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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

The kidneys in the Bible: what happened?

The kidneys, always used in the plural (kelayot), are mentioned more than 30 times in the Bible. In the Pentateuch, the kidneys are cited 11 times in the detailed instructions given for the sacrificial offering of animals at the altar. Whereas those instructions were for purification ceremonies at the Temple, sacrificial offerings were made subsequently in seeking divine intervention for the relief of medical problems. In the books of the Bible that follow the Pentateuch, mostly in Jeremiah and Psalms, the human kidneys are cited figuratively as the site of temperament, emotions, prudence, vigor, and wisdom. In five instances, they are mentioned as the organs examined by God to judge an individual. They are cited either before or after but always in conjunction with the heart as mirrors of the psyche of the person examined. There is also reference to the kidneys as the site of divine punishment for misdemeanors, committed or perceived, particularly in the book of Job, whose suffering and ailments are legendary. In the first vernacular versions of the Bible in English, the translators elected to use the term "reins" instead of kidneys in differentiating the metaphoric uses of human kidneys from that of their mention as anatomic organs of sacrificial animals burned at the altar. This initial effort at linguistic purity or gentility has progressed further in recent versions of the Bible, in which the reins are now replaced by the soul or the mind. The erosion may have begun in the centuries that followed the writing of the Bible, when recognition of the kidneys as excretory organs deprived them of the ancient aura of mysterious organs hidden deep in the body but accessible to the look of God. At approximately the same time, Greek analytical philosophy argued that the brain, which is never mentioned in the Bible, was the most divine and sacred part of the body. This argument gained ground in the past century, when the functions of the brain were elucidated, and ultimately established in the 1960s, when salvaging the kidneys for transplantation necessitated a change in the definition of death as irreversible brain function. It is ironic that advances in understanding kidney function and in nephrology that made kidney transplantation feasible may have contributed, albeit indirectly, to the gradual elimination of the metaphoric mention of human kidneys in the Bible.

Animals↗

Suicides and suicide ideation in the Bible: an empirical survey.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this review is to summarize all data on suicidal behaviour reported in the Bible and to discuss basic implications for medical ethical positions. METHOD: All books of the Jerusalem Bible, including the apocrypha accepted in the Catholic canon, were searched for all cases of suicide, attempted suicide and suicidal ideation clearly identifiable as such. RESULTS: The Bible including the apocrypha reports about 10 completed suicides and 11 cases of suicide attempt or ideation. The Bible considers human life as a divine gift but suicide per se is neither condemned nor approved. Those suffering from suicidal thoughts are treated with respect and support is offered. CONCLUSION: Theological teaching on suicide was influenced for centuries by the biased negative opinion of the early fathers of the church and scholastic savants, but these opinions are not substantiated by a thorough reading of the Bible.

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The Bible on homosexuality: exploring its meaning and authority.

Even within this secular age the Bible is still referred to in controversial matters of ethics and morality. Nowhere is this more evident than in the debate over the acceptability or unacceptability of homosexuality. This paper evaluates the Bible's statements on homoeroticism by explaining their historical, cultural, linguistic and narrative contexts. It finds that while the Bible is silent on matters of orientation, it does seem to adopt a negative attitude toward at least male same-sex sexual encounters. This finding, however, is in itself irrelevant unless it is related to how communities use and make sense of the Bible. There are many biblical prohibitions and condemnations that are ignored by even the most fundamentalist Christian groups. Whether the biblical passages on homoeroticism are treated authoritatively or not rests ultimately on the outlook and interpretive framework used by a Christian community to make coherent sense of the Bible.

Bible↗

Flora of the Holy Bible part I - fruits.

Holy Bible described several plants and the authentication of certain Biblical flora is still in debate. In this present paper, attempts are being made to workout the correct botanical identity of certain plants based on the description mentioned in the Bible. Bible is a genuinely documented book everything mentioned in the Bible has a great significance. Present study is undertaken with a view to evaluate the biblical flora in correlation with the present day knowledge especially with the Ayurvedic system of medicine.

Bible↗

The Gutenberg Bibles: analysis of the illuminations and inks using Raman spectroscopy.

The King George III copy of the Gutenberg Bible, held at the British Library, has been analyzed using Raman spectroscopy to determine the palette of pigments used in the illuminations on this work. The palette is found to comprise cinnabar/vermilion, lead tin yellow (type 1), carbon-based black, azurite, malachite, an organo-copper complex (a "verdigris"), calcium carbonate (chalk), gypsum, gold leaf, and basic lead carbonate ("lead white"). This is in agreement with contemporary descriptions of the pigments used for the illuminations. One pigment could not be identified, specifically the organic dark red/purple color used for the foliage. The palette of this copy of the Gutenberg Bible has been compared with those used for six other copies, held at Eton College and Lambeth Palace, England, the Bibliothèque Mazarine and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and the Niedersachsische Staats- und Universitatsbibliothek (SUB) Göttingen, Germany. The palettes are shown to be similar to one another, even though the styles of the primary illuminations differ. The two Gutenberg Bibles held in Germany, printed on vellum, have the more expensive palettes, which include lazurite. The SUB Göttingen copy has the most extensive palette with 16 pigment-related materials having been identified.

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Relationships between God and people in the Bible: a core conflictual relationship theme study of the Pentateuch/Torah.

The most widely known images of God are from the Bible. An important characteristic of these images is their portrayal of God's interactions with people. Although there have been many religious and literary discussions of God's relationships with people in the Bible, no systematic psychological assessment has been reported. Therefore, the aim of this study was an innovation: to identify patterns of relationship between God and people portrayed in the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch or Torah, by using the core conflictual relationship theme (CCRT) method, a widely used scoring system for the assessment of interpersonal relationships. Reliability for the application of the CCRT method to relationship episode narratives in the Pentateuch/Torah was assessed and found to be very good. Results show that the most frequent theme in relationship episode narratives about God and people is that God is helpful. Two less frequent but also highly repetitive themes are that God controls or hurts the other person. Many differences were found between relationship themes defined by the type of person with whom God interacted: patriarch, Moses, woman, non-Israelite, or not a non-Israelite. Thus, the CCRT results identify several different patterns of relationship between God and people.

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Left and right in the Bible from a neuropsychological perspective.

Although in several neuropsychological works dealing with hemispheric specializations a few passages of the Bible referring to the left and the right have been mentioned now and then, a systematical study with a neuropsychological approach to this topic was still a missing link. By using concordance texts from the Bible books of the Hebrew Canon (Old Testament, OT) and from the New Testament (NT), all the verses containing any reference to the left and the right (OT = 151, NT = 49 verses) have been identified and classified into 10 groups: (1) references to space, (2) symmetric sayings, (3) the right hand is the favorite hand, (4) right eye preference, (5) God's right hand, (6) the right side is more prestigious, (7) the right side in liturgy, (8) left hand preference, (9) fatal left-hand shots, and (10) on the left side. Some statistical considerations have been put forward and a neuropsychological, anthropological approach has been suggested for the purpose of interpreting the most interesting verses. According to the author of the present paper, it would be worthwhile commenting on some texts of ancient and modern literature not only from a linguistic, historical, religious and theological point of view, but also by means of a neuropsychological approach.

Bible↗

Neurosurgery and the Holy Bible.

In a search for neurosurgical relevance, an analysis of the Holy Text was performed using a computerized version of the Bible (optical disc.) Scriptural motives which have been vividly popularized by famous painters were especially highlighted. It is concluded that although scientific statements are not possible, many topics of the bible can be related to the field of Neurosurgery "on a higher level".

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The Bible suicides.

Death by suicide is described in the Holy Bible. The number of characters affected ranges from 3 to 11, depending on the inclusion of the Apocrypha, the definition of suicide adopted and the version of the death accepted when there is more than one account. The Bible treats suicide in a factual way and not as wrong or shameful.

Adult↗

Inverted conversions: reading the Bible and writing the lesbian subject in Oranges are not the only fruit.

The prominence of the Bible as intertext in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, both a coming-of-age and a coming-out story, has puzzled readers. This paper argues that Winterson's articulation of a lesbian subject is actually inseparable from her revisionary engagement of the Bible. By repeatedly turning and re-turning several types of narrative about the origins of identity and story-making. Winterson reconstructs both some biblical texts and a hallmark of the gay and lesbian literary tradition as precursors for the prophetic voice of the main character.

Bible↗

Relationships between God and people in the Bible, part III: When the other is an outsider.

This study considers intergroup attitudes in the Bible and compares relationships between God or Jesus and (a) Torah non-Israelites; (b) New Testament people who were not followers of Jesus; and (c) New Testament people who were not Jewish. Torah non-Israelites belonged to an out-group with respect to the Hebrew Torah, New Testament people who were not followers of Jesus belonged to an out-group with respect to the Christian New Testament, and New Testament people who were not Jewish were an in-group with respect to Christians. Results were that God or Jesus' relationships were very negative with people in the Torah who were non-Israelites and with people in the New Testament who were not followers, while relationships were positive with people in the New Testament who were not Jewish. Thus, in conclusion, results indicate that both the New Testament and the Torah portray negative relationships between God or Jesus and members of out-groups. Relationships portrayed in New Testament narratives about God and people who were not followers were sometimes more negative than observed for other groups in the New Testament and the Torah; for people who were viewed as outsiders, the New Testament could sometimes be more negative than the Torah. An aim of this study was to identify patterns of relationships between God or Jesus and different types of people in narratives of the Torah and in the New Testament. One of the characteristics of different types of people, including people described in biblical narratives, is whether they are members of in-groups or out-groups. Our focus in this report is on biblical narratives about people who are members of out-groups. The results contribute a clinical-quantitative assessment of out-groups in the Torah and New Testament that is focused on relationship with God, a central issue in the psychology of religion and the Bible.

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Embryology in Holy Bible.

The knowledge of Embryology and its existence dates back to the remote antiquity of mankind. The theory of maternal impressions on Embryo has its sanction in the Holy Bible. Apart from this it is remarkable to find artificial incubation of the eggs of birds practised 'probably' as far back as about 3000 B.C. Other than these, the existence of midwives, cases of premature births, deliveries of the women of advanced age and the obstetric chair etc. are the expositions of the science of medicine in the Holy Bible.

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[The tooth in the Bible].

In this short essay the author investigates from the view of pathology, physiology and dentistry those chapters of the Bible where human or animal teeth occur. Regarding the number of occurrences of teeth in the Bible there are 36 cases in the Old Testament and 11 in the New Testament. Out of this number 39 are about human teeth and 8 about those of the animals. The paper starts with the consideration of the talio-law (Lev 24.20: "If he knocks out a tooth, one of his teeth shall be knocked out"), which is regarded to be originated in the Babilonian King Hammurabi's compendium (B.C. 19th century), which was asserted by the king to have been delivered to him by Marduk. Comparing the habit of gnashing, grinding, or gritting of teeth, or showing the white of one's teeth, the author points out that whereas the first is a passive concomitant of pain (either mental--in which case it is called bruxomania, or otherwise: based on physical reasons) the second type is a phenomenon of an imminent action (i.e. threat or attack). Periodontics (or parodontology that is to say the branch that deals with diseases of the supporting and investing structures of the teeth including the gums, the cementum peridontal membranes and alveolar bone), regards the grinding of the teeth to be a parafunction ...

Bible↗

[Odontostomatology in the Bible].

Quotations in the Bible referring to the mouth and teeth are reported and commented on; special attention is addressed to the fact that, according to Bible Authors, teeth are more important from the socio-cultural and legal than from the medical point of view.

Bible↗

Dysmorphology in the Bible and the Talmud.

This article enumerates the congenital anomalies mentioned in the Bible and the Talmud, the two holiest and oldest texts in Judaism. Most of these conditions were described to regulate attributes that would disqualify a Priest from performing religious rituals in the Temple in Jerusalem. However, the cultural atmosphere in Biblical and Talmudical times was one in which physical deformity did not necessarily evoke a negative aesthetic reaction, an assumption of ill health, or the expectation of economic dependence.

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[Suicide in the Bible from the current psychodynamic viewpoint. "There Saul took a sword and fell upon it"].

After a short introduction to psychoanalytical interpretation of literature in general and in the Bible, the stories of Samson and King Saul are examined on the basis of modern psychoanalytical aspects of suicidology (narcissistic theory, object relation theory, self psychology). Samson's beginning is hallmarked by the uncertainty of his parents, their megalomanic fantasies which are projected on the child. His relationships are characterized by violent emotions, intensive conflicts on intimacy and distance and also raging anger at insults and privation. In his suicide he fuses himself with the highly ambivalent primary object and destroys it at the same time he destroys himself. People with narcissistic personality are considered to be extremely suicidal especially in combination with the destructive potency of narcissistic anger.

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The plague called "shechin" in the Bible.

The Old Testament contains some of the earliest descriptions of skin disease. One example is the plague called "shechin," which probably consisted of several cutaneous disorders, all characterized by marked inflammation. Clinical highlights of these conditions are discussed on the basis of three case histories recounted in the Bible.

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