Caduceus

The picture shown is a caduceus.  I was talking to my mom the other day and she told me that in Bible study they had talked about it in relation to the stick Moses had in the dessert for the Israelites to be healed.  Numbers 21

⁴ And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.
⁵ And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.
⁶ And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
⁷ Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
⁸ And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
⁹ And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

Mom said that she had always heard that the use of the caduceus as the medical emblem was because of this story in the Bible.  But her Bible Study teacher had said that he was reading something that claimed this was not true about the use of the caduceus.  I told her that the use of the caduceus for a medical emblem was because of the Bible passage but the medical profession is trying to divorce itself form God and the Bible and trying to be more about science.  Mom asked if I could find a reference for her and it ended up being pretty easy.  I went to Wikipedia and looked up caduceus it says that the picture above is the staff that Hermes (Greek god) or Mercury (Roman god) would carry.  Deeper in the article there are two lines that say that this

“The caduceus is often used incorrectly as a symbol of healthcare organizations and medical practice (especially in North America), due to confusion with the traditional medical symbol, the rod of Asclepius, although this has only one snake and is never depicted with wings.”

Therefore, I went on and looked up the rod of Asclepius as seen below.

The short story is that Asclepius is the Greek god of healing and one of his temples is where Hippocrates lived and the rod was associated with the temple and with Hippocrates.  Now what is very interesting is at the end of the article it gives three other possible sources of the staff.  The very last one is it actually the verse and in Numbers. 

Therefore, you can see that they are trying to play down any connections to the Bible and push their agenda of no God and no Bible in modern life.    

The History of Pretzels

This is the other blog idea from my family, but it is not only about Christmas, so I will place it here. 

As early as 610 A.D. in southern France and northern Italy they were making pretzels.  They were made from the left over dough from the bread that monks were making.  The monks would take the dough and make little strips and then fold it in a special shape.  The shape was to represent arms of a child in prayer.  The three holes represent the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 

The monks used these little treats to give to good little children who memorized their Bible verses. The monks called them Pretiola, which in Latin means little reward.  In Italy the called them Brachoila, which means little arms.  The little treats made their way all over Europe and finally to Germany where they were called Bretzels, or modern day Pretzels.

In the 1600’s in Germany, the pretzels were traditionally eaten during the Good Friday supper.  The Catholic Church had a lot to do with this because they said the pretzel was religiously significant because of its shape and ingredients.  The shape we already talked about, as for the ingredients, pretzels are made with simple ingredients of just flour and water.  During that time in Europe, Catholic people were not allowed to eat eggs, lard, or dairy products during the Lenten season.  As time passed, on Easter morning they would hide pretzels to be found by children, some say this is the precursor to the modern day practice of hiding eggs.

Because of the shape and the holes representing the Holy Trinity, pretzels were thought to bring luck to people.  Later, pretzels at weddings become a tradition for their good luck and the phrase “tying the knot” came from this.  The idea was that the marriage was tying the two prominent families together.  In this idea, the two large loops were to represent everlasting love because of the resemblance to a heart.

Now when you eat a pretzel, you can have a reminder of the Holy Trinity and thank God for your food.  

Why are there more beggars around the holidays?

As I said earlier, I had to work hard to find some new traditions I had not talked about for Christmas, and my family came up with two things that were not exactly Christmas traditions, but I think need to be put in a blog.  The first one came from my son, and it was a really good question, so I will tackle it first. 

There are more beggars out around the holidays because of the simple fact that they know that people are more willing to share at Christmas time. This goes back to the blog on A Christmas Carol.  There have been studies and on a good weekend beggars on a corner can make $100 to $180 dollars a day, but during the holidays that can go up to $200 to $300 dollars a day.  The other problem is that there are professional beggars.  In other words, there is a large group of people whose only job is begging.  You may have seen in Houston on the news a couple years ago, where a man was using his children to go into busy streets to beg and he was arrested for child endangerment.  When they checked out where he lived, they discovered that he had a nice apartment with several large TV’s and all the latest electronics, which had been purchased from money they got from begging.

This is why I am very leery of giving any money to a beggar.  In seminary, I had a friend who was in charge of the Mission in Montrose that ministers to run-away and troubled teens.  He told me never to give money to a beggar because in the example of the teens he works with, that money will not go for food or a place to stay, but drugs or alcohol.  He said if you feel compelled to give them something, give them food.  My wife read a book several years ago call Shop, Save and Share.  It was about how to get the best deals using coupons. In that book, part of the sharing was to purchase extra canned food with the savings from the coupons and leave the extra cans in the car. Then when you come across a beggar who says, “Will work for food” give him a few cans of food.    

Another thing my friend from seminary said is never take one of these people home with you to do some work and then feed them because many time they will come back later with friends and rob you.  He says the best thing to do is use the example that Jesus gave us in the Good Samaritan.

Luke 10:25- 37

 ²⁵ And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

²⁶ He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?

²⁷ And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

²⁸ And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.

²⁹ But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?

³⁰ And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

³¹ And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

³² And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.

³³ But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,

³⁴ And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

³⁵ And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.

³⁶ Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?

³⁷ And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

Now what my friend means by following the example of the Good Samaritan is you see the Samaritan takes care of the man’s immediate need to stop the bleeding and other first aid.  In the instance of a person who really needs help, they will take a meal or canned goods.  Then the Samaritan did not take them to his home but took him to an Inn.  In Bible times, Inns were more than a place to stay, they were also like a hospital; they would take care of sick people, for a price of course.  Therefore, for us today that would be equal to taking the person to a place similar to my friend’s mission in Montrose here in Houston, the Star of Hope Mission or the Women’s Center.  There are several places like this in the Houston area.  They are much better equipped than you are to handle the problems of the person. The next part is also important not to forget.  On the next day, the Samaritan gave the Innkeeper money to take of the man. He did not give it to the injured man, but to the Innkeeper.  Therefore, we need to support the places that are set up to help these people so that they can continue their purpose to care for them.

I think my son asked about a very appropriate subject at this time of year that we all should think about. How you can show God’s love to these people, help them and keep ourselves safe in the process.