George Stein

The voices that Ezekiel hears - psychiatry in the Old Testament.

Like any prophet, Ezekiel hears the voice of God and it is his prophetic task to relay God’s message onto the people. He hears the voice of God more often (93 times) than any other prophet, and the way God addresses him as ‘ son of man’ or ‘mortal’ is also unique. Ezekiel experiences a

Psalm 38: A man with major depression – psychiatry in the Old Testament

One of the many purposes the psalms served was to console the sick. These are known as the sickness psalms. There are only six such psalms and two describe quite severe depression (Psalms 38 and 88). Psalm 38 is a good example, but for reasons of space only those verses which describe key depressive

Early child psychiatry - psychiatry in the Old Testament.

Disturbed and disobedient children can cause much distress to their parents, sometimes precipitating maternal depression. In the Book of Proverbs the word ‘fool’ denotes a character corresponding to the modern concept of personality disorder (mainly antisocial). Parental grief or depression

The essa zarah, the strange women of the Book of Proverbs – Psychiatry in the Old Testament

The word zar means strange, but it originally referred to being married to someone outside the tribe, beyond the geographical border. More recently, essa zarah has been translated as a loose woman. She is sexually provocative (7:10 ‘Then a woman comes towards him decked out like a prostitute, wily

Did the author of Psalm 30 have cyclothymia or bipolar disorder

Psalm 30 is a short psalm used as a song for the dedication of the Temple. It contains a description in religious terminology of two abrupt changes of mood which seem to resemble the mood switches of affective disorder. Examples quoted here are verses 30:3–5 and 30:8–12. 30:3 ‘O Lord, you