Texts in Conversation
The Prayer of Nabonidus in the Dead Sea Scrolls depicts a Jewish healer declaring forgiveness for the Babylonian king while healing him. Rabbinic tradition in tractate Nedarim similarly teaches that recovery from illness requires forgiveness.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
4Q242 1-3 2
4QPrayer of Nabonidus
Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical Retellings
1 The words of the prayer that Nabonidus, king of Babylon, the [great] king, prayed [when he was struck] 2 with a grievous skin disease by the decree of God in Teima. [I, Nabonidus, with a grievous skin disease] 3 was struck for seven years, and when God set [his face upon me, he healed me,] 4 and my sin an exorcist forgave. He was a Jew from [the exiles. He came to me and said,] 5 “Declare it and write it down, to give honor and greatness to the name of God [Most High.” And so I wrote:] 6 “I was struck with a grievous skin disease in Teima [by the decree of God Most High.] 7 For seven years I was praying [before] the gods of silver and gold, [bronze, iron,] 8 wood, stone, and clay, because [I thought] that they were gods […]
Nedarim 41a
Babylonian Talmud
Rabbinic
§ Rabbi Alexandri said that Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said: The sick person recovers from his illness only when the heavenly court forgives him for all his sins, as it is stated: “Who forgives all your iniquity; Who heals all your diseases” (Psalms 103:3). Rav Hamnuna said: When he recovers, he returns to the days of his youth, as it is stated in a verse with regard to one recovering from illness: “His flesh is tenderer than a child’s; he returns to the days of his youth” (Job 33:25). Interpreting the verse: “The Lord will support him upon the bed of suffering; You overturned all his lying down in his illness” (Psalms 41:4), Rav Yosef said: That is to say that the sick person forgets his studies, as everything that is organized is overturned.
Date: 450–550 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Sin and disease were often associated in the ancient world, something the discussion surrounding the blind man in John 9:2–3 assumes, but Jesus rejects as automatic (Psalm 41:4; 103:3; James 5:15–16). Later in the Talmud, healing is not seen as possible without forgiveness (b. Nedarim 41a– “No one gets up from his sick-bed until all his sins are forgiven”) ... Although it is expressed as a divine passive that could attribute forgiveness to God, they see Jesus as crossing a sacred line (see Leviticus 4:26, 31; 2 Samuel 12:13 – Nathan announcing to David; or the debated Qumran’s Prayer of Nabonidus [4Q242], where a diviner either points to God forgiving and announces it or in an exceptional text makes a direct declaration) ..."
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