on the one, it could be a little messy. I'll raise the toga. Raise the toga. Okay. And then like this. This is good. That's why I did a PhD in history. I gotta ask you, this looks fairly sophisticated. Let me join you, if you don't mind. Not at all. Do you want me right next to you? Do you mind? Maybe a little bit. Give me some privacy. I think this works better like this. But there was no privacy. You were right next to your neighbors, quite a few of them. You've got the forum and the agora and all the marketplace, civic events, even the theater crowd getting out. So, okay, does everybody come here? That's the kind of surprise. This is unisex, so- You're kidding. It's open and everybody comes. I guess the togas help a bit. It's a different view of the body. It's not Victorian or Puritan in any way. How does a system like this actually work? Well, there's water down below us, flowing continually for the waste. So in the first century, Jews were more concerned about privacy and less aware of infection. The Romans were less concerned about privacy and perhaps more aware of infection. The Jewish people focused on spiritual health as the underlying basis for physical health. Jesus' healings were also connected with his teachings. But in a time when great miracles of healing were believed to have taken place, it was also a time when a simple cut on the hand could kill you. I'm in Israel, learning all about what people in the time of the Bible did when they got sick. In this scene from the Gospels, Jesus cures the blind man at the Pool of Siloam. Other sick people hoped he could cure them too. At the time, certain ailments could be treated. But just like today, the simplest things could kill you. Instead of a speeding car, back then it could just be a sharp tool. Right in the modern city of Nazareth is this recreation of what it would have looked like when Jesus grew up here. I'm with biblical scholar, James Tabor, and we're going to see how everyday tools could kill you. In the first century, this is how they prepared wool before using it to make clothing. The fibers had to be separated. And for that, they had a nice sharp tool. I could see how you would easily cut yourself or impale yourself pretty quickly. And get an infection. Yeah, and then it works when you do. If she cut her finger and there's no tetanus shot, and then it swells up, and then you're going to get an amputated hand or you're going to, you know. So see there, she just did it. Now she'll die. So with no knowledge of conditions such as tetanus, how did people at the time deal with these unexplained deaths? This is Meir Bar-Alan, who teaches Jewish history. I want to find out how common early death was in biblical times. Life expectancy was very low. I mean, for men, about 31 years of age, and women, 28 years of age. It's an average. It's statistics. But it tells you a lot. It tells you, for example, if you calculate the population, that people in antiquity, all of them suffered from loss of their beloved ones. It seems that in biblical times, they had a much more familiarity with death, a greater awareness of death and acceptance. Is that true? Definitely, because they saw death in rates much higher than as modern people. For example, all women gave birth to, let's say, about six children. Six kids. About, about. But until the age of 18, 20, less than three survived. So infant mortality was 50% or more. Which tells you that each and every person lost his children or lost his brother or sister. Before Jesus could grow up to become the miracle worker we read about, he had to survive the greatest miracle of all, birth. When it came to both hygiene and survival in the time of the Bible, your first challenge was your biggest. I'm on my way to Bethlehem to see the spot where the most famous birth in history took place. It's believed that Jesus was born here and to mark the spot, the Church of the Nativity was built. Many think the low door was made to force people to bow their heads before God, but it was really made to keep horses out. This place is extraordinary. Now I'm headed for what many people think is the very spot where Jesus was born. It's a star with glass, a bluish glass in the center. It looks beautiful now, but it might've been a little messier at the time. So what would the birth of Jesus have been like? In the time of the Bible and sometimes today, the only experts at the scene were midwives. They were mentioned both in the Bible and in the Talmud, the book of rabbinic law. How did they approach childbirth? I've come to the Negev desert to meet a 90-year-old Bedouin midwife named Naifa. Salam Alaikum. It's an honor to meet you. Thank you for having me. Naifa, can you show me how you would have delivered a baby? How, when the baby comes out, what happens? We take the baby, and we wrap it around the baby, and we put it on a pin, and then we tie it to the baby. We tie it to the baby, and we put a pin on the baby, and then we wrap it around the baby. They take the blood of the baby and put it on the baby. On the baby, it's against evil eye. So it's against the evil eye. So while delivery hasn't changed, Some rituals around it have. The evil eye was caused by the jealousy of others and the baby had to be protected from it. And if there were problems during the delivery, they would blow the shofar, this ram's horn. In this case, used as a biblical 911 to get the attention of the healing powers above. Can I try? Yeah, of course. In ancient days, they also used incantation bowls, which were believed to protect the house or tent. Many of them were to help childbirth. They had images of and spells against Lilith, a demon said to prey upon babies. I want to find out more about these rituals for protection. So I'm on my way to an antiquity shop in the old city of Jerusalem to meet archaeologist Robert Deutsch. Hi, Robert. Hi, Alan, how are you? Very nice to meet you. Welcome, welcome. It's a beautiful store. Yes, I'm always coming over here to see some new stuff. I mean old stuff. Old stuff. This incantation bowl Robert is holding is a 1,500-year-old spell to ward off evil, written in the language spoken in the time of Jesus, Aramaic. You can hold it. You sure? Yeah. You trust me well enough. It's an incantation bowl with spells against evil, against illness. I can't believe it's in such good shape, man. If the words incantation, spells, and evil make you think of magic, you're dead right. At the time, people believed in it. Everybody would have had one of these bowls in their house? Everybody needs a bowl. Otherwise, the house is in danger. You deposit it in the corner of a house and it protects the house against evil. You would bury one of these bowls upside down underneath your house to trap evil spirits, like ancient feng shui. This is the medicine in those days. And if I get better, then obviously it's the bowl. So people back then believed that a demon or an evil spirit was in you. That's what made you sick. That was the cause of illness. So we try to surround ourselves with the good spirits. Yes, and we need those tools in order to fight them. For example, this item here, this is a bird. It's made of ceramic. How old is this? It's about 2,000 BC. That's amazing, man. It's 4,000 years old. Yes, but it's not only a bird. She knows to sing. You know how? No. It is a rattle. That's cool. This is to scare the evil spirits. And you have to have it, otherwise you will be sick. Well, I always carry my lucky coin and a lucky stone that I've had for like 20 years. Here you have it. So it's the same principle. It's the same thing. So Robert, tell me about the evil eye. Well, the evil eye, it's a bad spirit, and you must have an amulet against it. We're walking through the old city, and everywhere you see these hands called hamsas. These are amulets people place on their houses for protection and against the evil eye. This is the hand you're talking about, right? This is the hamsa. Yes, that's a hand. It looks like a hand with five fingers. In Arabic, hamsa is five. Those are new, 19th century, 20th century. Considering how many of these hamsas are sold, people still believe in the power of objects to protect their homes and keep bad spirits away. For some, the hand symbolizes the hand of God. But what if putting one of these on your house doesn't work and your health is in jeopardy? Well, there are still those who practice magical rituals from biblical times. Were there really miracle workers at the time of Jesus? And what did you do if even they couldn't help you? Some people turned to magic. But since the population was Jewish, I need to find out how Jews viewed magic. So I'm asking Rabbi Ken Spiro. Are there mitzvot about things like magic? Because people on the margins, people in desperate situations, tend to turn to those things. There's actually a lot of discussion and even laws about this stuff. Most of it is negative. Most of it is associated thousands of years ago with idolatry and paganism. So 2,000 years ago, I want to engage in some magic. That would depend who you go to see about it. Generally speaking, the magic stuff is frowned upon. But if you had a big rabbi and he says, I have access to a certain remedy or cure that's a tradition that's been passed down to me that most people don't know about it, you're welcome to do this, fine. But it has to come from a recognition that everything comes from a higher power. It's who you are, in effect. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So in ancient times, people would seek out rabbis with these magical secrets. But it still goes on today. I'm on my way to see Rabbi Chaim Fuchs because he studied the ancient texts and learned the magical rituals that were believed to bring people back to health. As we've seen, there was a widespread belief in the power of the evil eye to bring harm. It was caused by the jealousy of others. And if you hadn't protected yourself from it, now you had to remove it through rituals such as the one Rabbi Fuchs is about to perform on me. He's adding molten lead to water and he tells me the result is an eye shape. Uh-oh. This is a shape. Of an eye. Usually, when we pour lead inside of water, it should be like this. Where does this come from? You tell me where that comes from. This says that you have someone that bugs you a little bit with an evil eye. So somebody has put an evil eye on me. Yeah, just a little bit. You don't have a lot. What do you mean a little bit of an evil eye? So they only hate me slightly. They're jealous of you. They're jealous of me. Now, how do I ward off this evil eye? This is what you do. You're going to do it for me. I'm glad to see my evil eye melting away. That gives me some comfort. Okay, you heard this one. Yikes! I'm getting a little nervous with hot lead over my head. But you can see, you heard this explosion. This tells us that the evil eye just got out. We won. We won, and you can see nothing here. Whoa. Well, that was close. Was the evil eye really removed from me, or is this just superstition? In the time of the Bible, as today, there's no shortage of beliefs around healing, charismatic healers, and people who seek them out. But not all charismatic healers were rabbis, then or now. Why are large numbers of people drawn to these mysterious healers? To try and find out, I'm on my way to see Oren Zarif, a very busy healer around here. Excuse me. Come. If I'm not mistaken, Oren, you don't have any medical training, physiology or biology or anything. So I'd like to ask Oren, how does he diagnose? And now I give you a lot of energy all over the body. I penetrate by the subconsciousness. I want you two minutes. Close your eyes, OK? Close your eyes. It's very good. Now I give you a lot of energy all over the body. Slowly, slowly you will feel better. OK. Oren, do you consider yourself to be a miracle worker? A tool to pass on to people, and give to people, nothing more than that, that in conventional medicine, they have no answer to a psychosomatic problem that as a result develops things. And if a person was strong, with strength and ability, as I pass on to people, he would be able to overcome any problem. That one would arise here now, of every 100 or 400 or 500 people who come to me a day, And they don't need explanations for their belief. Clearly, Oren is giving these people something. But is it real or fiction? In the story at the Pool of Silom, was it psychosomatic? After all, a blind man is said to have regained his sight. And it turns out that the Pool of Silom is not just a place in a story. Archaeologists have now found the actual pool, and it's right near where the Holy Temple stood. In 2005, the Public Works Department of the City of Jerusalem was digging here, to put in a new sewer line. What was also uncovered was a line to the past. The Pool of Silom. I'm with archaeologist Shimon Gibson, and we're heading to the exact place mentioned in the Gospels. So this is the Pool of Silom, where according to the Gospel of John, the blind man was cured by Jesus. So what you have is Jesus, he comes to Jerusalem. When he arrives in the Temple area, he's only one of many voices, many opinions. But the only place where he really has an audience is in those pools. So this is where he performs his miracles. And they're a captive audience, if you will, right? Yes, the lepers, those with disfigurements, disabled people of one sort or another, people who had different kinds of scaly skin or lashes. So we're actually standing here on the steps that Jesus himself probably walked up. You have a landing here, and then you have another flight of steps, another landing. So the landings were used for the placing of beds, so that infirm, those who were invalids, would be able to get into the pool as well. So now that we're in the actual place, what exactly did Jesus do here? He's able to sort of conduct healing activities, signs and wonders, and miracles. In those days, something which was unusual, and that is somebody who did not profess to be a doctor as such, but was able to cure people, that was miraculous. I see. I think that Jesus was very special, and he had a very deep connection to an understanding of how to help people who had disabilities of all sorts. And I think he was a person who had an understanding of medical matters without the medical training. So was Jesus a first century doctor? Let's see if he fits the bill. I'm going to ask archaeologist Gabi Barkay. We've come to an ancient place that Gabi discovered. It's where you ended up if you couldn't find any kind of doctor or miracle worker, or when life had run its course in the usual way. It's what remains of an ancient burial site, dated to 7 centuries before Jesus. When you died back then, they would put you on these very slabs, with your head nice and comfy in these headrests. You had nothing else to do but wait for your flesh to fall off. A year or so later, when you were nothing but bones, they would put you in here with the bones of your ancestors and some of your worldly belongings. Gabi found human bones here, as well as ivory, gold, and something much more precious. We have two silver scrolls, which include verses from the Bible, from the book of Deuteronomy and the book of Numbers, and these are the earliest biblical verses ever discovered. They predate the Dead Sea Scrolls by four centuries. This is one of the scrolls that Gabi found. It's an amulet meant to be worn on the body with the name of God written on it for protection against harm. And the verse from the book of Numbers written on this four-inch scroll is the priestly benediction, which is still said in synagogues and churches today. It's a blessing of God's protection, a formula for health. And you excavated all of this. You're the man responsible. Yes. That's astonishing. So what does that tell you about the people who built this and who were buried here? They believed that the dead continued to live in another sphere. Unlike later on where they believed in resurrection, they believed in this time that they do not need a resurrection because they are alive, and death was something like sleep. So Gabi, I've been reading and hearing an awful lot about healing powers and medicine in the time of the Bible, and especially about Jesus and his healing powers. What do you think about all that? In one of the texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, we have a description of the Messiah as a healer. So it was a popular belief at that time that if somebody is a Messiah, he needs to be a healer as well. They can cure you of everything. He can cure you of all your physical and mental problems. Healing was either with the word of God or with the charismatic figure of the healer. It was by a touch. If he was charismatic enough, the psychosomatic influence of his blessing could heal you. And we have some cases of different maladies identified in excavations, and they were cured. We have from the 4th millennium B.C. and on, drilling a hole in the skull to free the pressures within the skull was well known to these people. So brain surgery. In some cases, the brain surgery even succeeded. We have growth of the bone after the operation. Do you think there's any plausibility to the Pool of Siloam, the miracle at the Pool of Siloam? Listen, I wasn't there, but I can tell you that it is possible. We have many cases of healing which were regarded as miracles in antiquity, but actually behind them is some basic knowledge of medicine. But if Jesus was a kind of doctor, he also seems to have done referrals. In the Gospel of Luke, 10 lepers called out to Jesus for help, and he tells them to show yourselves to the priests. They do, and they are healed. What did the priests know about curing leprosy? Well, it turns out it may not have been leprosy, but a different disease called tsaras that's been mistranslated as leprosy. So what is tsaras, and why did the priests deal with it? According to the Bible, some physical ailments were a result of spiritual problems, and to identify tsaras, you needed the right specialist. 2,000 years ago, do I consider this, what, to be a medical problem? The priest's primary job was to tell you this is a medical problem, this is a metaphysical problem. How would you know the difference? Because the priest was trained. That's one of the specialties of the priesthood, was to identify this tsaras, as it's called. They would have to come to your house and be able to diagnose it. No wonder the Bible talks so much about leprosy. It's referring to more than one disease. But it's now been proven that at the time they did have what we now know as leprosy. We know this because Shimon Gibson discovered the oldest leper ever found in Israel. Don't let the flowers fool you. In Biblical times, when your life was going down the tubes, this was one of the places you ended up. So this is Hell Valley. It's a place with a lot of blood and gore and guts. In fact, this is the field of blood, where Judas, after he betrayed Jesus, then came and hung himself on a tree or garroted himself. Oh, this is the spot. So I'm in the place where the Gospels tell us the man who betrayed Jesus died. It's also where the oldest leper ever found in the Holy Land was discovered. I'm with archaeologist Shimon Gibson, the man who found him. He was wrapped in a shroud in here. So this is the tomb. It's amazing, isn't it? I'm going to find out what Shimon's amazing discovery here tells us about disease in the 1st century. I was really amazed when I saw in one of the recesses a shroud from 2,000 years ago. It's the only shroud that we have in Jerusalem from the time of Jesus. And this was found in this tomb. So you see, this is where we found the shroud in this very recess. It's very big. Yes, it's the length of a human being. And when we came in, all we could see was this black stuff which was on the floor of this burial recess. But when I went into the burial recess, I could see that you had all sorts of fragments of textiles. And right at the end, I could see this pile of stuff which turned out to be human hair and fragments of skull. Human urine. Yes, but the question is, why was this person not reinterred and put into an ossuary, or his bones were collected with his other family members? In biblical times, after they left your corpse for a year or so so that your flesh could fall off, you always received secondary burial. In Jesus' time, your family came back and put you into bone boxes, ossuaries. But the man Shimon found did not get a secondary burial. Why didn't his family return for him? Not only that, but you see that there's this plaster. You see the edges of the plaster all the way around. So the door was placed there at some point and he had been almost locked away inside. Sealed into the wall. So there's a bit of a mystery here. Did you suspect that when you first saw the hair and the fragments at the back that this was...? I had an anthropologist with me and she looked at one of the bones and said, hmm, signs of pathology. So we did some medical examinations on the skeletal remains and we did DNA research bringing in all the specialists in the field. It turned out that this shrouded man died of leprosy. Until this man was found, historians believe that in the Bible leprosy referred to any number of skin conditions. And there was no proof that any of them were leprosy. But Shimon Gibson's finding here confirmed that in Jesus' time, leprosy did exist. When it came to death, however, the family members would have been afraid. So they just would have put him in and closed the door, sealed him up and probably put something on the outside saying do not open and that was that. So not only does this tomb tell us that leprosy existed in the time of Jesus, it tells us about people's fears. His family didn't even want to touch his bones after he died for fear of catching the disease. They seem to have known that diseases can be contagious, an idea that didn't catch on until 12 centuries later. Depending on the luck of the draw, some would say the will of God, some diseases led you to a dead end and no doctor, miracle worker or magical healer could help. It's easy to believe that people in the past only had untrained healers and were missing out on the benefits of modern medicine. But is it possible that in our embrace of modern procedures, some of us overlook the value of more traditional healing methods? I'm on my way to meet a man who may have some answers for that. He doesn't depend on magic, miracles or medicine and he must be doing something right because he's 106 years old. It's very nice to meet you, sir. Thank you for meeting with me. Thank you. I was told that you're 106 years old. Is that right? Yes. Now, I was told that in your whole life that you have never ever been to a doctor. Is that right? No. But have you yourself ever been sick in your whole life? So how do you maintain your health? So your good health is because of your belief in God? I wanted to ask you about the evil eye. Do you know a lot about this, about these kind of symbols? What do you think about the use of amulets and magic? You don't practice any sort of, you know, special rituals or something to keep yourself well? That was great. Just like those who flock to the Pool of Siloam, for many people the physical and the spiritual are connected. We're searching for more than health. When the blind man received his sight, maybe what he received was insight. Today we have more scientific answers, but we still have medical questions and fears. I think it was the same in the first century. Then, as now, people believed they had places to turn to get better.