Eugene P. McGarry, «An Underappreciated Medical Allusion in Amos 6,6?», Vol. 90 (2009) 559-563
In the ancient Mediterranean world, olive oil and wine had medicinal as well as culinary and (in the case of olive oil) cosmetic applications. Amos may be playing on the multiple uses of these items when he condemns banqueters for drinking wine and anointing themselves while ignoring the “wound of Joseph”.
562 Eugene P. McGarry
feasting on meat, delighting in music, drinking wine, and applying oil — that
he has just recited?
I suggest that there is, in fact, a poetic association between the last two of
these symptoms and the prophet’s diagnosis. Wine and oil have a place at the
banquet table (compare Ps 23,5), but they probably also featured in the
pharmacopoeia of eighth-century BCE Samaria, just as they would be
employed by the fictional Samaritan who tended the wounds of an ambushed
traveler by “pouring in oil and wine†(Luke 10,34) (25).
The Hebrew Bible itself has little to say about the treatment of wounds:
the book of Jeremiah contains three references to the “balm of Gilead†(8,22,
with reference to the rbv mentioned in v. 21; 46,11; 51,8), and Isaiah
mentions the use of oil to “soften†wounds (ˆmvb hkKr alw, Isa 1,6b). Indeed,
the “balm of Gilead†may have been compounded with oil to form an
ointment (26). Although the Hebrew Bible does not attest the use of wine to
disinfect wounds (27), a textually troubled verse in Proverbs may allude to the
practice of washing wounds with wine-vinegar (Prov 25,20) (28).
Nevertheless, the use of vinegar, wine, and oil to clean and dress wounds
is well known from Greek and Latin medical literature (29). And a passage in
the Mishnah implies that a mixture of wine and oil was applied after
circumcision (30). It is reasonable to assume that the therapeutic use of wine
(25) On this verse see J.A. FITZMYER, The Gospel according to Luke, X–XXIV (AB 28A;
New York 1985) 887-888; and F. BOVON, Das Evangelium nach Lukas (EKK 3; Zürich –
Neukirchener-Vluyn 1999) II, 90-91.
(26) R.N. JONES, “Balmâ€, Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York 1992) I, 574.
(27) On the efficacy of vinegar and wine as antiseptics, see G. MAJNO, The Healing
Hand. Man and Wound in the Ancient World (Cambridge, MA 1975) 186-188. Manjo
provides a lively introduction to wound care in antiquity, ranging from the Mediterranean
basin through the Near East to India and China.
(28) The Hebrew phrase in question is rtnAl[ ≈mj. The noun rtn is interpreted as
“wound†in LXXB (o[xo" e{lkei), and as “natron†in Symmachus (o[xo" ejpi; nivtrw/). G.R.
DRIVER, “Problems and Solutionsâ€, VT 4 (1954) 240-242, suggested that rtn here is cognate
to Arabic natratu, “woundâ€. His proposal was accepted by W. MCKANE, Proverbs. A New
Approach (OTL; London 1970) 588-589, but rejected by M.V. FOX, Proverbs 10–31 (AB
18B; New Haven, CT 2009) 786. Note that LXXB seems to contradict medical wisdom in
its claim that applying wine-vinegar to a wound is useless: w{sper o[xo" e{lkei ajsuvmforon.
Compare the translation of D.-M. D’HAMONVILLE, “Comme le vinaigre ne fait aucun bien Ã
une plaieâ€, Les Proverbes (La Bible d’Alexandrie 17; Paris 2000) 314.
(29) For example: Celsus (1st cent. CE) prescribes that wounds should be cleaned with
“a sponge squeezed out of vinegar; or out of wine if the patient cannot bear the strength of
vinegar†(Med. 5.26.23E) — W.G. SPENCER (trans.), Celsus. De Medicina (Cambridge, MA
1935-1938) II, 85, 87; cited in MAJNO, The Healing Hand, 367. Celsus also directs that
bruises accompanied by damage to the skin should be dressed with a healing agent and
bandaged with “wool saturated with vinegar and oil†(Med. 5.26.23H) — SPENCER (trans.),
Celsus, II, 87. Theophrastus (4th cent. BCE) reports that a variety of the herb allheal “is
good for sores when mixed with wine and olive oil†(Hist. pl. 9.11.1) —A. HORT (trans.),
Theophrastus. Enquiry into Plants and Minor Works on Odours and Weather Signs
(Cambridge, MA 1916-1926) II, 269; cited in FITZMYER, The Gospel according to Luke,
888. In the Hippocratic corpus, wine and olive oil are the basis for plasters (Ulcer. 11) and
wound dressings (Ulcer. 11, 22, 24, 26), while wine and olive paste are used in styptics
(Ulcer. 12) — see the edition and translation of Ulcers in P. POTTER, Hippocrates. VIII
(Cambridge, MA 1995).
(30) Shab 19:2: “If the wine and oil had not been mixed on the eve of the Sabbath each
may be applied by itself†—H. DANBY (trans.), The Mishnah (Oxford 1933) 116; cited in
FITZMYER, The Gospel according to Luke, 888.