Doctor in the patient’s house (1)

Text
In a Talmudic anecdote there is described how a doctor (ˀsyˀ) came to the patient’s house and when seeing a gourd, the doctor departed saying that the angel of death resided in the house. The physician had observed a bad omen, indicating that the patient would die. The situation is similar to that described in the Babylonian Diagnostic Handbook, which begins by describing ominous signs which the incantation priest (or therapist) sees when he is on his way to the patient’s house, in order to render a prognosis. Omens include a variety of animals or handicapped persons, or even mundane objects such as a potsherd or kiln-fired brick, and many of these omens or signs will mean that the patient will die. The Ned. 49a passage ends with a Hebrew aphorism, that ‘it is prohibited to speak about it in front of an ignorant person’, which is an accurate reflection of a phrase often occuring in colophons of cuneiform tablets dealing with esoterica subjects, in which the scribe is warned against revealing the contents of the tablet to anyone not initiated or trained.

Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Babylonian Talmud, Nedarim 49a
Diagnostic Handbook (Akkadian)

Bibliography

Mark Geller

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